White River? Be careful ..
One of my buddies tried panning in the White River and almost drowned in quicksand !! A friend was there in a boat and rescued him.
I was standing in the Wabash river one day down by Covington, on a gravel outwash of a large creek, chock full of black sand.My friend warned me that was a bad spot to be standing on. He had a good point there. Be careful of panning in large sandy rivers with deeper water and a fast current.
I prefer smaller creeks with bedrock bottoms and gravel bars myself. Also, watch out for small water snakes and them Skater bugs. Leave the water snakes alone and they won't bother you.If you grab one or step on one, they will bite, and give you a bloody finger. I got bit by them water skater bugs while panning or at least that was the only critter I saw that day in my glory hole? Left 2 marks on my calf that bled.How can such a little water skater bug bite that hard? And I had just found a nice foot deep crack in a bedrock creek going from bank to bank and small gold pickers were showing up and tons of lead shot.
Another creek I can't name, the locals told us to fan the creek bottom with our hands. The flat bedrock was covered with a green slime. BUT, after fanning it, the green slime revealed wheat grain size flat gold flakes under it !!! Yes, it was a bit of a shock !!!
-Tom V.,ps, wonder where Russ P. is at these days?