River Hunting

flyguy784 said:

I just started taking creek and river hunting more seriously myself. I do find it to be a bit of a PIA. Setting stuff down, waiting for the water to clear, digging in gravel etc. That being said however, the two times I did it, once in a river once in a creek, I was quite successful. Silver/saphire ring and a half dozen silver coins. Find where people would have congregated. Where there might be a small "beachy" area. By the end of a road where people would have gone swimming, camping etc. If it's a river that floods easily, hunt the bigger stones along the water line. I didn't find goods in the muck or sand, always in the courser stones where they could get wedged in good. Just remember, areas where people could easily access a nice spot on the river has been frequented for a couple hundred years. Look for very old maps of the area. Historic map works, historic aerials and the like. You might find old river fords if they were there.
Just find those areas that people were. You'll find goodies.
Hard to say what equipment might be best for ya, sieve, shovel, small digger, it all depends on what substrate you have to work in. OH!, gloves, lots of broken glass, sharp iron and even fish hooks. Good luck and keep the forum posted.

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flyguy784 said:

I just started taking creek and river hunting more seriously myself. I do find it to be a bit of a PIA. Setting stuff down, waiting for the water to clear, digging in gravel etc. That being said however, the two times I did it, once in a river once in a creek, I was quite successful. Silver/saphire ring and a half dozen silver coins. Find where people would have congregated. Where there might be a small "beachy" area. By the end of a road where people would have gone swimming, camping etc. If it's a river that floods easily, hunt the bigger stones along the water line. I didn't find goods in the muck or sand, always in the courser stones where they could get wedged in good. Just remember, areas where people could easily access a nice spot on the river has been frequented for a couple hundred years. Look for very old maps of the area. Historic map works, historic aerials and the like. You might find old river fords if they were there.
Just find those areas that people were. You'll find goodies.
Hard to say what equipment might be best for ya, sieve, shovel, small digger, it all depends on what substrate you have to work in. OH!, gloves, lots of broken glass, sharp iron and even fish hooks. Good luck and keep the forum posted.

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off the iron said:

I can't give you any first hand advice, however one of my favorite MD'ing channels on youtube is Hiluxyota.

He is in the Chicago area and hunts rivers and streams, he has great videos and they are good quality. I'd recommend watching his vids and see what you can learn from his methods.

I'm not sure if he's on this forum but I really enjoy his videos.

Good Luck

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flyguy784 said:

I just started taking creek and river hunting more seriously myself. I do find it to be a bit of a PIA. Setting stuff down, waiting for the water to clear, digging in gravel etc. That being said however, the two times I did it, once in a river once in a creek, I was quite successful. Silver/saphire ring and a half dozen silver coins. Find where people would have congregated. Where there might be a small "beachy" area. By the end of a road where people would have gone swimming, camping etc. If it's a river that floods easily, hunt the bigger stones along the water line. I didn't find goods in the muck or sand, always in the courser stones where they could get wedged in good. Just remember, areas where people could easily access a nice spot on the river has been frequented for a couple hundred years. Look for very old maps of the area. Historic map works, historic aerials and the like. You might find old river fords if they were there.
Just find those areas that people were. You'll find goodies.
Hard to say what equipment might be best for ya, sieve, shovel, small digger, it all depends on what substrate you have to work in. OH!, gloves, lots of broken glass, sharp iron and even fish hooks. Good luck and keep the forum posted.

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CoffinS said:

Great advice! Some parts of both rivers are very deep and some are shallow enough in the summer to walk across. As of today both rivers are out of their banks...sooo it will be awhile before I can even think of getting in the water.

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flyguy784 said:

Yea, I assume you're talking about wading around in the shallows, rocky riffles etc. If you need info on diving into 100 foot eddy bore holes or searching in 40 kt currents, by all means contact scubadetector. Here's a good guideline, if you start wading into a river and your having a hard time standing up, don't go there.

I was just probing around a map of your area, the eel river. Doesn't, at first glance, look like there's alot of possible old fords. With one exception, where your county road rt 40 crosses the eel, up river of Logansport. . If you look at Google satellite you'll see it's quite shallow and rocky. Check your 1800's maps and see how long that road has been there. It'd be a good spot to ford the eel. At fords it's not always in the water that you should detect. All around both sides would hold promise. People and wagons waiting around one side or the other waiting to cross. Tying down chests and equipment. Rearranging gear getting ready for the water. If your river, in this case the eel, is subject to flood, people might have camped out for days waiting for the subsidence of the river. Those old maps (pre bridges) are your ticket. As the eel seems to get more and more shallow upstream, I'd be looking there for old roads that now have bridges, it wasn't always the case.

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CoffinS said:

There is one spot right here in town that was a ford. I have checked on an old satalite map and you can still see the ruts in the river bottom when the water is low. Thanks for all the great info. I do have one question do you mean county road 400? as Im not familure with rt 40.

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flyguy784 said:

I think so, I'll check when I get home. It could be. Big bridge, over a very gravely riffle. Looking at those images,that's one funky river. Just checked, N Co Rd 450 E. Next bridge upriver of Davis Rd.

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