I dig all signals below and above the high water line. Many times there is gold smaller than is detectable laying alongside the iron junk or bullet fragments, and or gold that is masked by big nails. One small trib i have mined we found gold about 75% of the time we dug iron signals. I have also found that root clumps that have nails embedded in there middles are many times loaded with fine gold. All gold is gold, so i utilize all possibilities to find it.
Happy Hunting
AjR
Forgot to mention, a guy up here got 6 Ozs last year from a crevasse that he chipped through cement rock to get at.