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Florida Trip

ksabubba

Member
Will be taking the little lady to Key West in a couple of weeks. Will be driving down the gulf side and back up the east side. Would love some beach suggestions from the local beach hunting dudes. Will be spending a few days near Sannibel Island area and then work on down to the keys for a few days and then back up the east coast. Will not really be hunting the keys.

Got the water detector, scoop, read all the books and forums, but would appreciate some heads up on where and where not to go.....just passin by...would enjoy a few nice beach/water hunts. I mainly am a land, fresh water hunter.

Many thanks in advance!

Mike aka ksabubba
 
Sanibel Island sucks. Too many shells makes it tough to dig and not a very popular beach to hunt. The east coast is where it's at.
 
I dont know that i agree that the East coast is where its at..... not by the Fl posts of gold on all the forums. Its pretty sanded in over there and has been for some time. You do have Ft Meyers to hunt in the area..... thou im not seeing a lot being produced there right now. Good luck thou.

Dew
 
The FL east coast beaches are really sanded in this year without any really good erosion events. The treasure coast got a little but not significant. A few fresh drops are found but don't hold you will cover a lot of territory looking for much unless your luck's running really good that day.
 
Its a pretty good time on both coasts to pull out a PI with the sand being pushed in. Not a lot of wave actions forcing sand to move. People are starting to clean up the recent drops in the water so if you see large crowds..... might be a good time to hit the towel and surf lines.

Dew
 
I've hunted the beaches of Florida both east and west coast for the last 15 years for three months every year. Here is what I have found.

All the major beaches are hunted hard daily and for the last few years, the sanding of the beaches has made hunting hard. But there are some areas that do get washed away and so you need to hit those areas. I also find that the less used beaches don't attract the hunters which means that there are places that have very few people hunting them. You need to find those areas as the stuff dropped there will still be there even if there is less dropped.

The most popular beach in Florida is South Beach in Miami. There are tons of folks detecting the water and beach there every day. When I was there for two weeks, every day the beach I had at least 6 hunters in sight. I've hunted the Treasure Coast and found that for the last few years, the beaches there are so sanded in that nothing has been found. Often times while I was there, there was no one on the beaches....not even a swimmer. I stop in to the McClartey Treasure Museum to check to see if anyone has reported finding anything. This last year almost nothing.

The East Coast beaches like Daytona and Fort Lauderdale may have some good hunting depending on the time of the year. Spring break brings lots of college kids with rings and blings that often get lost. Lately, due to the cost of gasoline and the economy in general, those beaches are not as busy as they were prior to Bush/Obama.

The west coast of Florida has some places you may like. I love the beaches of Sarasota as the money is there. But Siesta beach is hunted so hard that you need to hunt low tide usually at night as most won't hunt late. The early bird gets the worm.

I've hunted Sanibel and found very little there. But I have heard that there have been some great finds. It's all about timing I guess.

Make sure you lock your car and don't leave anything of value in your car. I've heard that cars have been broken into at many of the beaches. The economy seems to be a double edged sword. The price of gold is way up but the gold being lost is way down due to people selling their gold or not going to Florida due to the high price of gasoline.
 
I think the introduction of other metals for jewelry making, more hunters, and less depositors arent helping. Im seeing a lot more SS, TI, Colbalt and silver with a bit of gold on them. Even plating seems to be on more jewelry. You have to enjoy hunting the very quiet beaches now days where a good day is $6 in change.

Dew
 
Dew and Finderskeepers know the areas much better than I, I'd listen to them!

The little secret about the ring I found (a week ago today) on my one week trip to Dayton Beach is ... there was one pier area with a lot of interference; lots of conduit ran under the pier and it was very loud in the headphones. The first few days I pulled the headphones off and walked past it until it quieted down then resumed hunting. I noticed that every other person I saw detecting the beach did the same thing. So I went back, using the PI detector I had with me, turned the volume down and cut the threshold back until it was barely there with the interference modulating it and hunted the relatively small area slowly. In about 1 hour of gridding that pier area I had about $2 in clad, doubling the week's take of clad, plus a pretty little 14k white gold ring.

Hunting where the others aren't can be good for your results; even if it is not the easiest part of the area to hunt.
Cheers,
tvr
 
Each beach has its uniqueness. Some with high slopping banks which drop targets with a lot of wave movement, some are flat with long deep troffs leading to a sand bar, others the sand moves based on the current drift and its a catch them right kind of situation. If you choose a large beach.... lets say Siesta Keys, rated no. 1 last year in the US by the way, there is a LOT of people on the beach and yes a lot of hunters in the water, but its a LONG LONG beach and we cant cover it all so like tvr was saying if you find THE spot you can do well.

Dew
 
Thanks to everyone that resopnded to my question.

Will let you know how it went when I return.

HH
Mike aka ksabubba
 
East coast is sanded in. It opened up 4 weeks ago for about 2 weeks but now it has sanded so bad finding a penny is tough. Hopefully in the time you visit there will have been a good storm. Have a great trip.
 
LOL South Beach being the most poplar?? I wonder why!!!!!!!

I was there 4 years ago for the first and only time in my life. Maybe its the most popular becasue they allow women of ALL ages to be topless? Does everybody detect it with dark sunglasses on?

The three weeks I was in Florida I found 688 coins and one gold ring. The ring was behind a condo, not at a popular beach. Good luck out there!
 
By this...I mean that regardless of conditions, you need to be cognitive of the beach, but then you still need to put your coil over it. Sand moves daily and you need to understand what you are seeing. On the east coast NE winds open up some areas and SE winds open up others. Also, the size of the waves and the timed increments of when they hit the beach are other key variables.

Put them altogether and this is what makes detecting fun! Please also keep in mind that those that don't post generally find the most. Oh...poetry.
 
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