Cool, thanks. Just wasn't sure how much stuff is found at the tide line versus out further where people are swimming...…
Vermonster, the element of "location" has little to do with it. IMHO. Ie.: that ... yes .... people are frolicking and splashing and wading "out there where normal md'rs don't go" (d/t they don't like to fight the waves). So the knee-jerk thought is therefore : "Thus there must be tons of un-tapped goodies", eh ? Ie.: a function of "location", right ?
But this overlooks a very big factor in the equation : Whether or not erosion is occurring or not. Or put another way: Whether the beach is sterile or not. So it's not a question of "where".
It's a function of "when".
Because that formula of "erode" vs "sand-in/sterile" is EQUALLY as true for the inter-tidal zone that requires no wading/fighting-waves, as it is for the 3 to 4 ft. deep wave-fight zone.
In other words: IT DOESN'T MATTER how many people frolick in that rolling-wave zone. And IT DOESN'T MATTER how few md'rs tap that zone. Because if it's sterile, then it's sterile. Because that underwater zone is JUST as susceptible to the rules of erosion/sterility, as is the regular wet sand zone is.
Sand is not stationary. The targets don't "magically sit there" till someone comes along and harvests them.
A person is welcome to go fight waves, on the chance that erosion is occurring out there, and didn't happen to be occurring on the inter-tidal zone . It's entirely possible that the "zone" on a given day could be out there. But has nothing at all to do with #'s of frolicking swimmers, nor anything to do with lack of competition. Because: It's either happening, or it's not. Mother nature can equally put all the targets in the inter-tidal zone, and nothing at all off-shore where you might try to fight waves. Again: Nothing at all to do with where targets were actually lost. Since the sand and targets are perpetually being moved around.
This might not apply as much to FL beaches, which perhaps have bath-tub conditions ? And certainly doesn't apply to lakes, where the targets sit and don't move (nor does the surface/sand move).
The downside of thinking you're going to go out and wade and fight waves, is exactly as you noted in your O.P. here : There is seemingly constant rolling ebbing surf. Not "bath-tub" conditions. So you will be very handicapped as to ability to swing the coil, stay planted in one spot, see what you're doing, etc.... THAT'S ALL FINE AND DANDY if there's lots of targets out there.
And since most of the hardcore guys out here ONLY go to the beach when-scouting for erosion (eg.: swells/storms/wind days), then the LAST place you want to be, is out there fighting the waves. That would be suicidal. I have only ever hit the intertidal sand zone where you can walk. Yes occasionally the "zone" is in the ebbing surf area. But not where you're actually wading. Rather .... in the zone where you have to wait now and then for waves to recede before resuming coil swing.
I have hunted here once with a visiting So. CA fellow, who insisted that the heavier targets are right in the "wave-curl" zone. And that you MUST get into the wade-mentality therefore, if you wish to score. He abandoned his notions after 5 minutes of looking at our surf up here . Doh ! And he too has had his best days in So. CA on just the regular inter-tidal zone. Ie.: didn't need to be Rambo. But perhaps on the "bath-tub" days, with 1,000,000 So CA swimmers on sunny calm days (where water temps allow a million swimmers to be in -the-water), then sure: Wading would afford you that week's losses. But where I'm at, we wait for mother nature to do the work.
