First time out panning......

[ejimbo4]

So I dug in a creek by my house a couple times and came up with nothing so I decided to do some research. I spent a week on the computer tracking down a few creeks up on Allatoona that I could figure out how to gain public access and after the big rain last night I figure I would give it a go! So I headed out this morning about 6:30am and temp was a balmy 33* out and I headed to the creek.Got there right as the sun was coming up and got my gear down to the water.The water had dropped back down to a normal flow so I picked out a place I thought looked good and on my second pan I got 3-4 little pieces of flour gold and that just made my day! Instead of digging some more right there I started jumping up and down the creek digging everywhere(I think that was the wrong decision!LOL) and plum wore myself out for the next 3 1/2 hours with nothing! As I was gathering my gear (Supposed to be to work at noon!LOL)I noticed 3-4 vertical slabs of quartz coming out of the bank and figured I would try a hole there and found 1 little piece of flour gold so I dug deep and classified a half bucket to the down stream side of the quartz and another half bucket to the up stream side(probably second wrong decision of the morning because I had to lug that stuff back up hill with all my gear to the truck). I believe my problem is I don't understand how to read a stream yet because this creek is known for gold.Here are some pics of where I was at and a couple of the quartz slabs.Don't know if anyone might be able to give me a couple pointers of where I might try digging from them but if you can I numbered the pics for reference and would appreciate it!I am going to pan out what I brought home tonight and then I will post pics of my big take tomorrow!I will be heading back out Monday morning(and it looks to be a beautiful day)if anyone would like to join me!I had no problem this morning wearing knee high rubber boots and I had some 24" rubber gloves with insulating liners.Thanks for looking!

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Quartz slab coming out the side of the bank

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Quartz slab coming out the side of the bank

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Right to the left of that yellow colored rock is where the quartz is coming out vertically.I dug a hole in the area of the rock and another about 5 ft. towards the camera.

 

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[Pagel]

Try attaching a nut( bolts and nuts ) to a string and ballon and watch where it ends up, it should be somewhat of an indication where deposits would end up. It would also depend on the depth of the water .

 

[Blskypilot]

I'd get in one one of them trips


I've read a few things about rivers and gold movement and from what I learned (or thought I learned) seemed to actually net me some gold. I like looking for turns in the river/creek and then checking the areas where the obvious gravels are being deposited. The stuff up on the edge that isn't under water at normal flow. I'm thinking when it's nice and slow the golds just hanging out but when you get all that heavy creek action after rains some of the good stuff gets moved along and dumped at slower points (turns and bends).