Botryoids from a fossilized coral reef exposed by the river

Cool as hell James!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thumbs up

Carol says "SWEEEET", I'd have to agree.
Larry

This shoal/shallow spot is an exposed pile of coral about 100 yards long. It is loaded with psuedomorphs.
Many people have collected here. Since the coral is piled 3 feet deep it will be a long time before it is all collected.
It is usually under 5-10 feet of water, sometimes over 20 feet. So collecting is limited to 4-8 weeks out of some years.
The boat is still being modified for the purpose of coral collecting. It is the 3rd and final prototype.
Often used as a snorkeling base and anchored out in the middle of the river where the water is 3-10 feet deep.



Sluice set up in lower water to find botryoids



View of gravel. Loaded with high speed flakes from the ancients making their spearheads and stone tools.
Well stained whiskey color telling of their age. Material is mostly white/grey when freshly flaked.

Friggen darn good bait your using to catch them. Whats the secret? lol
Nice find! great backlit shots.

Excellent specimens from old Tampa Bay stock, coral psuedomorphs. Black/blue 100% from salt water.
Those excite me because they are found at present ocean level, stained by most likely a more recent ocean.
Those are about completely collected unless you do illegal dredging off the coast of Tampa, Florida.
Much better prizes than the one I put up in this thread, and well above average Tampa Bay coral.
Florida will put you in jail and pour a concrete slab over you if they catch you digging those.
The Orchid Thief-another story...

These are rare. Quartz replacement ? Not sure how it develops, but it is crystalline quartz. About 1 out of 100 psuedomorphs are clear quartz.




Top is sun facing polyps. Bottom is tubes facing you. Bottom (root side) sawn crooked in attempt to get the best 'hollows' cross sections.
Takes a bit of experience to figure the place to saw. And to recognize a quartz replacement. Hollows are very difficult to discriminate from solid replacements.

A combo, 4-5 of the cubicles fell away when the saw finished it's thing. A hybrid.



Or crystals upstairs and druzy crystal coated clear botryoidals downstairs

The bream had not bedded yet Keith. I caught 2-3 pound bass. I could swear they are small mouth. Or Shoal/Suwannee's.
Most caught in/around shoals, fought like mackerel. The two 3 pounders looked like old largemouth in that they had a deep stomach.
The guy at the bait shop said they are small mouth, and the cool spring feed supports them, go figure.
Steve had his line broken several times, plastic worms both of us. Worked fast, river bass not like lake bass.
I did not do much collecting, mostly snorkeling to see what coral is laying on the bottom.

These heads were in a cluster that yielded about 6-7 bushels of psuedomorphs. All nested together.
About 6 feet across the cluster. Almost everyone was hollow and thin walled.
None were river stained, all full of the original blue clay requiring extensive pressure washing.
Everyone of them sawed had hollow cavities, no guessing.
Basically wedged in caliche like cement, causing breakage at times when prying them out.
Note lighter color, devoid of river stain.






This one has two clam holes drilled in it. Fossilized evidence.