stream flooding?

[blackchipjim]

I was curious because I'm sure this hasn't occurred or doesn't occur very frequently out but does stream flooding increase the odds of finding nuggets. I would think a good gullywasher would uncover something be gold or gems. I heard a lot of folks walk dried up stream bed after a heavy rain passed and search for gems. I wonder if that would hold true for gold too? I didn't think it sounded too far fetched at the time and still don't. Has anyone gone out to their claim to see any improvement after flooding rain.

 

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[Kenmitch]

It's possible. Really would depend on the streams surrounding area in the end. Stream could be stripped of dirt, sedimate, etc but also could be buried by a mudslide, rockslide or even filled by the dirt and other debris from years of prospecting it.

 

[deserdog]

Story from when I first joined the Hi Desert Gold Diggers, a local club. Mid 1980s. The president of our club, David Wolf, had just got a metal detector. And went up to the Last Chance Canyon area. This was right after some heavy rain, with flash flooding. He did ok, but the biggest nugget he found, about dime size, didn't need a detector to find. It was just shining there bare on the bedrock.

My sister use to live up in Merced, and my wife and I would go visit. We would go prosepcting at Aqua Fria creek. It was private property, but the owner, who had a rock shop, always gave us permission. So this time, it was after heavy rains again. My nephew Ricky went with me, and he came up to me and asked: Uncle Ray, is this gold? and it was! He was finding little pieces of gold by just eyeballing them!

 

[goldenmojo]

I recently went to a spot after the high water hit that is usually good for some very small pickers and flake left stranded in bedrock pockets. Instead of pockets of gold I was greeted with 1-2 feet of sterile sand atop everything. So much for the easy color. Waiting for another high water event to flush the sand off of that section.

 

[blackchipjim]

Was watching the aftermath of the cali storms just wondered if anyone went out to take a look or is the water still too high?

 

[goldenmojo]

The water level moves around depending on localized storms, the amount of snow that is melting and which watershed you are on. Here is the chart that some of us use. You can check the water flow in real time, 4 days, 30 days or three years. Once you see how much water there is when you get to your spot versus what chart says you can learn to make decisions of which river or stream to work or whether it is even worth going at all. I have been out three times to three different locations in the last two weeks all based off this info. Click on the blue links on the chart for the graphs for that water flow.

Dreamflows Realtime Report