First outting of the year.

Out for the first time this year. What a nice day and if I had any ideal that the gold was going to be that good I would have stayed out longer and toughed it out. I know were to go and what to look for here to find that shiny stuff now.

Nice work John! Not a bad day on the creek!

MinerMatt wrote:Nice work John!  Not a bad day on the creek!

Thanks Matt. I think I have learned a few things since last year. I also believe there is more gold here than I thought was here. Any way keep digging buddy.

John thanks for the update video! Good for you on getting out! Ive been trying BUT>>>> I did notice that you are still using the bungee cords to tie off your pontoons. I have the same on 2 off my dredge and what I did is crimp over the hook on one of ends for these cords to keep them from floating away. and Keep that air pressure up in the pontoons. Did you ever find out at what PSI the pontoons should be?  My air valve for my pontoons is a little different than the one I see on your dredge. My air valve needs to be twisted to open it up and then twist it closed. I have to fill the pontoons by blowing into it. and then watch on how level it floats. I just got my 4 inch Keene set up/fitted with the Gold Hog mats and Im excited to see how they perform. I also noticed that you have some perf over your mats.. Looks like it did OK! BUT I wonder how it would perform without it. It would be interesting to see the difference. I don't have any perf over my mats. On Docs site he has a video of a guy with a Keene 4 inch that didn't have the perf and was running at a steep angle and NO dredge tender all day with good results. Im going to try that initially and decide then about using some perf over my mats.  To me , it seems that the perf would cut back on the waters action and NOT allow the GH mat to work at its full potential. BUT time will tell! Good video as usual! I tried to get out this weekend BUT I couldn't get anyone to help me move my 4 inch or even my 2......UNTILL the last minuet when my wife said I need to got some honey dos done first. ..............that lasted all weekend and the temp got to 79 degrees Sunday!

John,

THANKS for posting the very professional video..........start to cleanup and the "money shot" of your gold too at the end.  Very satisfying to see/watch.  

A couple thoughts:

1).  To beat the cold water, try a pair of kevlar reinforced scuba gloves.  I like and use this brand.  Well worth the money and I get the biggest size -- XXL.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-mm-KEVLAR-Neoprene-SCUBA-DIve-Gloves-Tear-Resistant-Great-for-Lobster-NEW-/150935922385?var=&hash=item23247b66d1mI00W-a9ANy45EUKLP2InVg

2).  To next keep your arms and upper body warm, buy a good used farmer john style scuba top and wear it as is or just cut the arms off and wear the arms only as "sleeves" since you have such slow/shallow water there.  LOTS on eBay for cheap, like this one.  ALWAYS get way bigger than you think you need.  Scuba stuff always seems to run 2 sizes too small:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fathom-Farmer-John-Shorty-7mm-Scuba-Snorkel-Mens-L-/152441532792?hash=item237e393178:g:-~cAAOSw3v5YqHmJ

You'll be amazed how much "warmer" and how much longer you can endure that cold water!!!

3).  Before I spent a lot of time dredging up flow sand behind those bigger rocks, I'd sample pan it.  Look for 2 things......black sand/garnet sand and GOLD.  My experience has been that most those pretty buildups of blonde/tan sands won't have much/any gold IF there's not a generous amount of accompanying black sand/garnet sand/heavies too.

I sure liked the first idea of punching down to bedrock and vacuuming the bedrock/crevices as best as possible.  Over the eons, flood events, most good gold will/should get to the bedrock and collect on it, in any little cracks/crevices.

4).  I agree with Russ on the metal punch plate screens...  Since it appears you use a rock restrictor already on the nozzle, I'd definitely try dredging without the punch plate screens to give the GH matting the best, smoothest water flow.  On my big 4 inch Keene with 6 1/2 feet of GH matting, I don't have the screens front to back like I ran when I had just Vortex matting in the box.

If you can get a nice, deep, smooth water flow...........and I think you can...........try dredging w/o the screens a few runs.  As long as you have some heavies in the matting grooves/collection points, I think you'll be good, maybe even better.

In summary, my recommendation is spend more time working bedrock, exposed bedrock, especially on the low pressure/inside bends and just above/out of the fast water channel part of the creek............and at that dividing line right between the fast water channel and the slower part, probably just where the gravel bars start to build!  

HTH,

Randy  C-17A