How I get gold...
stilllookin,
Generally I don't pan on location in VT, time waster. I typically have 2 days on a trip and I am specifically there to get an accurate sample of 2 different areas. Most of the time I classify 1-3 buckets from an area and haul it out. At HQ I run it through a fluid bed or the sluice outfitted with specialized mat. If I use the same dirt on both I get only maybe 5% on the second run so I am quite sure I am catching almost all of it one pass. I say.. "Why pan dirt when you can pan concentrates?".. After I do a few samples like that in an area I might consider eventually taking the sluice to the location. To clarify, I DON'T illegally run it IN the river. :-) Personally I think I rush panning to much and try and see in my pan with the dense shade from the trees above. Direct natural sun or halogen light, which is generally not in any of my rivers seem the best to see VT fine gold,... But even beyond missing it in the pan I'm talking about the hole the dirt came out of. In vt gold is
everywhere. I even have found specs in a muddy trickling stream nowhere near the gold areas. I speculated gold was there only because
I knew for fact that no one had EVER prospected the spot. Getting to the point people pick poor locations even when they are in the right areas. At recent river I visited I managed to get a 3 bucket sample with amazing results, yet the other people that were there previously (I saw the holes with the panned dirt pile next to them) took their dirt from poorly chosen places. "Place" not meaning geographically but
specifically where in the overburden and how deep. For them I am sure they came up empty since the holes were to shallow (only 12" top diameter) for that spot. They were at the right river, the right location, the hole may even have been in a good spot but still didn't get the "bottom of the hole" to where it needs to be. So between poor panning skills and poor "place" selection, I think this accounts for most of the disappointment of prospectors. When I look back at myself learning to prospect I can see myself doing the same 2 mistakes before I learned to look harder. After I began understanding it better and using better tools, I always got SOMETHING, even on very small samples (see vile photo above).
Maybe I can talk you into staying on our side, everyone knows a prospector is cooler then a metal detector-er. lol I would love to share what I have learned if it helps. Let me know.
I'm jealous you have a table! I would love to see it in action if you can put together a video..
Random photo:
http://www.goldmapmaker.com
Occasionally I'll check in here to see if anything new is happening. This time of year is boring, the fish are not biting at the shanty, It's snowing like crazy and I'm looking forward to the day I can go out on the river. So I was wondering if there was anybody out there waiting for warmer weather also. I'm also thinking about where I am going to go (should mention I do panning mostly). I continue to go to the same places time after time finding very little gold. This year I hope it will be different. So is there anybody out there and what are ya thinking. Maybe we could trade some Ideas on where to go for a change, and possibly find a little color.
It's been a month since my last visit to this post. 
I'm sure there are a couple people within 3 hours of central VT
When fall rolls around Arti, Email me if you think you might be interested and I may be able to steer you in the right direction if nothing more. Good to see some activity. 
