Heya guys, glad to hear that you like my video's.
They arent the best quality but next year I hope to have a GoPro to take better underwater vids.
I dont mind posting up my vid links, my youtube channel is
CrainRacing - YouTube
I have other non-gold related video's that I have been meaning to upload, automotive how-to's and general reviews.
Here is a pic of my overall summers haul minus about 2 grams of finer flakes.
This is from a hand full of days over 2 months, maybe 15-20 trips up ranging from 1-3 hours at a time.
A little about what I have learned about underwater sniping.
btw, I am no expert, this is just what I am taking away from 2 months of doing this and watching countless youtube vids, reading dozens of thread posts and looking over books and magazines.
By no means am I a Pro, just lucky.
You read the creek just the same as you would if you were panning or sluicing, look for drops and the inside of beds, behind boulders and objects that wont move in a flood.
The biggest thing that you are looking for though is BEDROCK! or false BEDROCK which is a hardpack layer that wont move during a flood and stops the gold. Clay will also hold that gold if you find it.
From what I have seen in my own area is that the very head of a drop may not have any gold in it, in fact this area is usually still too fast during a flood to let it fall out.
Several feet down from where you would think the dropout would happen is usually where I have found the gold.
Take a look at where the flood line is, imagine the creek flooding and you will see that that dropout will usually be just down from where it looks like it might be during normal water levels.
In the last hole that I worked this year the gold was spread all the way back to the end of the drop but continued down a bit too.
As Gold drops out in the low pressure zone it does get churned and pushed downstream too so you will have a "Wake" of gold even beyond the low pressure zone for a little bit.
I found the chunkiest stuff at the head of the low pressure drop.
The bedrock in the last hole that I worked was running straight across the creek like a natural sluice box, this is optimal but gold can still be found in any kind of bedrock drop.
In my last underwater video I moved the largest boulder sitting in the deepest part of that low pressure drop and hardly found anything so it isnt always where you would think it would be.
Now if you can, take the lower half of the overburden out and put it into a bucket to sluice or pan, there is a lot of fine gold in there that you will fan away when fanning the overburden away, in some cases you can see it right ontop because that area could be so rich.
Fanning isnt always enough though, having a set of basic tools with you like a Pick, crevicing tool and small prybar is key to getting into those area's that hold gold.
My last little tip (but not the end to what I have learned) is that the shale type bedrock holes gold like crazy and gold gets into some places that you would think impossible.
Shale type bedrock has many layers pointing in any direction and the gold likes to get right into those little cracks and hide itself.
To the naked eye you might only see 1 or 2 flakes but there could be a dozen or more hiding inside.
Break that stuff up and get the gold out.
So thats just a little of of what I have to pass on.
Here are some but not all of my vids, you can check out my channel for the rest if you like.
CrainRacing - YouTube
Good luck.
![IMG_0798[1].webp](/data/attachments/648/648593-9dad6a7fda766c0a0dd7852791dfb519.jpg?hash=ZyjgBgnbxx)
