Where Will The Gold Settle On This Corner?

[207M&R]

Where would you dig?
I have been doing a lot of reading about how gold will travel in a stream during times of high water and where/when it will drop out on inside bends and behind obstructions so on and so forth.

I came across this corner in a Maine stream. There is a change in gradient leading up to the corner, there are gravels deposited on the inside bend and larger rocks and coarser gravels below the bend.

Where would you dig?
The gravel bar on the inside corner?
The middle of the stream below the fast current?
The bank across and inline with the upstream rapids?
The leading edge of the larger downstream rock and gravel bar?

This is my first post, I tried to attach the satellite image, hopefully this is the right forum and you can see the picture.

Thanks
Ben

 

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[MadMarshall]

There is only one way to know. And that is actually sampling the areas you've mentioned.. Let the samples tell the story of how the gold is traveling on that river. Forget about where you assume gold might be and find out where it is. Only thru lots of sampling can one even hope to identify a paystreak and hope to follow it..
Knoweledge of the river flows and extreme past events can be helpful in your pursuit.. Lots of sampling..
Without sampling your just guessing..

 

[Goldwasher]

you can guess all day and ask people who aren't there. But, you won't know until you start filling a pan and see what you come up with.
Heck there may not be anything there at all.

Check obvious spots first. That is a wicked bend. I would hit the larger cobble and rock zone first, if there is big gold to be had it should be there. Fine gold would be different.

With a bend that drastic I would check the straight line for sure.

 

[enamel7]

Yepper, you have to sample everything! Sometimes gold will be where it's supposed to be and sometimes it will be where you least expect it! There is no definite without sampling.

 

[arizau]

My guess.....With that greater than right angle bend I would guess that the larger pieces would be driven straight into the far bank and stop and the fines would make the turn and some caught in an eddy and be distributed pretty much stream wide with most deposited in the eddy zone on the near side not far downstream from the turn. Can't know for sure till you sample it.

 

[mendoAu]

I just started several years ago on our creek and have just slowly headed up stream sucking everything up from bank to bank....Ha! May not get far in the years to come but bet ya that I left none behind. Have you ever checked that stream out during a super flood stage....gives you a whole new perspective.

 

[placertogo]

In my opinion a jackknife bend such as that will produce multiple vortices during periods of fast and large volume water flow. In that case, gold may be deposited in various positions just as the stream enters the downstream arm of the bend.

 

[TerryC]

Two places are immediately evident. The inside of the sharp bend is first. An eddy will form there, dropping gold. The other would be in the cobbles just downstream and to the left of the curve. TTC

 

[Ragnor]

In my experience this would be the place to check. As the others will tell you. You just never know. The currents below do strange things and sometimes the places that look the best just get blown out for reasons I have not yet come to understand.


I had a situation last summer where the gold was not on the inside corner where it aught to have been. It was missing. I suspect it had got blasted to the far side like that pile I marked with a ?, but I did not have the time or equipment to even attempt recover from the bulldozed pile created by an icy tidal wave created by a massive log dam breach up stream .

 

[wildminer]

Sure is a lot of work to do if there is any color at all! Yahoo! Can you dredge there? I would probably start where you first mentioned on the inside bend at the head of the gravel bar. Sometimes your first inclination proves to be the place to start.

 

[MadMarshall]

And the guessing continues.

Why is everyone looking for deposits under the premise of the course of todays river course and flows? I wonder how many people actually look for deposits? Or what people consider a deposit? Finding gold and find payable gold are two different animals..

There is only one way and its that simple.. Its called sampling..
I believe that the inside bends and such are mute in todays prospecting. Anyway I can say this.. You guess this what you get...

All that equipment and time wasted and money spent all because they don't know what prospecting is.. Recreationalist gotta love it..
How many people working? They would been better off staying home and buying Paydirt. Willing to bet they would of got more gold!!!!!

Now here an example of some of my work... Most my recent public vids are me just sampling and sampling I don't show me mining anymore.


Look I don't know why you hunt for gold but most people I meet want to try to make money and pay for gas at the very least.. But all to often I see them guessing then they start mining without even real kind of prospecting/sampling...

How is it I can show more gold just panjing then they can running a dredge? Its so simple .. I just look for it and actually prospect. Sampling Sampling Sampling....
Get your advice from who you like but me personally the only advice I listen to is from my dam gold pans.

 

[mike(swWash)]

My 2 cents worth is:

All areas inside the Yellow but especially inside the Blue zone, including in the lower brush and trees on dry land in the triangle between the beginning and end of your red line if this river has any history of running high and inside the white if you find round river rock under the surface.

In other words, gold is where you find it.

Good luck...Mike

 

[207M&R]

Thank you for all the input guys, I found it really helpful! I agree with sampling, test, test and test. It makes sense that it could be concentrated in more than one area. That's what I thought but didn't know if I was looking at it wrong. I will fill you in when I have a chance to hike in and pan it. I need to find out if the stream is even gold bearing. It is not listed as having placer gold but it doesn't mean that it's the case. It is downstream from a small sulfide deposit according to some USGS information. Only time and sampling will tell.

Thanks
Ben