My first try at water hunting!

BuscaPlata · Jul 22, 2017

Well I finally went out and gave water hunting a good honest to goodness try. As I said before on another thread, and as some of you guys pointed out, that if I was gonna find Gold!, I was gonna have to get wet!. :cool:

So I went out last Saturday for about 2 ½ hours to a lake north of GR and gave it a good shot.
First thing I noticed was that it is very, very hard to keep your balance when you’re trying to scoop your target, it is too, soo crazy! got dizzy an all, It is nothing, absolutely nothing! like hunting the parks and totlots. And the scoop I have is a small one, the opening on it is only about 4 inches diameter, so it took me quite a while to find my first targets. it was real tough going, with the balancing, and pinpointing, and trying to keep from falling, It got so bad I said “this is not as easy as you thought Busca!”……… :no:

maybe you should stick to dirt fishing, amigo! i said to myself. Then I thought about it for a while.

I said “No way Jose! I’m gonna whip this thing even if I have to go take lessons from scuba, mud, and all the other water bugs around Mi. :laughing:

Well first thing I did was order a bigger scoop, one of those thingies from the Ukraine. it should be here by the middle of August. and that should help me out quite a bit on the retrieval of all those goodies….and junk.
As for the finds, I didn’t get any silver or gold but did manage to retrieve 2 Wheaties and some head stamps and of course….. the ever present junk. All in all it was a great experience and I had a fantastic time there, and can’t wait to get out there again. Oh I almost forgot, the area that I hunted was only about 20 foot square. I started going out a little further and noticed that my boots were getting stuck
to the mud and it was hard walking, so decided to stay close to shore just to be safe. HH. :grin:

BBsGal · Jul 23, 2017

It is a completely different animal from land hunting! Glad you ventured out into the deep (ok, maybe not real deep) and had some fun with it. For the record, you did better than I did, in 2 trips I have only found a couple zincs, one nickel one quarter. No silver, no gold... yet!

Like you I'm learning how to do this without falling over, just in case though I do wear my life jacket.

Bagelbites · Jul 23, 2017

It was a good effort! I've been thinking about taking the plunge on my first water hunt too. Good luck!

Mud-puppy · Jul 23, 2017

Hey thats Great! You were hitting the right old targets there! Regarding the scoop...Thats why I pull mine straight towards me like a hoe instead of using it like a shovel...so I wont fall down! :laughing:

I gotta keep two feet on the ground at all times even in the water!
If you want to get over here to the Big Lake for a hunt, PM me or something...I'll try to put you onto a good stretch on a good day...

TK-421 · Jul 23, 2017

Nice work! It definitely takes a while to get used to hunting in the water. Lots of things to re-learn, as well as entirely new skills (like not falling over! hehe). I still lose my footing sometimes and I just have to hope the other beach-goers don't thing I'm drunk.

For what it's worth, I tried land hunting once (tot-lot next to my apartment). It was sooooooo hard!!! The ground was like baked, rock-solid clay, the 'grass' was this gnarly steel-rooted impenetrable stuff. It was horrible. I gave it a couple hours and got 35 yen, a dime, and some pulltabs. My hands hurt for days after because of how difficult the digging was. I don't know how y'all do it!

BuscaPlata · Jul 23, 2017

BBsGal said:
It is a completely different animal from land hunting! Glad you ventured out into the deep (ok, maybe not real deep) and had some fun with it. For the record, you did better than I did, in 2 trips I have only found a couple zincs, one nickel one quarter. No silver, no gold... yet!
Like you I'm learning how to do this without falling over, just in case though I do wear my life jacket.

Thanks BB, one thing I noticed was that those wheat's 54 and 57 were clean but pretty wore out, must be from the sand swishing them back and forth.

Bagelbites said:
It was a good effort! I've been thinking about taking the plunge on my first water hunt too. Good luck!

Give it a try Bagel! Beats hitting the parks on those hot and muggy days.

Mud-puppy said:
Hey thats Great! You were hitting the right old targets there! Regarding the scoop...Thats why I pull mine straight towards me like a hoe instead of using it like a shovel...so I wont fall down! I gotta keep two feet on the ground at all times even in the water!
If you want to get over here to the Big Lake for a hunt, PM me or something...I'll try to put you onto a good stretch on a good day...

Thanks for the offer mud, I'll send you a PM when I get the rest of my gear.

TK-421 said:
Nice work! It definitely takes a while to get used to hunting in the water. Lots of things to re-learn, as well as entirely new skills (like not falling over! hehe). I still lose my footing sometimes and I just have to hope the other beach-goers don't thing I'm drunk.

For what it's worth, I tried land hunting once (tot-lot next to my apartment). It was sooooooo hard!!! The ground was like baked, rock-solid clay, the 'grass' was this gnarly steel-rooted impenetrable stuff. It was horrible. I gave it a couple hours and got 35 yen, a dime, and some pulltabs. My hands hurt for days after because of how difficult the digging was. I don't know how y'all do it!

Thanks TK, Well you're just gonna have to move to Michigan :grin:

cause the dirt and grass over here cut just like butter, especially after a good rain....and the totlots are filled with wood chips and some have tiny gravel kinda like bb's. Oh! and as for the snow and cold weather! well...all you have to do is head for the woods and dig underneath those leaves

So there you go! easy fix :laughing:

ScubaDetective · Jul 23, 2017

It was cheaper to get a scoop from overseas instead of one from Sunspot?

Lessons from me would be easy. You just need to know how to dive. I hit your lakes now and again. Haven't yet this year but coming soon. I have a date with one I took 12 gold and my friend took 7 gold out of in a weekend.

You have lots of potential over that way and lots of competition. Keep it up and gold will be bouncing around in your scoop in no time!

Dirty Love · Jul 23, 2017

Big Difference with a big mouth scoop on recovery's. Keep at it, GL.
DL

Rawhide · Jul 23, 2017

I hunted the Rio Grande, once lol.

Visibility was poor. The current was a lot stronger than it looked. I could not retrieve one targets as all I have was my hands. But a good primer for my next trip.

Wom 27 · Jul 23, 2017

I was sweating sooo much, I may as well been water hunting ! :laughing:

Irons · Jul 23, 2017

Old coins on your first water outing is a great sign! Good hunting to you man keep at it! :cool:

TK-421 · Jul 24, 2017

BuscaPlata said:
Thanks TK, Well you're just gonna have to move to Michigan cause the dirt and grass over here cut just like butter, especially after a good rain....and the totlots are filled with wood chips and some have tiny gravel kinda like bb's. Oh! and as for the snow and cold weather! well...all you have to do is head for the woods and dig underneath those leaves So there you go! easy fix

So there are friendlier grounds out there in the world? That's a relief. I've seen so many videos of people dropping to one knee, sinking their spade into the soil in one swift motion and sawing out a plug like they were cutting birthday cake. I thought- yeah, I can do that! Wrong! :lol:

I guess the answer is-- not here!

I've got family in Michigan, though, so maybe I'll pack the TK4 next time I go visit them. :yes:

BuscaPlata · Jul 24, 2017

ScubaDetector said:
It was cheaper to get a scoop from overseas instead of one from Sunspot?

A guy here on the forum, I forget who it was, was looking to buy one of these scoops I bought, it had a link, so took a look, looked right, price was right. I don't know who or where Sunspot is, I need a new pair of headphones, my old Gray Ghost are dying on me after 37 years or so and about half that many repairs on it. So steer me right scuba and send me a link. Still learning how to move around this forum.

Dirty Love said:

Big Difference with a big mouth scoop on recovery's. Keep at it, GL.
DL

Click to expand...

Thanks DL, I'm gonna keep at it till I bring home the Gold!!!

Rawhide said:

Visibility was poor. The current was a lot stronger than it looked. I could not retrieve one targets as all I have was my hands. But a good primer for my next trip.

Click to expand...

Hey Rawhide, I was born in the valley and I used to fish the Rio Grande when I was a kid, used to catch those big Gar fish, lot of meat on those things.
Amigo, I hope you went and got a good scoop now. I don't know about digging with your hands there, place is full of broken tequila bottles!

Wom 27 said:

I was sweating sooo much, I may as well been water hunting !

Click to expand...

BuscaPlata · Jul 24, 2017

Irons said:
Old coins on your first water outing is a great sign! Good hunting to you man keep at it!

Thanks Irons, keep at it I will!!!

My first try at water hunting!

BuscaPlata

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