SurfCutter
New member
My parter , Gerry and I started on the south shore here in Massachusetts and worked I way to the ocean diving the fresh water ponds and lakes . Brown Betty was special in that we had good entry to the water and we were one of the first to get to this beach .
What started us hunting here was a tale told long ago to Gerry from a friend of his that they had spent the day here swimming and had lost a ruby mens ring in the water or at least a mens ring with a red stone in it . the History of this pond goes back to native Americans were it was said that they had hunted and fished by its shores and the island out in the middle was sacred ground . It was also told that small offerings had been floated out to the pond and reports that some of these offerings have been found how true this is I do not know . We hunted the area that we could walk and did very well with lots of silver coins and old wheat penny's plus the unusual collection of junk rings and odds and end you might fine in the water , glass marbles were treat coming up in the scoop regularly . Rings were not as common but enough came up to keep us happy sliver or gold it was always something of interest at the end of the day . At one point we even bought a Keene 3" dredge to work this and other beaches together, but due to the noise factor and added setup time it did not work out for us . What was nice to learn was just were the coins and targets were coming from and to watch as we moved the sand away , most targets were at least 8"-14" down we figured it was from years of sand added to the beach , it was spend on the ice in winter and let to fall in place for the new season in the spring melt .
I can remember one hunt I was working a hole that had been started the weekend before with the dredge and at he edge of the drop off and due to the silt had Gerry detecting behind me and being found ...
scared the what out of him when the sand he thought he was hunting moved ....
One thing we have found from time to time are silver jewelry from the War years , be the pins of pilots or the wings of para-jumpers and gunners each one was something different , some had been made in to bracelets or pendents we got a few at this beach .
As the targets got thinner to find we worked our way out into deeper water this was a different type of hunt the sot silt would hang in the water for a long time so we learned to take care of just what and how we dug and at what point we started if we could find any way to have clear water we used it . That targets here were also very thick but there we had a few more rusted cans to deal with and this made hunting slow and could be painful if not careful .... we were lucky in that we did not get any cuts .
Targets in these depths were not very deep 2-4" at most what was fun was we found the 4 anchor points and off to one side an old wooden motor boat sunk on the bottom .
One day we had a dive and that is when we meet Charlie ..Charlie was a 6-8 lb large mouth bass he hung out at the sunken motor boat that we called ...yup you guessed it "Minnow". We would be TH'ing and Charlie would hang around and watch. It did not take him long to understand a free meal when one was available and if we stirred up something he would quickly help himself as would the school of pan fish, blue gills ....Now if you have read the "Monster of Cap St. Jocqu." that was not my first encounter with a monster . Gerry and I had become accustom to Charlie hanging around and he got to be almost a pest in that it was almost as if he was looking for the targets too and had to see them first so fanning him away was no big deal .
Well this day Gerry headed out for deep water and soon had the bottom stirred up to the point he had to come in to get a rest and to see .
As we were changing to our second tank he said Charlie had gotten close a couple of times and in the silted water had run in to him once right into the mask .
He had had enough of the brown water and was going to hunt the girls side on our second dive so I feel adventurous and headed for deep water and soon had the water stirred up with silt again . What I did not tell Gerry was that Charlie was with me the whole time and I had had enough of dig hole push Charlie , dig hole push Charlie for one trip ...
So here I am in 30 feet of water head down and nothing an be seen when I dropped my legs to the bottom and stood up something hit my face mask .....
I froze in position and waited what seem like forever and watched as the silt fell back to the bottom and the water cleared enough to see again...
As my sight grow better I could just start to see something hanging in the water 6" away , understand I was breathing very slowly and rhythmically ....
I soon could make out a shape pointed and teeth .....BIG TEETH.. LOTS OF TEETH Breathing got a whole lot faster as did my efforts to get out of the area ...and clearer water .
It turned out to be a 3' plus pickerel we name Jaws or the Klutz...He never did us any harm but he did keep things interesting for some time with his ghost attacks in the silted water of bumping in to us , we figured he was after small fish and mistook the shine of the glass in our masks as targets ..
We never did find that Red stoned ring but we were asked one day to help find an anchor marker , the pond was used as a training pond for semi professional water skier and one spring they could not find one of their markers out in the pond . We had just suited up and were going to start to hunt when they came over and asked our help , they lived next door to the beach and to keep thing on good terms we agreed so out we when , well if the bottom was stir up were we hunted the water here was always stir up we could not see our hands in front of our face masks after hunting around the bottom looking for this anchor point I headed to the surface only that it was a lighter color of mud and the pressure difference told me it was up when I bumped in to something just below the surface ...
The missing Marker a white float that only a foot and a half under the surface and you could not see it .... We were heroes and enjoyed their good will from then on ...
Bill G.
What started us hunting here was a tale told long ago to Gerry from a friend of his that they had spent the day here swimming and had lost a ruby mens ring in the water or at least a mens ring with a red stone in it . the History of this pond goes back to native Americans were it was said that they had hunted and fished by its shores and the island out in the middle was sacred ground . It was also told that small offerings had been floated out to the pond and reports that some of these offerings have been found how true this is I do not know . We hunted the area that we could walk and did very well with lots of silver coins and old wheat penny's plus the unusual collection of junk rings and odds and end you might fine in the water , glass marbles were treat coming up in the scoop regularly . Rings were not as common but enough came up to keep us happy sliver or gold it was always something of interest at the end of the day . At one point we even bought a Keene 3" dredge to work this and other beaches together, but due to the noise factor and added setup time it did not work out for us . What was nice to learn was just were the coins and targets were coming from and to watch as we moved the sand away , most targets were at least 8"-14" down we figured it was from years of sand added to the beach , it was spend on the ice in winter and let to fall in place for the new season in the spring melt .
I can remember one hunt I was working a hole that had been started the weekend before with the dredge and at he edge of the drop off and due to the silt had Gerry detecting behind me and being found ...
scared the what out of him when the sand he thought he was hunting moved ....One thing we have found from time to time are silver jewelry from the War years , be the pins of pilots or the wings of para-jumpers and gunners each one was something different , some had been made in to bracelets or pendents we got a few at this beach .
As the targets got thinner to find we worked our way out into deeper water this was a different type of hunt the sot silt would hang in the water for a long time so we learned to take care of just what and how we dug and at what point we started if we could find any way to have clear water we used it . That targets here were also very thick but there we had a few more rusted cans to deal with and this made hunting slow and could be painful if not careful .... we were lucky in that we did not get any cuts .
Targets in these depths were not very deep 2-4" at most what was fun was we found the 4 anchor points and off to one side an old wooden motor boat sunk on the bottom .
One day we had a dive and that is when we meet Charlie ..Charlie was a 6-8 lb large mouth bass he hung out at the sunken motor boat that we called ...yup you guessed it "Minnow". We would be TH'ing and Charlie would hang around and watch. It did not take him long to understand a free meal when one was available and if we stirred up something he would quickly help himself as would the school of pan fish, blue gills ....Now if you have read the "Monster of Cap St. Jocqu." that was not my first encounter with a monster . Gerry and I had become accustom to Charlie hanging around and he got to be almost a pest in that it was almost as if he was looking for the targets too and had to see them first so fanning him away was no big deal .
Well this day Gerry headed out for deep water and soon had the bottom stirred up to the point he had to come in to get a rest and to see .
As we were changing to our second tank he said Charlie had gotten close a couple of times and in the silted water had run in to him once right into the mask .
He had had enough of the brown water and was going to hunt the girls side on our second dive so I feel adventurous and headed for deep water and soon had the water stirred up with silt again . What I did not tell Gerry was that Charlie was with me the whole time and I had had enough of dig hole push Charlie , dig hole push Charlie for one trip ...
So here I am in 30 feet of water head down and nothing an be seen when I dropped my legs to the bottom and stood up something hit my face mask .....
I froze in position and waited what seem like forever and watched as the silt fell back to the bottom and the water cleared enough to see again...
As my sight grow better I could just start to see something hanging in the water 6" away , understand I was breathing very slowly and rhythmically ....
I soon could make out a shape pointed and teeth .....BIG TEETH.. LOTS OF TEETH Breathing got a whole lot faster as did my efforts to get out of the area ...and clearer water .
It turned out to be a 3' plus pickerel we name Jaws or the Klutz...He never did us any harm but he did keep things interesting for some time with his ghost attacks in the silted water of bumping in to us , we figured he was after small fish and mistook the shine of the glass in our masks as targets ..
We never did find that Red stoned ring but we were asked one day to help find an anchor marker , the pond was used as a training pond for semi professional water skier and one spring they could not find one of their markers out in the pond . We had just suited up and were going to start to hunt when they came over and asked our help , they lived next door to the beach and to keep thing on good terms we agreed so out we when , well if the bottom was stir up were we hunted the water here was always stir up we could not see our hands in front of our face masks after hunting around the bottom looking for this anchor point I headed to the surface only that it was a lighter color of mud and the pressure difference told me it was up when I bumped in to something just below the surface ...
The missing Marker a white float that only a foot and a half under the surface and you could not see it .... We were heroes and enjoyed their good will from then on ...
Bill G.
