I'm sure most of the experienced beach hunters already know this but for those who don't...here goes.
Sometimes at night, just before I fall off to sleep, my best ideas show up. Makes it necessary to keep a notepad on my nightstand...or I might forget.
Anyway, during one of these episodes I was visualizing the beach and figured out a simple way to find low spots in the sand. Sometimes these depressions are subtle. When you're out on the wet sand, pay attention to how high the waves are pushing the water up on the beach. The ocean/water level will remain uniform all along the shoreline, so if the beach remains level, the line of the water that moves up on the beach should be like a fairly straight line running up and down the beach.
If, when looking down the beach, you see a small section where the water is pushing up the beach further than the surrounding water.... good chance that's a low area. The water level of the ocean remains constant up and down the beach so the only way water can continually move farther up the beach is for the beach to be lower in that area. Obviously, the calmer the ocean, the easier it would be to detect a low spot.
It has been said, although I don't necessarily agree, that most beaches are sterile (no good targets) down to just beyond the distance where targets might be detected. A small drop in the sand of an inch or so might be all you need to get a hit on a good target that you might not otherwise hear.
Ron
Sometimes at night, just before I fall off to sleep, my best ideas show up. Makes it necessary to keep a notepad on my nightstand...or I might forget.
Anyway, during one of these episodes I was visualizing the beach and figured out a simple way to find low spots in the sand. Sometimes these depressions are subtle. When you're out on the wet sand, pay attention to how high the waves are pushing the water up on the beach. The ocean/water level will remain uniform all along the shoreline, so if the beach remains level, the line of the water that moves up on the beach should be like a fairly straight line running up and down the beach.
If, when looking down the beach, you see a small section where the water is pushing up the beach further than the surrounding water.... good chance that's a low area. The water level of the ocean remains constant up and down the beach so the only way water can continually move farther up the beach is for the beach to be lower in that area. Obviously, the calmer the ocean, the easier it would be to detect a low spot.
It has been said, although I don't necessarily agree, that most beaches are sterile (no good targets) down to just beyond the distance where targets might be detected. A small drop in the sand of an inch or so might be all you need to get a hit on a good target that you might not otherwise hear.
Ron