Recent gold

[flyspekau]

Had bad luck for the last few months not being able to dredge in an area due to power plants being turned on all day long so now that the plants have all but stopped running and the waters down it just got to cold and DFG hassling a few guys in the area decided time to give up, pulled the dredge out of the area but i did finally get to a few spots I had been wanting to work and picked up a few grains of gold not the results I had been hoping for wanted to leave with at least an oz in my pocket, that didn't happen but hey got plenty of excercise these last couple months, got out and breathed fresh air from this nasty city life, got a few good dredging experiences like swimming my dredge down stream in a gorge 1/8 mile or so by myself which was a little scary considering I was in water about 50 feet deep at times to deep to see the bottom , dredged in some deep water about 10-12 feet unsure when the water would rise and come up 5-10-15 feet before realizing it was happening got kinda crazy at times but hey that's what made it interesting.

Anyhow thought i'd share something here since it's been awhile. Got the dredge home now going to do some work on the pontoon leakage and then to another spot or 2 later on next month when the water starts running again in them..

Some video some of you might be able to watch some won't not sure why that is I think you need high speed connection to watch the video.

http://crackle.com/c/Reality/Long_arm_dredging/2415275#ml=fu=2109298&fx=

 

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[treasurefiend]

Cool - glad you got a bit of color for you troubles.

 

[russau]

nice video!

 

[El Cooter]

This is EXACTLY why we call him Flyspek!

 

[flyspekau]

This is EXACTLY why we call him Flyspek!


HEY MAN gotta start small and work yur way up right I got a good feeling about this year it may be the big ones coming


i know that dredge backaszwards now LOL she's running like a champ time to find another spot to get her wet at

 

[dave wiseman]

Your a persistant bugger for sure,and the bigger stuff will come your way.........Dave

 

[flyspekau]

Dave one thing I have learned in this short span of life is persistence is part of the payoff the payoff is often a ways down the road but it comes eventually.

Its all Cooters fault he introduced me to dredging ( first experience with tendinitis too ) that's his old dredge behind me though I have modified that sucker not to flip over and the only way it will sink is if I lay 400 pounds of boulders on top of it and it still wont go to the bottom


This year need to do more metal detecting soon as I get these few jobs out of the way I am going to make the time just gotta get ahead with winter in full gear I cant turn nuthin down.

 

[El Cooter]

Now that was a fun day! Vinies first dredging trip..





Coot

 

[flyspekau]

Sure would like to hit that creek where that sign is at but....


I wonder still what me lost in that sluice box when the dredge went end over end down the hill

 

[russau]

yep i cant wait till it warms up a little myself. i NEED to get my dredge out this year and get with it! i have a few spots in my home state that im going to hit and eventually work my way over to Wyoming for a week or so.

 

[mlayers]

great looking gold. sure wish i was in warmer weather so I could get my 2 1/2 dredge out and see what I can find. May there be plenty of gold in you pan.....mlayers

 

[El Cooter]

Good times Vini, good times..






Cooter

 

[flyspekau]

Funny part of that trip taught me a lesson from a couple of cooters boys.

After losing the dredge half way up the hill watching it tumble over and over dumping out 2-3 hours worth of dredge material that was still in the sluice box I looked at one of cooters boys who was sorta grinning, he says " no biggie this sorta stuff always happens with when we go with my Dad " I was like how can you laugh kid theres gold in that dirt down there spread out all over the place.


I had to laugh myself, cooter tells me " Lighten up Vini no big deal man "

I can't tell you all the times I have had that lead to disappointments, but I always end up looking around my surroundings and just be thankful I can get out and have some fun, good or bad nothings really bad unless it's gonna kill you.


Looking foreward to gettiing out this weekend tooter cooter

 

[silvercop]

 

[strickman]

thats a decent amount of flyspecks--nothing wrong with that .how did you fix your flotation problem?i bought a new pump and motor for my 3" now it's front heavy and i don't want to have the same problem.

 

[kuger]

Persistent you are Vinny!!!I consider myself pretty hardcore and I hang it up this time of year.....even detecting for gold,ask Cooter(I am coming over Coot)if something isnt going wrong,your not dredging!I have to admit you have me smilin'!!!!Hey why dont you clean out your box,before you try to pack the dredge out??

 

[truckinbutch]

Persistent you are Vinny!!!I consider myself pretty hardcore and I hang it up this time of year.....even detecting for gold,ask Cooter(I am coming over Coot)if something isnt going wrong,your not dredging!I have to admit you have me smilin'!!!!Hey why dont you clean out your box,before you try to pack the dredge out??

No offence , but I wondered the same thing . That 'Murphy' that made the law is always lurking ,just waiting to trash all your plans .

 

[kiwi jw]

Flyspeck you have the right attitude & approach mate. It is the whole journey & not just the gold.....although that does help. It is a bit like fishing. You dont always catch a fish but you often still have a great day out any way. The beautiful places this crazy "hobby" takes us to never fails to blow my mind.

The happy couple with the result of the above sluice boxing.

I am in New Zealand & gold country is full of beauty & if your lucky....still a bit of gold!
I run a 4" dredge that I converted from an old 3" crasher header box type. I lengthened the top classifier screen & added a slick plate to the end of that to make a longer upper tray to give the fines more area to settle undisturbed from the water flow above. I did this to counter act the added amount of water that the 4" would put down the box. Seems to work well. I replaced he crasher header box with an old road works cone to make a flare.

I also run a little 2" for the more difficult of access places & the smaller mountain streams.

With the removeal of the wooden header box/classifier it can be used as a straight sluice box.

I just recently made what we 'down under' call a banjo & you guys call a highbanker.

Some fine gold from our local river using the banjo

I also tried this set up with a large expanded mesh as a riffle system on its own for this very fine gold. Worked well.

Notice there is very little other material left to pan out other than the black sand concernrates.

Just before xmas I headed down to the south island & I fitted a piece of ply to the front of the banjo to take my 2" suction hose so I could use the suction nozzle set up.

Cleaning up some shist bed rock besides the river

Shist bed rock after a good flushing out & putting through the box

Result for a few hours

Some gold from my local area of the Coromandel in the north island.

Some nice little quartz specimen pieces.

We have a crap weather day here today & I cant get out to a river so I have bombbarded you with these pics. Sorry if I got a bit carried away. Just filling in time as there is crap on tv as well.

Happy golding all

JW

 

[kuger]

Very impressive!I laud your ingenuity,especially the flare/cone!!!!Thanks for sharing.......you should have started your own topic though.

 

[flyspekau]

Hey I don't mind guys posting and taking over my threads LOL JW I just saw your post on Alaska forum and I see you added more pics of gold here KEWL KIWI


If there's one place i'd go if I was given a free ticket any where it would be New Zealand that is some gorgeous country had no idea the gold was so good you just iced my cake JW


THanks for sharing your prospecting journeys and equipment I have seen the road cone used before as a flair that works, only thing is I have a tendency to roll dredges over with boxes on top , that's why I had my 4" frame widened and the box dropped down the middle now I have to sink it and I have tried LOL


That gold is really nice n chunky stuff looks fresh from source that Coromandel gold is coming right out of the source area for sure, thanks again JW