Maine gold hunters - is it me or the Swift?

[matt_unique]

Fellow gold hunters who have worked the Swift River - from a day of dredging on an entry level rig are you getting more than say 15-20 flakes of gold? I'll post some pictures below of my haul from a day of dredging but I've got a dredge/hibanker combo and thus far use just the dredge (2" nozzle on a 10K gph Honda water pump). I have 3-days of dredging on this rig but never get more than about 20 flakes of gold from a day.

I look for the inside curve of the river and/or large rock formations and/or bedrock. Basically anything that will slow down water and cause a dead zone where the heavies should drop. I look at the river like a giant sluice box - where is the gold likely to drop. With that being said, maybe I am just not picking the right spot. I set my rig up with a level, adjust engine power and drop angle until the sluice 'feels right' where the box is dropping most of the whites and keeping the red and black sand with some eddies behind the ridges causing the material to dance just a little. I have run for half a day and then panned some from the drop pile (did not find any gold).

If you are on scuba/hookah with a 4" nozzle of course you will get a lot more than what I could get with my 2" nozzle and arms reach down, but I welcome any advice. Am I just choosing the wrong spot to make a hole? Is arms reach not getting me to the best layers? Or is 15-20 flakes about all I can expect with my rig from the very popular Swift? I see the haul from many posters (though not usually from Maine - of course CA and other places are just on a different level of gold production) but wowee I'd love to find something a little more exciting.


A typical day:


My best haul (everything small but more than usual - back side of a bedrock layer):


My rig:


Thanks

--Matt

 

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[arizau]

Aside from gold quantity in the stream, sluice angle may be part of your problem if you are setting it up where the material can "bank up" behind the riffles or whatever. You want all of the material behind them to be active/dancing not just the particles on the surface of a pile...that action promotes exchange of all material and most importantly creates spaces for gold to penetrate through then stay instead of ski jumping over the piles then out of the sluice.

Good luck.

 

[winners58]

got keep moving to different areas, If I go to a new section of a stream, I start at the top
and sample, sample, sample it usually means getting skunked sometimes several trips
until I find the best spot or the line the gold likes to travel, I'm bad at reading the river
or just guessing what the best spots for gold to catch are, in the past I've wasted a lot of effort
jumping from guess I'll try here or there, now I take the time early in the season to do my sampling
once I find the line the gold likes to travel, I would have a 100 to 300 foot section to work along that line.
I like to find the high grade deposits but will work a low grade deposit that I can get a calculated amount each trip.
fall off the gold go left go right sometimes a few feet ether way will have you back on the gold.

 

[matt_unique]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have not found gold in my tailings when tested but at some point the riffles get packed up with black and red sand yes? If I dredge for a full day I'll clean out my miners moss and sluice 3 times (rinse into bucket) for later final processing at home. Do you guys run all day without doing that? I end up with about 4" or heavy fine/dark material after a full day of dredging in my bucket.

I usually have one or maybe 2 days a year to do this and usually spend an hour or so identifying the spot before I give it a shot.

 

[arizau]

I would say do a cleanup before they get packed up. Adjusting sluice angle and/or increasing stream flow should extend that time. When they are packed they reject gold. Considering you are getting so little gold to begin with panning tails is extremely hit and miss to see if you are missing any gold.

Good luck.

 

[principedeleon]

Sometimes you dont fall of the gold the gold just vanish out of plain sight. .
Is pretty difficult looking for gold because of that.
Then you have not another choice but to move on to a newer location which you dont know off.

 

[smokeythecat]

People have been doing the Swift River for decades with dredges. I did it about 6 years ago or so. We dug a HUGE hole in the bottom of the creek (later filled it in) and got about what you have there. It is tough going.

 

[Bob207]

Ill be there dredgin Saturday

 

[mendoAu]

A day or two is still a day or two of fun. Better than allot of folks and Maine isn't on the top of the "gold finding" list. Inside curve, outside curve, behind a boulder, down deep, along a shallow section.......I've come to believe that every waterway has it's own secrets so a few years ago I started towards the bottom of our claims, went side to side, skipped nowhere, moved every boulder (some took days) and continued year after year. Still trying to reach the top of the claims, altho had to paint the dredge camo a few years ago. But I'm lucky....live year around on this creek. I swear I've gotten to know some of the rocks by name. I used to panic when the box was bare but now I just don't give a dang and seem to come up with more gold. I dredge cause I love the sound of air bubbles sliding past my ears and the relief of floating layed out with zero pressure has relieving my back pain. Everything is just fine in the kingdom. Enjoy yourself and hell with what ya get in the pan.

 

[N-Lionberger]

I used to long arm dredge into a highbanker like that, it was slow and had terrible recovery as you surge the box a lot unless you are super careful which is impossible long arming as you need to be able to see what you are sucking up to regulate intake properly, popping the nozzle out of the water or hogging it down into the material greatly reduces water flow across the box, when you get back to full flow again it surges the box causing scouring of the riffles. I hook up my nozzle to my highbanker for cleaning out difficult nooks and crannies, other than that it is shovel or bucket feed. If you have a deep crack you cant get your nozzle into you can use a smaller diameter hose to suck it out by sticking one end up your nozzle, it works quite well just don't try to get more suction by sealing the small tube into the nozzle it kills the flow and messes with your recovery. A splitter at your pump for a blaster hose would probably also help your take, helps break material up faster processing.