Hah! They ARE a lot of fun and I'll admit that more than one dive defaulted into a major cruise, as opposed to dogged searching. I bought DeWalt 12ah, 20V batteries for it and get an average of :120 of bootin' around. Some days I don't use it, usually because the current is too strong, or the area requires slow, methodic attention.
Thanks, Pepper J! You can add to that list a seemingly brand spankin' new trolling motor, still connected to it's battery! Somebody had a bad day that day! Gave it to my son-in-law & he had it cleaned & running in :20. There was also numerous anchors, fishing tackle, kayaking paddles etc. Found a ratchet w/ socket beneath somebody's dock, so I placed back on the dock near their ladder - would have loved to see the guy's face when he found it!
Agreed on all points, Agflit. My favourite scoot last summer was in a river that was flooded wider about 100 years past, by the creation of a dam. In preparation for the flooding, many trees were felled and their stumps remained. I entered the water just upstream of the dam and started out. What ensued was a ghostly ride through a forest of creepy looking stumps, a virtual haunted forest! The visibility that day was good, but there was a certain opaqueness to the water that added a pale gloom - the gnarly old stumps slowly materialized out of that gloom, then receded back into it as I journeyed on. Eventually, I entered an area of the river where cottagers had set up. It was along that stretch I found a beautiful and very old wooden skiff, maybe 14' loa and 4' at the beam. I cursed myself for not having my gopro with me, but I plan to return next summer to film the whole experience and possibly recover the skiff for preservation.
That sounds like most water reserves, they took the prime timber and left the stumpage.
Yes indeed, we underwater hunters of antiquities are at the mercy of bottom conditions. There is one lake relatively close to me where there must be a veritable treasure trove of old glass & crockery; problem is, 99% of the bottom is fine sediment, where things of any substance would sink away, never to be seen again. There is also a thick covering of heavy grasses & weed. I did manage to find one very special bottle; it was in 3' of water, resting on a lonely patch of sand, right beside the ballast rock of a very old dock. I also found there was a shelf of bedrock out past the end area of the old dock, with only 10" of silt cover. There I found a nice old black glass bottle. And that, sad to say, is the extent of my finds there, though I'm grateful to have found two!
