First day out

[Yobs1980]

So yesterday i built a river sluice (pics to come once i am able to post pics - should be after this post i think), and my garrett gold panning kit arrived the day before. So I headed out to the river today to have a crack - found a nice corner where there was plenty of gravel on the inside of the bend and away I went.
result ended in nothing - but i reckon it was just a bad spot coz there was no black sand at all either - or maybe i have to dig a bit deeper - gonna be a good bit of trial and error working out the right places etc but i was happy just to be out there, waders on, shovelling into the classifer, then taking buckets worth of material to my sluice box and feeding my material through - was a great feeling.
So here's to many jars full of the beautiful yellow stuff.

 

[Mrlimb]

Hi Yobs1980, I have not been doing it for long either. I also was getting no yellow. Just to reassure myself I started adding lead to the pan to make sure I was doing that side of it ok. I then added the lead to what I was running through the sluice, even though it was not yellow it was reassuring to see it at the end. I now collect one or two specks each time I go out. I also made a blue bowl that increased my success rate. Give the lead a go it certainly helped me.

 

[Nugget]

Many a time I've come home from the creek empty handed, its all a learning experience and as long as you're having fun its all that matters. Perseverance is definitely key to being successful at this hobby and just remember the gold can't hide forever

 

[Guest]

The key is dig deep mate, Lots of guys dig heaps a shallow holes and luck out, best just to stick with one and go deep. Inside bends and or behind rocks or logs or scrape a nice crevice. Stick to this and you will never luck out (as long as its a gold creek)

 

[Teemore]

The key is dig deep mate

Agree, although I won't know if it was successful till it's panned off at home.
Spade may give some idea, bottom of the hole, must be getting close to water found a yabby and a frog.
Put em back and tried a crevice nearby.
Gotta go deep ..... guess finding frogs and yabbies is getting close
Cheers Tom

 

[Ramjet]

My first time out I only got a couple of tiny specks.
Didn't care. I was enjoying myself. The babbling of the creek and just being out in the countryside.
Gold is a bonus

 

[Teemore]

Just had another read of your initial post ..... Are you sure about the sluice working as it should, may pay to just pan off a few loads rather than putting everything through the sluice, just a thought.
And you're lucky to have water up your way ......
Cheers Tom

 

[Yobs1980]

Thanks for all the input guys.
Went out again this avo to a new river, found a good gravel/sand bed and dug down, there was a layer of dirt then under that another gravel layer - did a few test pans on that layer and found a few specs of gold - nothing huge, but there was some black sans in the pan aswell, so from what i have read it may be an ok spot to continue on, so now i have found a spot to do some digging and sluicing - there is a great spot to put the sluice box only 30m away so thats all good.
Thanks again for the feedback guys - was a great idea to just dig deeper and also to test pan first. I'm ok with the panning so the lead bits i'm not overly worried about - but great idea for practising - the panning part which i find difficult is the absolute end bit with the swirling around and finding and picking up the little bits, i just used my snuffer bottle to pick up bits in a few pans then empty the snuffer bottle to the smaller pan and fine it some more - but after a few hundred pans i'm sure i'll get better and get the right techniques.

 

[Guest]

Good stuff, Black sand means your getting amongst the heavies, Perfecto. Cheers Balx

 

[SkipperDVP]

Hello yobs1980 I'm a newbie to the forum but I've been panning for about over a year and a half now and I've only found a small amount that is due to afew factors, being work restraints and hitting incorrect locations ha ha ha Kind of hard to find gold in an area that does not have a history of producing gold and lacks the geographical signs such as tertiary formations but I have been to afew good spots and followed afew golden rules that I go by when working streams and creeks, inside bends on the downside of the creek if the outside bend shows quite abit of erosion and on, under and around any large boulders rocks etc where fast flowing water creates eddys on the downside that is where I have found most of my flakes and pickers you should always try and do sequential test panning on sections of the creek where it becomes wider and the flow of water comes to a slow as most of the gold that travels will drop out here and if the source is quite large then it may even be a fan deposit but that's of a much larger scale of course and as for panning practice makes perfect read reference material and view YouTube there is an abundance of panning tutorial vids with tips and tricks online hope this provides you with some info that is new to you otherwise good luck and get panning it helps if you practice panning for 30 mins a day 2 -3 days a week that's how I got the hang of and I don't loose much and if I do it always falls into my safety pan.

Goodluck hope it helps