I finally found my first flakes of gold. I had failed my first few times out and I knew I was doing something wrong. The main thing in my gold panning technique was the material I was putting in my pan. I wasn’t digging in the proper places around the rivers and creeks I was searching for gold in. I have now learned a few tips on how to read the river and that has worked out great. The most common thing most people know, is that gold collects up inside the bends of a river or creek. You would think it would be the outside of the bend, but it is the inside of the bend, where you will find most of the gold collecting up at.
The one trick that helped me the most on May 30th, 2010; when I found my first few flakes of gold, was the other thing I learned this past Sunday. I was digging in behind the rocks and I was suppose to be digging in front of them. I was thinking the flow would trap the gold behind big rocks and boulders in the creeks and rivers. These rocks actually create a ripple in the water and the gold comes over the rocks and will get trapped on the front side of the rocks. To find the most gold, you need to avoid the upstream side of the rocks and focus on the downstream side of them. This is where I found my gold at on Sunday. My only problem has been not knowing how to prospect for gold. I have always heard that finding gold isn’t luck, it’s knowing how to prospect for it. I now feel a lot more comfortable, since I know how to read the river better now. I’m sure there are other things I can learn from too, but this tid-bit of knowledge has helped me to land a few flakes of color in my pan!