Im getting bummed

I have gotten gold from the Gold Dredge parking area clear up to Horse Camp but I haven't been below the gorge probably in about a year. I usually try to find some big boulders to work around or an inside bend. If you can get into some clay on an inside bend you should be finding some.
 

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taternut said:
So I've been sluicing, panning, sniping for a few months now and I know the creek I've been working in is gold bearing but I'm not getting any luck, I've done research, I've boughten books, watched videos on YouTube of the same creek and still nothing. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. I'm digging behind rocks/shrubs, following the inside curves of the creek, sniped in multiple crevices. What the heck? :(
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perhaps the area you are in is overworked...so look for terraced gravels above the creek bottom, the old timers probably dug the creek below the gold bearing dirt.
 

I've never been that low. I normally stay around the gorge area but maybe ill start trying a little lower I just thought around the 50s was all sand from what I saw
 

Because the gold is fine, check your sluice set up, or try a few pans manually. I was having the same problem myself on another river, until I figured out that I was just losing gold out the end of the sluice....what can I say...there's definitely a learning curve to all this.
 

You might want to try running your sluice without the riffles if the gold is fine, using just the expanded metal and mats. Slow the water volume down a bit when you do. My Royal 50 in. catches more of the small stuff when I do this. Of course classify the material down. Good luck and don't get discouraged.
 

I've got a royal too. How do you hold the expanded metal and carpet in, when you take out the riffles? I screwed up big time yesterday and tried an Angus Mac Kirk mini long Tom in the south fork of the American river and the flow was too fast for the little drop riffles, and I lost most of it. It seems my learning curve is steeper than some. Live and learn....next time I'll not be so lazy, and take my royal
 

You may want to consider classifying a little larger. I think mine is a 1/4 inch (4 mesh). Your sluice can handle that size just fine.


About an inch per foot drop on the sluice (I wouldn't count the flaring as you adjust that up and down to get more water flow) and yes a bout a 1/2 inch water line up above the highest point of the riffles. Keep it level. (You 'll see a V in the top of the sluice).

Think like gold. Gold is Lazy (Like me). It will take the path of least resistance. Get out in the creek and look up and downstream and think to yourself, if I was lazy where would I be? Find the deepest spot you can and dig down down down. As others have said you may have to work some overburden up out of the way. May as well run that through the sluice too.
General steps:
1. Set up sluice to proper angle and depth (keep the butt end out of the water lol, to avoid this build a wing dam to raise your sluice up further).
2. Fill up four 5 gallon buckets of classified material.
3. Spoon feed the sluice, clean it out after the four buckets are gone (Don't overload it, feed it steady, Have a bucket just for storing clean outs)
4. repeat 1-3 till you can't dig anymore
5. Take clean out bucket home and work them cons. Classify further, to 20 50 and 70 mesh and pan each batch separately, do a little at a time especially with the 50's and 70's
6. Store the gone through dirt until winter, buy a 100 mesh classifier and go through everything a couple of times before spring.

<3 Best of luck!

*Edit* If you are digging down and hitting large boulders and hardpan, you are in the right spot. Keep going down. :)
 

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captain_mike said:
I've got a royal too. How do you hold the expanded metal and carpet in, when you take out the riffles? I screwed up big time yesterday and tried an Angus Mac Kirk mini long Tom in the south fork of the American river and the flow was too fast for the little drop riffles, and I lost most of it. It seems my learning curve is steeper than some. Live and learn....next time I'll not be so lazy, and take my royal
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My sluice is the folding model and I cut small oak chocks that wedge under the lock nuts that secure the bolts where the sluice articulates. They press down on the expanded metal on the edges and I put a washer under the wing nuts that hold the riffles down and secure the middle with those.
 

I can totally relate to taternuts post. I've tried, bear river, SFAR, lower American river, and almost every creek here in Rancho, and nothing but flour gold. I've been skunked do many times I should change my screen name to PePe LePue. I will not give up. I can at least going miniature colors over here in lower American river. If this is my fate, it just means I'll have to pan way more dirt to accumulate an ounce. So be it. As frustrating as it can be, it's still nice to get out in nature with my wife and not be stuck inside the house all day.
 

Thanks Gold Rover,
I'll try that with mine. I've got the 52"fixed sluice, and I've been thinking of taking out half the carpet and installing gold hog matting instead. That might help a lot too. We'll see. At this point I have nothing to lose, and more experience to gain.
 

captain_mike said:
Thanks Gold Rover,
I'll try that with mine. I've got the 52"fixed sluice, and I've been thinking of taking out half the carpet and installing gold hog matting instead. That might help a lot too. We'll see. At this point I have nothing to lose, and more experience to gain.
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Just keep trying different things and keep asking questions. As you get advice and then try it, the art and science of looking for the stuff gets easier to understand. I'm a science geek, so I love experimenting and after a bunch of experiments, I come away with some basic, essential knowledge every time.

Here's a bit more advice. Acquire a fluid bed sluice. It will change your world.
 

You mean build or buy a bazooka style sluice? I've been considering building one actually. I'm on disability, so buying the real thing is out of the question, but building one it's not, plus I tend to learn more if I do it myself. That may be my winter project this year
 

captain_mike said:
You mean build or buy a bazooka style sluice? I've been considering building one actually. I'm on disability, so buying the real thing is out of the question, but building one it's not, plus I tend to learn more if I do it myself. That may be my winter project this year
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If you can afford it, buy a Bazooka. If you can't, build one. That's what I did and it gets more small gold than the the Royal sluice. It takes a bit to dial your home brew fluid bed in, but it's worth the effort.

But if if I had the money, I'd hand it off to the folks at Bazooka with a smile. They make good kit.
 

Cpt. Mike , I knew a guy whose name was Live. I asked him how he got the nickname. " Most folks live and learn , I just live". Live and learn Mike lol. G/L
 

Ha ha ha. I'm really bummed now. I found a great place to prospect Ann's the ranger told me "gold panning in El Dorado County Parks is NOT ALLOWED, PERIOD." No American River panning on their parks. This thoroughly sucks big time.
 

9.46.430 Pretty much spells it out. I'm sure they consider gold a mineral of importance. Welcome to Eldorado, birthplace of the gold rush, but you can't look for any in our parks and river, because we don't allow it any more. Sorry, but that is pretty Eco-Nazi to me. Just my opinion, and everyone I've told about this now.
 

Best to stay away from those park areas lest you do anything in any way that annoys anyone at anytime anyhow.
 

goldenmojo said:
Best to stay away from those park areas lest you do anything in any way that annoys anyone at anytime anyhow.
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Soo, it Is illegal then.. :?

Maybe we need a thread on where Not to go prospect, as to Assist Greenhorns, as well as Vets where Not to get fined or worse...
Instead of pointing fingers and beating the carpet facing the wind..

:). Just a thought
 

I downloaded their park regs (a pdf file) and it appears that way. I've also been told that the lady park ranger won't bother women out panning, just guys. Go figure. The saddest of all was that we took a quarter of a 5 gallon bucket home and ran it in my recirculating sluice,, and my wife had found her very first picker. And it was just 800 feet from the car...... beautiful place, but messed up rules.
Yes we could use a "avoid these spots"thread. I was told by two local mining stores here near Rancho that it was a great place to go. Maybe that tells me something about the stores as well.
 

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