Calif Flooding will be great for Gold Nugget Hunting in Spring???

[JohnnyThunders]

With the Flooding of Northern Calif I am glad I will be up there in the early Summer for a week.
Think there will be many Nugetts to pick from....
Will have to get a Garrett GTI2500 or DFX before June....JT

 

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[MUD(S.W.A.T)]

Please Explain in better detail how this will happen? I am a newbee at gold prospecting and want to learn.

Keep @ it and HH!!

 

[daydreamer]

I was up in the hills two days this weekend and the water is really raging downhill, trees uprooted, boulders rolling downhill - I expect the river to be recharged with nuggets! I panned a little but am waiting for the river to go down and get to the newly washed down gravel.

 

[MUD(S.W.A.T)]

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[beeper]

Please Explain in better detail how this will happen? I am a newbee at gold prospecting and want to learn.

Keep @ it and HH!!

Gold has been known in theory that after a good earthquake and or a good storm and floods, gold would be washed down into the river from the lode or it's last position in the hills, so after a storm/floods we use a term called "flood gold" where you can dredge or pan/sluice
the top avg 6" 8" of material and bingo hea hea, GOLD!

 

[JohnnyThunders]

And if you have a detector you might find a few nuggetts...JT

 

[beeper]

And if you have a detector you might find a few nuggetts...JT

AMEN to that!

 

[MUD(S.W.A.T)]

Oh, wash out!! More please!!

Keep @ it and HH!!!

 

[nutso]

Interesting thread. We just had a damn give way near me. I know there was some gold found in this area previously but it was never enough to sustain any mining operation. I wonder if I might find anything downstream from the damn with my detector. Any tips on where it might be found, like at bends in the strem bed etc

 

[beeper]

Interesting thread. We just had a damn give way near me. I know there was some gold found in this area previously but it was never enough to sustain any mining operation. I wonder if I might find anything downstream from the damn with my detector. Any tips on where it might be found, like at bends in the stream bed etc

Boy it's awful hard to explain in a few short words, remember GOLD is twice as heavy as lead, in it's journey it wants to stop at where ever it is convenient, if in a fast current it may find the gravel bar on inside bend of a river, in the eddys, behind boulders, we must not forget bed rock, and exposed bedrock at high water, check the cracks and crevices at low water, there is sooo much more, If your a newbe I recommend joining the GPAA
a good group that is great for newbes, http://www.goldprospectors.org/

 

[BigEd]

With the Flooding of Northern Calif I am glad I will be up there in the early Summer for a week.
Think there will be many Nugetts to pick from....
Will have to get a Garrett GTI2500 or DFX before June....JT

I agree, its snowing now as I write this, here in Trinity Co. N. Calif ;-) just ordered a Coiltek WOT coil for my Minelab Eureka Gold detector ;-)

 

[Jeffro]

The flood gold will replentish the usual spots, but as much water as it SEEMS we are getting, this ain't really all that much. It takes a "forty days and forty nights" type flood to move the good chunks. Last one like that was '64 if I remember correcly, Columbus Day storm.

The good nuggies probably haven't moved much, SOOOOOOOO....... if it were me, I would look for recently exposed bedrock that you know hasn't seen the light of day in awhile. ESPECIALLY if you see a fault or two different types of rock coming together up on the bank, above the waterline. Follow the line on down......

The dam burst sounds like a good "gush"! definately worth poking around a bit.

 

[JohnnyThunders]

I am not sure I will bring a detector with me,,,maybe I will just buy a Gold Pan in Reno and go west till Calif and North pass truckee for about 45 mins and go west agian along the river for another 30 -45 mins......JT

 

[beeper]

It takes a "forty days and forty nights" type flood to move the good chunks. The good nuggies probably haven't moved much,

Not necessarily, the more torrential the better of coarse, the Earth is always changing and we do have gravity, along comes the rains (heavy) and erosion develops, landslides, dislodged boulders, blown over trees, exposure , rain washes and into the river. Hitting the rivers after a heavy heavy rain can be productive, I have on occasion picked nuggies within 4 -8 inches down.
here some years back we had a major landslide that made a dam on the river, don't remember but i think it was the American river in California.

 

[Jeffro]

Of course you are right, whatever new gold washes in will most definately be moved. I was just refering to the big chunks already in the river. Landslide areas will definately be good places to check out.

Speaking of natural dams, I read here recently that back in the 1800's an earthquake dislodged quite a big chunk of mountain, so much that it actually dammed up the Coulmbia river here on the Wash./ Oregon border. It took about a week before the water had backed up enough to burst, and when it did it took out Portland and several other smaller cities. I don't know how many of you have ever seen the Columbia, but that is one huge river!

 

[daydreamer]

THe rains have moved a few hillsides into the water. I had a spot I was panning and went back a week later to see the whole area had washed into the creek along with bringing down a couple large trees.

 

[JohnnyThunders]

You should be able to find gold under that tree with a detector or gold pan...JT

 

[beeper]

You should be able to find gold under that tree with a detector or gold pan...JT

I see a nuggie below the shovel, YEP!

 

[aarthrj3811]

One of the storms in No Calif was a fair storm. What you need is a lot of snow in the high country and a warm rain to turn the bottom of the streams over. Sometimes it helps but other times it buries the gold that was there so deep you can't get to it. It's a crap shoot. The only thing that is good about big storms is that it makes the gold move down the mountain faster and puts new gold in the stream system. You can visualize the stream at high water and determine where the gold would drop out of the fast water. The best way to know where the gold will settle is to be there and observe it your self. You need to remember that most of the flooding occurs because of Dam releases and we often end up with very little water in the Lakes come Summer because someone screwed up the releases....Art