advice for new water hunter

[Cibola]

Hello all,

I just picked up a water machine and have a scoop on order. I live on the Oregon coast and want to try my hand at water detecting. The beaches here are beautiful...but very cold year round and noone really ever swims in them, or sunbathes for that matter so I wont be doing saltwater.

What I am going to try to do are the rivers, lakes and ponds slightly inland where people do sunbathe and swim in the waters very frequently. I have never tried this before and would appreciate any advice or pointers from experienced hands that may save me a lot of "newbie" grief.

I do have a lot of years experience land detecting. I will be using a at pro, a 48" alum scoop with reinforced s.steel tip and wearing chest waders. I have tried to watch some vids on youtube but most of them are ocean vids and they dont show a lot of retreival..only finds afterward.

On the plus side...I have detected the beaches at these spots before and cleaned up, just never made it in the water. (lots of coins and a few rings) AND I have never seen anyone ever run a water detector in this area. So I have my fingers crossed

SO..if you have any tips I would appreciate them or if you can point me towards and great informative posts or vids that would be amazing also.

thx, all

 

[Dig]

Prepare for a whole new world of finds. I'm a saltwater hunter so I don't know how much help I would be but I am sure some of our pro lake hunters will get in on this. Good luck!

 

[Joel-Winnipeg]

I hunt fresh water up to neck deep.
Ankle to waist deep does produce good digs.
As far as neck deep many good finds at that depth.
Just make sure the water is still and watch for the holes not to fall into.
You'll find hard to dig at that depth as you tend to float.
Just be careful at that level and good luck.

 

[tippyhound]

Had a good friend drown about ten years ago hunting in neck deep water. He was wearing a weight belt because of bouncy in that deep of water. Apparently he stepped off into a deep hole. There were two others hunting with him at the time but no one heard him as they both had their head phones on. He never told anyone he could not swim or we would have been watching him closer. Those of us who were there have felt responsible every since. A really sad lesson learned.
Rick

 

[kaptainkosmic]

Get or make a sifter. Preferably a non metalic one so you can use a pinpointer. It will eliminate time spent looking for targets in bottom of scoop which equals more time spent looking for targets in the bottom! Also reallty helps get those small targets that fall right thru most of the scoops with the larger holes. Mine is made with an inner tube and feed pan but there are quite a few posts here about building them using swim noodles etc.

Its a great place to stash, large trash, hang a pinpointer, bottle of water etc. Mine will float with several scoops of bottom, my detector, my scoop and myself. I tether it to my finds belt so its never more than a tug away. I use a small anchor to keep it from "crowding" while hunting down wind, down current or down wave. I clip it to my scoop and put the whole thing on my shoulder for transport to and from the water and once in the water its hands free!

I have used it waves that no sane hunter would even consider being in and it did way better than I did!!!!

Steve