Found a Place

[Bigwill]

Got permission to pan and sluice on a creek that is known for gold. Was told just dont use any machinery. I am happy with that. 1 son and I went this past Saturday and put some material thru my Le Trap Sluice. Found a couple colors but mostly black sand. Lots and Lots of black sand. We were digging in the slow side of the creek on the trailing end of a sandbar. Lunchtime we walked out to the truck which was about 100yrds down and across the creek from where we were working. On the way back we were walking across exposed bedrock in the middle of the creek and I noticed a gold nugget wedged in a crack in the bedrock. I said we will go put more material thru the sluice then get that nugget on our way out when we finish. We continued digging in 3 spots but was just finding lots of black sand. We covered 2 holes back up and concentrated on the 1 hole that was at the end of the sandbar. At about 3' depth we found clay that was orange and then bright red. I have never seen this before but it would stain our hands. It was getting late in the evening and we never got down to bedrock in the hole. We had been putting numerous 5 gal buckets of material thru the sluice when I guess we should have been digging deeper rather that putting the upper material thru the sluice.
We went back to the crack where we saw the nugget but by now the sun was down and we could no longer see it. I took my pocket knife and ran down the crack but it seems to be quite deep. Checking other areas of bedrock in the creek and found more cracks.This creek has numerous places were the bedrock is exposed in the creek and places where the water is shallow flowing over the rock and deepens 2' to 3'on the down stream side causing rapid flow over the rock. These areas of bedrock extend from one side of the creek to the other side with only areas of break here and there and water flow is about 3'deep and 3' to 6' wide in these areas where the bedrock is not protruding up. I also noticed areas of still water on the sides of the creek. Areas in the bank that had watermelon sized holes washed out exposing more rocks and tree roots.
A couple options I'm considering when we go back.
1) Dig as deep as we can in the orange/red clay under sandbar and see whats there
2) Hammer/Sledge/Chisel exposed bedrock cracks to try to get to bottom of cracks
3) Use Hand suction dredge tube on downstream side protruding bedrock,right next to the bedrock but water flow is fast almost like small waterfalls. Small pockets at base where these huge boulders fit together might hold gold?
4) Snorkel with hand dredge and check areas of still water

I will take pictures next time to better explain the creek and bedrock. Any opinions for the best option for above situation? There is known placer up stream and down stream from where we were

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[Goodyguy]

All of the above
Definitely do whatever it takes to retrieve gold from the cracks, crevices, pockets and holes in the bedrock!

GG~

[mills84]

I'm no expert prospector, but I'd say always go for the gold you see when you see it. You never know if it's going to get covered up, moved, or if you'll even find that exact spot again.

Hope you find that nugget!

[Bigwill]

Thanks. Will be making another trip shortly

[GrayCloud]

Bigwill what was the elevation on you site? That may be one of the causes for limited fine gold you found, as you may be too close to the lode area.

[Bigwill]

Bigwill what was the elevation on you site? That may be one of the causes for limited fine gold you found, as you may be too close to the lode area.

I dont know the elevation but site is several miles down from the placer. I thought I would want to get as close to the placer area as I could?

[GrayCloud]

Sorry Bigwill, I twisted off. For some reason I was thinking you were in Colorado, where much of the lode gold is located in the higher eevations. I was thinking that you might have been close to the source, thus the reason for lack of fine gold.