Ok guys/gals...
My luck really hasn't changed very much...per say.
I left again Thursday morning and while on the freeway I was in between 2 trucks (passing) with cars riding my bumper to go faster when this pickup in front of me lost some boards out the back. I had no place to go being sandwiched between 2 trucks and a car riding up my arse, I ran the boards over. So a little later I stopped to get some go-go juice for my dredge and truck I noticed my drivers side front and rear tires are low...guess what? Yup the boards had nails and I was lucky enough to hit them. So I had to wait till 8am for Commercial Tire to open...$60 later I have 3 holes fixed...*$(#*$&&#$
Back on the road I get to my spot and get set up. When these enviro-wack-adacks say dredgeing is bad for the fish, they are full of crap. I have never seen anything but small (2-3") long fish in this creek but in this deep hole I dredged, 4' deep, there are maybe a dozen large fish. I seen some suckers, trout and squaw swimming around going from hole to hole I dredged!
So I dredged the rest of Thursday and Friday but I was less then happy. I was at 3.5 grams by Friday night. Something needed to change!!! Saturday morning I got in my truck and drove up creek about 1/2 mile to a spot I was looking at on google maps...wasn't sure if I could get to it, but I could. So I broke camp, tore down the dredge and moved to this new spot. By the time I got set back up, it was noon. So I chose a spot to punch a sample hole. 36" down to bedrock with no hard pack, just overburden, so I had to make my hole really wide. I run out a tank of gas (2.5) hours and do a clean up of the mats 1.7 grams! Not bad for flood gold in the overburden. I finish the day with 1 last hour in the water and clean up. 1.1 grams. Not too bad!
So Sunday morning roles around...my plan is to run out 2 tanks of gas (4 gallons) and pack up. As I move forward towards this part-time sand bar, the bedrock hasn't changed, it's still smooth with no cracks but I'm starting to see hardpack with this real crusty hard rust stuck to the rocks! I'm getting just a tad excited. As I move forward I spot this little round bb sized picker/nugget sitting on the changing bedrock. It's gone from smooth to rough. I uncover at first what I think is another bolder but is in fact bedrock sticking up about 18" and it has a crevis down the middle. Its positioned across the creek...I get excited for a moment till I split it down the middle and clean out the cracks.. I didn't see any gold. I dredge about another foot up creek and find what I though was another small picker. I grab my snuffer bottle and suck it up. I plug my nozzle and go topside to check it out...bust it wasn't nothing.
I decide to check the mats...I throttle down and shut off...this is when everything changes...check out this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt1bHjA93WI&feature=youtu.be
As you see in the video, this is my very first big nugget! I'm stoked!
That one crack in that upright bedrock must of been holding a treasure trove of gold. Normally this creek only gives up really small gold... minus 30's and usually very little it any of the bigger stuff.
Turns out this clean out while not my best ever was awesome. Considering it was a 2.5 hour run it would of been my best clean out ever if I had ran longer.
Yield:
1.1 grams +20 mesh
1.1 grams +30 mesh
2.4 grams -30 mesh
0.5 gram nugget
Total for the trip: 11.4grams!
This next trip should be stellar!!!!
