John in Kansas came up with a "where's the best place to go wading at the beach" analogy that I kind of liked--though he thought we were giving unnecessarily complex answers--

My point is simply that the answers get complex because a lot of times when there is a body of water, there is no beach--

In this case, between the land and the water, there is a swamp marsh with a mucky bottom, and all sorts of unforseen problems that come up after you're ankle deep in the water--