Venice(Shoreline Collecting) Or Peace River?

[FossilMo]

Hey guys, I was planning to go to Peace River, but the water levels are average so fossil hunting may not be good. Venice is always a good alternative spot so I was thinking if Venice Beach would be better. So Should I go to Venice or Peace River? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Edited July 2, 2015 by FossilMo

[jcbshark]

You can find fossils on any of the beaches between Nokomis and Stump Pass : )

[digit]

The Peace River is marginal in terms of fossil hunting water level. You might be able to get into the more shallow gravel beds but any of the deeper holes look to be out of range till next season. If you are in from out of town and looking at getting in some fossil hunting during your trip I'd suggest giving Canoe Outpost a call and ask their opinion. There is a large commonly-known gravel bed just a few minutes paddling south of the Brownville put-in which might be shallow enough to hunt with a sifter. As the river level increases with more rain the current can start to increase as well which may make trying to shovel sand & gravel a bit more tricky. I'd call the ladies at Canoe Outpost and ask their opinion if they think that the current river level would allow reasonable fossil hunting at the big gravel bed south of Brownville.

http://www.canoeoutpost.com/Peace/showpage.asp?page=waterlevel

The other thought if you are in the Venice area that you might try snorkeling offshore from the beaches around Venice. In the past I've snorkeled and shallow-water scuba dived the beaches in this area and found lots of nice shark teeth and a variety of other items. I got my only great white shark tooth several years ago diving in about 8 feet of water off the beach. You can find beach access and good parking near the Venice fishing pier (look for Sharky's on the Pier restaurant on Google Maps). Just south of that is Maxine Barritt Park with more parking and beach access. There is another smaller parking area just off he end of runway 5 at the Venice airport (accessible via Harbor Dr.) on the way to Caspersen Beach. Continuing south you can take Manasota Beach Rd to access a parking area on Manasota Key. There is also Blind Pass Beach continuing south down Manasota Key Rd. Further down from that you run into Englewood Beach accessible also via Beach Rd from 776.

Basically, as Jeff (jcbshark) mentioned above there are beaches where you can find fossils all along the coast. Easiest thing to do is to zoom in on Google Maps and look for large parking areas and clusters of beachgoers caught on the satellite view. Trying to time beach hunting on low tide will allow you to look in the shell hash line left by the tide. Scoop and sift around through the shell hash to find black fossils. Many of the teeth found on the beach tend to be tumbled and worn by the surf which is why I like to don snorkel or dive gear and search for them offshore. The visibility can be rather limited at times but this is a fun way of fossil hunting if you like the beach.

Hope this helps.

-Ken