Is this a dumb question??

[s1u2r3f4]

​First, I apologize in advance because I know this has been covered somewhere. Ok, I've been hitting it everyday since the high winds and seas. I know that dimes and pennies are light and sinkers and quarters are a good sign that the beach has been scrubbed. But it drives me nuts when I find all that at one beach and no pattern. Dimes right next to quarters, lead next to pennies and precious metals nonexistent. Right when I think it all makes sense

 

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[ron lord]

Ok what is your Question ??

 

[s1u2r3f4]

Is it just the random churning up of the sand that lands all these different densities next to each other? And if you grid and find heavy junk and no gold, does it mean there is no gold there? Thanks!

 

[bigscoop]

Not a dumb question at all. This last good extended blow we had pushed a lot of reds & greenies onto the beach, they're flat, lite, and they present a fair amount of surface area to push against, so in the same way the sea moves shells it also moves coins, rather easily accomplished. This same thing takes place from the upper beach as that sand gets stripped down onto the beach, thus these flat/lite coins follow. In the end you wind up with a lot of coins scattered about the beach. Lead fishing weights, though heavy/dense, are fairly easy to roll so it's also common to find these scattered about all these coins. We see this all the time after a good northeaster has lashed the beaches for a while, but as you've pointed out, where's the precious metals?

The question becomes this; did the northeaster just move the layers of soft sand around, or did it actually get into the hard-pack and firmer layers of beach? It isn't like summer now, most of what is out there has had the opportunity to sink for a while now, coins and even fishing weights have a fair amount of surface area so they're going to settle sooner when compared to a heavy ring that is very dense and has no surface area, so it is going to settle a bit deeper and it's going to be harder to move because there is almost no surface area to push against.

Remember that "dump" area I was telling you about - coins from this area are commonly washed up onto the beach because they are easily pushed, but any rings, crosses, etc., that may have been dumped are likely to still be fairly close to where they were dumped because they sink quicker and they are much harder to move about. Coins and even fishing weights will roll and get tossed about by the forces of the sea, rings on the other hand have a tendency to dig in because they are basically all edge with no surface area. And the larger and more dense the ring the harder it becomes to push it about without it digging into the sand. So, in essence, did the last blow actually get into the firmer layers of beach, or did it just push all those softer layers of summer sand around?

I've not been to the beach in about a week, going today to see if I can find some of those firmer layers of beach.

 

[bigscoop]

Just got back from a 5hr day on the beach, found a couple of places that looked like they had potential but they were lined end to end with surf fishermen. For the most part my area beaches are still changing and taking shape but they are getting there, just slowly. Had pretty much the same results in your original post, lots of reds & greens and even sinkers, etc., but no precious metals today. Still a lot of sand in the troughs and on the lower beach, still lots of can slaw drifting around out there as well, the bottom in most places is still pretty much all sand. But the good news, there are some places starting to take shape.

Oh, and the bad news.....I'm really stiff, been a while since I did a 5hr surf hunt, this getting older really sucks!

 

[s1u2r3f4]

No kiddin! Great explanation on the sand physics! Makes perfect sense. I have a bad case of wishful thinking

 

[bigscoop]

I use to run to the beach every time the wind blew, took me a long time to figure out that not all good blows actually improve the hunting conditions. And here's a biggy for you as far as the lower beach is concerned.....I'd rather see an extended period of strong and consistent long shore currents VS an extended period of good northeast surf. I was in the water nearly the entire 5hr hunt today, didn't run into a good stiff current the entire time. Without these currents there's nothing to keep all that sand from moving right back to the lower beach, which is what is happening now. It's for this same reason, along with those steady easterly winds, that we see all that sand piling up on the beach in the summer. But if you can get an extended period of strong long shore currents moving across the beach holes will begin to form in the softer layers of sand, these in turn becoming longer and deeper holes as those strong currents continue to work on them and if they work on them long enough with enough force and water volume these areas will eventually become long deep trenches, or troughs with firm bottoms. But without these extended currents to flush all that sand away a good blow is simply moving the softer layers of sand around instead of sweeping it away. And here in lays the big key to better hunting, at least on my area beaches.

 

[NCGREG]

Works basically the same here. Unless we get consistant, daily shore length wind and rip current events, it's basically a sanded in party. It'll get better during a couple of tides, but then it will sand back in just as quickly. Hopefully, Winter will be Winter, in the next few weeks and the wind and the currents will pull some of this soft stuff out past the breakers, and cut some nice ripple troughs in the tide line. I haven't been huntin' in a couple of weeks either. The last time I went, we had 15-20 mph NNE winds for 3 days, and it helped. But the wind soon shifted to a light Easterly breeze and filled the scallops and troughs in again. The few troughs that I found were like quick sand when I tried to hunt them. I literally mushed up to my knees in soft sand, I just gave up after fightin' with it for a couple of hours. That kinda tells me that there just isn't enough cross wind and current, to finish pulling the soft stuff on out away from the waterline.

We're supposed to have a big weather change next week, and I'm hoping for a good stiff lateral wind and rip current for a while. I'm planning on hunting through that for a few days, and see what happens, maybe it will stay rough on into January or February.

Good luck to ya'll