Local river hunting?

kelpike

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Joined
Dec 4, 2011
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Location
Agawam, Massachusetts
I live in Western Mass. There is a river called Westfield river. Back in the day it was called Agawam river. Now I don't expect anyone to give me a yes or no answer but I would like some opinions on wether or not it might be worth hunting? If so, what are the best areas to search? Do I hunt the shorelines or try and get to the deeper holes? What do you guys dig with in rocky rivers?
 
If you have the time, why not give it a try? What's the worst that can happen? Finish the day with a bunch of fishing weights
 
Do some research to see if there is a old ford (crossing); there is a good chance that's where the fun stuff will be!
 
Drive to eastern Mass and do some beach hunting with me!

I never hunted a rocky river, but there's vids of aquadigger in rivers and he fans and prys objects out. Also uses a snorkel I think.
 
For rivers the two key areas are were there is a crossing (older or modern) and if there is a local "swimming hole". In terms of the crossings, an old ford means that man and beast walked through the water to get to the other side ... and if a cart was involved, well things tend to fall off, ect on rough ground. If a modern crossing these often have an access road to the water, and thus someone has likely used it as a place to cool off! If you can find a older local citizen ask about a swimming hole ... especially if there was a tree with a rope on it .... base of the tree likely had a few folks changing into swim gear to hit the water. In the water where ever that rope dropped them would be a great spot as well.
 
All rivers are not created equally. For example, some rivers iike most the ones in Utah are fast and you can wade across them and they are clear. One river in my hometown is called the black river and thats the best word for it. You could never see 2" in front of your face and its too deep to wade in. All clay and muck. The other river in my hometown has a seawall along most of it and is 25 foot deep right at the edge and goes out to 80 foot deep.



Since I have been all over the USA and seen all different streams and bodies of water people call rivers I have NO idea what kind of river you have.

If you can wade it I would try. You never know who tried to cross and when. There was a guy on Utube that found over a hundred BIG silver coins in a river. All from the 1800's and a lot of 8 reale and 1830 something half dollars. Totally amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDC3SUK3axM

You just NEVER know what you might stumble upon.
 
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Hey from NJ! Sure, try the river but don't go blindly. Do your homework. As stated before, try to find a crossing point- older the better. Easy way to find crossings is look at (old) maps. Google Earth and historicmapworks.com have helped me. Also look for shallows with both sides of the shoreline looking like there may have been a road cut thru. Learn the basics of how certain size and weight objects move in different currents. This will help you find where coins may have come to rest. Definitely search YouTube for "river detecting", "water detecting", "Aquachigger" and anything else you can think of including the name of the river you want to hunt. When I water hunt I can sometimes use my short handle "sand scoop" if the bottom is soft and without rocks. I mostly use a long shaft regular screwdriver and/or short (8") "cat's paw" crowbar. Some folks will use a shovel to move material into a sifter. Again, YouTube can show you endless techniques. GL and HH. Matt
 
Since I have been all over the USA and seen all different streams and bodies of water people call rivers I have NO idea what kind of river you have.

.

Boy does that ever nail it. When I visit friends out west I marvel at the bitty creeks that are called rivers out there.

Oh look there's a dam! Their dams look like little toy things too. :lol:
 
This one is pretty narrow, you could easily throw a rock to the other side. Thats not to say that you can walk across it at any location. Most of it it relatively shallow though. I'm trying to research the river in my area. It is in Agawam Mass where it dumps into the Connecticut River. I guess there were a couple different tribes of indians back then and George Washington traveled through here a couple times but this is not river he "crossed". He may have skipped a couple stones across it.
 
This one is pretty narrow, you could easily throw a rock to the other side. Thats not to say that you can walk across it at any location. Most of it it relatively shallow though. I'm trying to research the river in my area. It is in Agawam Mass where it dumps into the Connecticut River. I guess there were a couple different tribes of indians back then and George Washington traveled through here a couple times but this is not river he "crossed". He may have skipped a couple stones across it.

I find a lot of old coins and junk in rivers and creeks. You have to figure it was just as hot out way back when and folks cooled off in whatever was handy.

The didn't just hop in a car and go to the lake. Any water walking distance from an old town is worth hitting. Look for old bridges and roads that end into the river too.

The creek that runs through my old small town is full of junk but also full of old coins. I figure there were swimming holes all up and down it years ago.

Use a small coil, DD if possible to hear the coins through the junk.

Good luck to you and check this thread I posted last summer.

http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=160138
 
Im looking forward to hunting some rivers this summer myself now that I have a detector that I dont have to worry about getting wet. Ive found old coins along the bank of the river in my town in places i never would have guessed they would be , but then again people walk along rivers all the time so stuff can turn up anywhere. If there is stuff in oddball places along the river bank then there is probably as much in the water too. Rivers and streams draw people to them , so its a natural possible hotspot for many years of lost items even if there isnt much history there. Its also a classic way people got rid of stuff , just throw it in the river.
 
I find a lot of old coins and junk in rivers and creeks. You have to figure it was just as hot out way back when and folks cooled off in whatever was handy.

The didn't just hop in a car and go to the lake. Any water walking distance from an old town is worth hitting. Look for old bridges and roads that end into the river too.

The creek that runs through my old small town is full of junk but also full of old coins. I figure there were swimming holes all up and down it years ago.

Use a small coil, DD if possible to hear the coins through the junk.

Good luck to you and check this thread I posted last summer.


http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=160138
Congrats on the coins. Now you really got me wanting to get into this river. I can actually walk to some parts of it. It's been so cold that most of it is frozen over right now. I was hoping the last couple days of warm weather and rain would thaw some of it but no luck yet.
 
River Hunting

Don't let the small size fool you, that can have some nasty areas in it when the spring thaws hit. A good possible site in late spring, around eel time, is the areas below the middle school, from the Agawam Bridge (at least that's what we called it) down towards the Connecticut. It slows there a bit, and tends to meander a little and lots of sand bars pop up, and moving across isn't too bad. Probably along shores from the bridge down to the area behind Hood milk and the old Buxton plant, behind the Big E on the other side. Those sections can be drop spots for goodies pushed down on the stronger currents. You may also find some interesting things below the North Agawam bridge area near the old Strathmore plant, and old dam sections. Above that section it tends to stay deep and tricky currents, but there were some old swimming and fishing holes adjacent to the Robinson park area from Agawam and on the other side, along route 20 in West side. Lots of fishing areas present along the whole river up route 20 above Westfield and stopping at a few points along there can lead to some finds, almost any little turnout could be a fishing stop back in the days. And it may be possible to find some older stuff up around Knightville and Littleville Dam areas. Those were large projects for the area when they were built in the 20's or 30's, and I believe workers "stayed and played" a bit around the work sites, who knows what 20's or 30's era coins may still lurk.
 
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