Critique This Please!!!

[hunter_46356]

This is my best attempt at a pic of a section of creek where I have found gold. Since I was unable to figure out how to add text I will try to explain what isn't evident by the picture. Current is obvious by arrows, and slower water is above and below the riffles. the red X marks where I've been prospecting and moving over two feet of overburden .The grey represents exposed shale type bedrock which continues under water and the gravel bar. With limited equipment I'm able to recover a couple hundred pcs. of small flakes a day. Digging. classifying and running it thru a small Mackirk sluice. The upper gravel bar revealed only very fine flour when tested but bed rock was never reached. Before the first gravel bar and after the second the water is slow. The water slows below where I'm working and at the bend. The far side of the creek is exposed sand stone and shale. There is a cut through this farther down stream that I've yet to test. I'm thinking of working a little upstream closer to the beginning of the bar with the thought the bigger gold would drop out there but the over buden is deeper. Any suggestions would be welcomed.

 

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[B H Prospector]

Hi Hunter,
How fast does the exposed bedrock drop under the gravel bar? From where you are presently working,if the over burden is only a couple of feet, clear it off sluice the gravel as you have been doing and if you can, get a sucker tube to clean off the bedrock. Try and dam the area you are working to keep as much flow out as possible. Just make sure you undo the dam when finished. Follow the bedrock under the gravel going intwords the bank then work the gravel going upstream following the bedrock. Sucker tube works pretty good on bedrock that is under water, it is too hard to shovel under water and clean the bedrock. A dredge would be best. Hope this helps a little. This is how I would work this area with limited equipment.

Good Luck!!
B H Prospector