Last summer I came across a stream I really want to dig in. I had this plan of where I want to attack it but after seeing it today, I'm not so sure. It's a fairly straight stream with a couple bends that caught my eye. I planned on working the inside bends but this got me thinking. The stream has an ice jam and car sized ice blocks scattered throughout it. Those inside bends are not inside bends anymore and the ice chunks have the water going every-which-way but normal. My question is....will the ice chunks blow the gold out of the inside bends and deposit somewhere else? How do I effectively go about reading a stream that has the ability to change directions so much. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
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One thing you can do, is when prospecting a creek, look for streaks of black sand, that'll tell you where the heavies are settling out. Almost every time you find gold, you'll find black sand, although not all black sands contain gold.
I have to admit.....I'm not much of a sample panner. More of a sample sluicer lol. I see a spot and just go for it. And thats not really working out so well. I'll have to work on sampling more and if the ice is a factor, maybe I'll find it in a test pan.
Bob sluicing works just fine fore sampling too run 1 or 2 buckets and then see what you got I quite often do it that way if I pick up fine gold off the top levels then I keep digging and running until no more gold shows up or I hit bed rock ! ( thats the KEEP DIGGIN !!! part )
Normally ice jams don't seem to effect the gold deposits, in fact it may help to concentrate the deposited gold, by backflushing some of the lighter material away. Ice blocks generally don't scourer down to bedrock, they float, or tumble.
Bob I have worked some streams like that my self the only hint some have given are gravel bars wher the gravel is dropping out so is the gold thean its SAMPLE SAMPLE SAMPLE ! and don't forget when you find gold KEEP DIGGIN !