Myakkahatchee Or Myakka Fossiling

[jessieSRQ]

Has anyone had any luck on the myakkahatchee? I went yesterday and found nothing. Not even decent gravel.

And with the myakka river, where is good place to find them? Would it be closer to the gulf like launch at snook haven and head downriver? Or is it better upstream north of myakka river state park?

[Cris]

I'd assume in any of those rivers, finding an area with gravel and not ten feet of sand is going to be the challenge. Try looking for somewhere deeper and swift - maybe you can find an area where the sand has been pushed away from some gravel. I'm sure if you find an area with gravel in one of those rivers, you're going to be rolling in fossils...It's just going to take time and a ton of exploration.

[Cris]

Also, it may help you to make a long stainless steel probe with a "T" handle out of an old antenna or something. You could have a spot loaded with thousands of great fossils buried under 6 inches of sand and you might never know it just by kayaking past it.

[jessieSRQ]

Good idea, I've been meaning to swing by Goodwill and try to locate an old golf club. I hear breaking off the end makes a good probe with a comfortable handle. I have no problem exploring! I just started fossiling but I've been exploring in my kayak for a while now. There is something magical about finding out where a river literally begins

[Cris]

And breaking away from traditional "known" sites like the Peace River and Venice Beach is how people find sites that have literally never been hunting on by anybody....They're still out there and a kayak is one of the best ways to get to them. Hopefully someone else can give you more information on the Myakka. All I know is I've had it marked on Google Earth on my computer as a point of interest to explore one day for fossils for a long time. I wouldn't have marked it unless I had heard about people finding stuff there.