Lost prop - metal detector
 

Anyone have a great idea or metal detector around the Delta area to find a lost prop from a broken shaft? I know the general idea where the prop broke, but with the dirty D, it's about hopeless to try to find it with mask and snorkel, so wondering if anyone has any thoughts? The depth is around 15-20' deep and most likely very silty muddy bottom so it'd be cool if there's some type of metal detector that could be used.
Thanks for the input.

Garrett AT Pro Pointer

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uyE5QVc2OgY

Vee Drive, thanks for the link. If I could figure out how to monitor above the water surface and drag it around that'd be a good start.

If you have a fairly good idea of where it popped off I would drag a large magnet around if that is feasible.

silly question - does a magnet work with a prop? I thought props were bronze. or is the alloy magnetic? In any event, trolling the Delta for a prop that could have spun off in many directions seems like a pretty difficult task.

Jim I hate to cast doubt, But in my opinion you have a very low chance of finding it “Needle in a Haystack” comes to mind, but I hope I’m wrong, please come back and post if you find it and what you used!

I have a feeling the delta muck is 6 feet think

I was thinking the shaft is still attached...wouldn't that take a magnet? Yeah, probably needle in a haystack but I like puzzles. I found my friends new sunglasses in the lake one year.

Lost mine out there about a month ago. Got me thinking now.

Colder the water gets the clearer it gets too. Maybing scuba gear.

Nickel bronze aluminum alloy. you're looking for the shaft

I lost a prop once in 5'-12' deep water right near our dock. Visibility is 20'+, we found it but it took hours and it was pretty far from what we thought the search radius would be. With very limited visibility, 20' depth, no oxygen, and likely part buried in a soft bottom... I wouldn't even bother.

Driveshafts are stainless. Even if it's ferritic it's not gonna hold like steel or iron, you won't get it with a magnet.

I had a ex sister in-law ask me one time

After I lost my wedding ring while wakeboarding

"Do you want get a mask and look for it"

I gave her the same look I would give you!!!!!:banghead::cool:


If your tight on cash I would look for a used one. You might find one at a really good price thats even better than the one your going to spend months looking for.



What boat are you runing

Yep.

besides a month in the delta - wonder what would it look like. Super curious.

detector should pick it up, no?

agree it's a lost cause

You could rent a dredger & then sift the sand & muck.

A few years ago I lost a front wing for a Sky Ski in about 45' of cold Columbia River. I called the local Search and Rescue and asked if they needed a training exercise. I told them what happened and they agreed to try to find it. They do this type of thing when looking for dumped guns etc... so it was right up their alley. They showed up with about 8 guys, 2 boats and 3 divers . Pretty organized, with the divers even being able to communicate with the boats via radio. They set up a search grid. Luckily, we had marked the spot pretty well they were able to find it in about 20 minutes using a diver pulled on a planer board behind a jet ski. I made a nice donation to Search and Rescue ( a volunteer organization) and they got a good training exercise in. It was a lot cheaper than having to buy a new wing.

You sir get the BEST IDEA OF THE YEAR award!!!!!!

Kirk, now that's an awesome idea!! I knew I would get a lot of flack from this thread, but it never hurts to try... It's off a G21, 1 1/4" shaft, it was a fluke failure and new parts were air freighted to me the same week to get my boat back on the water.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

I lost an anchor at shasta one year (apparently when you throw it overboard you should have an anchor line tied to it).

Luckily I had a backup anchor so I was OK. But it was a new box anchor and I was really bummed to lose it.

So we drove down to Redding that night and bought the biggest magnet harbor freight sold and wend back to look for the anchor the next day. This was right by the RR bridge in the salt creek inlet, so I had a decent idea where it was. I threw that magnet for about 90 minutes and mostly just found pieces of scrap iron that must've fallen from the train bridge.

I did finally snag something big and slowly worked it to the surface so as not to lose it from the magnet. took about 4 minutes to pull up very carefully. Not going to lie, I was pretty smug that I'd managed to find my anchor. Until I got about 18" from the surface only to find that it was my spare anchor (the one the boat was tied to while I was searching for the lost one) that I'd pulled up! Never found the lost one. I hope somebody did.... it definitely was exposed in a very high traffic area when the lake wend down (lost it in shallow water in a very high water year).

Why you think that is a fluke failure? Nautique has 2017 boats with same problem...They have never fixed the problem. I think one guy had "fluke failure" on same boat twice. They break on the 1 1/4 shafts all the time. It was BS that it was just a problem on 1 1/8 shafts.

My experience is that heavy items drop into the muck/bed of lake relatively deep. So you gotta kind of probe around with a magnet usually. Just dragging it along the surface does not work that well. The diver idea is pretty good.

You done my morning!

I got a Laugh as well. I have don’t the exact same thing. Some friends were houseboating at Shasta and invited us. We pulled up and everyone of corse was watching (fresh meat) and I threw my anchor out and forgot to attach it to the boat. B4 my brain could realize what just happend the anchor went down to The Abyss I’m just glad I didn’t jump I with my phone in my pocket and add insult to injury.

I hate you lost the anchor, but his is a funny story.

My dad bass fishes a lot and he has hauled in numerous anchors over the years that I have used as spares for my boat.