Clearwater Beach Fl

Clearwater Beach is a large beach with plenty of potential although it is heavily hunted. A Monday morning hunt may be better due to weekend traffic and fresh drops. There are several public parking lots that have pay stations that take quarters and credit cards. I think it's $1.50 an hour. I see you have a duel Field. The water is pretty cold, but does have some goodies from time to time. It's our slow season for hunting since very few people go into the water right now. I checked the tide charts and they are not in your favor unfortunately. Looks like it could be a narrow wet sand hunting area that day. I use my xlt a lot there in the dry sand. It's been hit or miss (mostly miss lately) but a beautiful place to hunt. If you are determined to come to the Gulf side, then Clearwater would be my recommendation for a one day hunt. There are a lot of hunters on the forum from that area so I'm sure you will get more advice on other areas as well. HH

Jim,

It's pretty warm right now, I live in Sarasota, FL, about 70 minutes drive south of Clearwater Beach. We have lots of visitors from the cold areas of the country right now, and some of them do venture into the water. In Sarasota my favorite beach to hunt is Siesta Key as we have visitors from all over the world visiting, if the water is cold and they have suntan lotion on it's a good combo for depositing what we all want to find. I found an 18k gold bead that weighs 2.68 grams last time I went there, it took about 2 hrs and I dug lots of trash. I did my civic duty by throwing away 2 rusty nails and 1 rusty tent stake. I did my good treasure hunter duty by filling all my holes. I also did a good deed for a couple from up north who lost their rental car keys, I found them in less than 30 seconds with little effort. The Garrett Sea Hunter Mk 2 is fantasic in the white powder sand we have, it does equally as well on the dry beach as it does in the surf or dipping like a duck with a snorkle and mask if you like that technique.

Anyway, if you get to Clearwater Beach and you can't find anything, perhaps try Siesta Key here in Sarasota. We have dozers keeping the beach tidy, but if you get early enough, or after windy days, you can sometimes find a cut. Even after the dozers have pushed everything flat you can still find stuff at the surf line, that's what I did. The Sea Hunter Mk II goes real deep, I mean, sometimes you can barely get to the treasure/trash because the wave action fills your hole as you're digging it. I hope this helps.

Oh yes, you can check the number of visitors during the daytime with the 24/7 webcam positioned near a popular area:
Siesta Key Webcam
This will help you decide if you want to hunt from your desktop even before visiting here.

Note: from midtown Tampa to Sarasota is approx 60-70 mins depending on traffic.

Best Regards,

Tom