your experience with flood gold

[Laz7777]

looking at all the storms passing through gold country this year, I can't help wonder if there'd be some new deposits in old spots I've dug out.
I've been doing this only 7+ years, and on the S. Yuba almost entirely, and never have seen anything that looked like replenishment on any spot I've hit hard.
granted, with the drought there have only been a few years when the river had a chance to move anything.
I look at the law of diminishing returns here though, the S. Yuba and many other rivers have been worked and reworked endlessly and there's only a finite supply of placer gold in any waterway.
in December 2012 there was a good mini-flood and I worked some fresh sand that accumulated over a drop in the bedrock that I'd worked before.
I found flour in small quantities in the sand, nothing on bedrock, which is what I expected. accumulation and concentration never had too much of a chance to occur.
this year the conditions are more positive for moving some gold out of it's hiding places, but I'm still skeptical of finding anything worthwhile.
I worked one spot in the river that had a clay layer with mostly amalgam and I'm certain that it was there before the flood of '97, where I heard that boulders the size of small cars were moving, according to the people who were there.
it still never touched what I had found a year and a half ago.
I guess my question is: has anyone seen a good flood year replenish a spot that you knew you got?

 

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[dave wiseman]

`If you've a creek or river that cuts through an old tertiary river channel then some spots may have some nice gold deposited.

 

[Laz7777]

thanks for the reply Dave, I understand the actions of how gold moves.
what has been your experience?
there are many spots along the s. fork where tertiary channels criss-cross the river, and many of them were hydraulicked down to where the values weren't there anymore.
several creeks that run off of the tertiary channels have bupkus for gold on them, they been torn apart too.
so, please let me ask again: what has been your experience?

 

[Tuolumne]

up in Del norte and Trinity there is still a layer that we find from the 64 biblical rain on snow flood.... heck the gold bluffs on the beach are all old Klamath flow

on my claim in Mother load I have tertiary river deposit from old path of main river channel on the benches and basically everywhere you dig has flood gold, but on my river bends there is new flood gold every year from a load up stream somewhere......I can dig behind boulders and it fills back in with flour gold every winter. There are rocks that I dont want to sierra blast just for this purpose.....

 

[deserdog]

On Cajon Creek, after some good flooding there will be new deposits of flood gold. In the typical areas. One area I found that always had good gold was an inside bend the was covered with cat tails. Even a roaring flood would never tear out the cat tails because of their tough roots. And those same roots helped hold onto the gold.

 

[dave wiseman]

After heavy wnter rains I would snipe crevices in wide flat areas that were worked by big dredges in Calaveras county before WW11.Found nice same size pieces every year.But this was on private property where few people were allowed to prospectThis was sniping underwater with the technique called fanning...over 30 years ago.Always found these pieces in the same crevices.

 

[dave wiseman]

A late friend of mine found over 10 ounces over a period of years on this creek using a coffee can with plexiglass in the in yhe same crevices,years before I did.

 

[KevinInColorado]

One inside bend I cleaned out down to the clay. Storms filled it back in. I dug it again and bam [emoji95] gold!

 

[Laz7777]

okeee....I'm doin' some wishful thinkin', or as the the hippies and new agers say, "I'm manifesting"....or whatever.
this year looks to be the first time in my short mining career that there's enough flow to do something...likely going to be a late spring runoff to follow, hope it isn't too late.
in 2011 the snowpack didn't melt until Memorial Day up where I reside and I wasn't experienced enough to work high (a great opportunity, woo there was some good gold up high when I figured that out)...
anyhow, more input is appreciated...don't need to be specific about locations, just more experiences.....

 

[nh.nugget]

I've gone back to places I've dug the year before after the thaw and flush. And have done quite well. There seems to be more on the surface than deep. Flood gold.

 

[utah mason]

I had a nice hole going, came back two weeks later and it was filled in. Dug it back out and got a surprising amount. I figured it would be barren, glad I decided to run it through the sluice.

 

[Bejay]

It is pretty easy to ascertain the potential of flood deposits if one is familiar with the location. As usual much depends on the introduction/errosionary aspects after the flood. I have had experiences where significant replenishing has occurred due to massive movements of in stream material. I ha ve had significant success when flood erosion introduces new "old bed placer Material". And then again I have had experiences where no significant new gold has been introduced because it is pocketed in places that the flood hydraulics did not displace it. But my opinion is that after massive flood/erosion the likelihood of finding good deposits can be good. Having claims that I have worked for 35 plus years I can visually ascertain such potentials. One very small side creek coming down from an old hi-bar placer working always has new gold deposited annually. I believe many miners are extremely happy to see the massive flooding this year in the west! I know I am!

Bejay

 

[Laz7777]

the flooding is good for gold, but I still worry about the people up there....I'm warm and dry in AZ while friends of mine living out of town, off grid and some in shacks are getting pounded by succesive waves of storms.
just hope they're ok....and some of the catches I've worked are loaded when I get back up there