Where to Find Gold in a River or Creek?

Try being lazy….

By Doc
GoldHog.com

It’s really not hard to locate the gold in a river creek.  (If it’s there at all.) You just have to “become your prey”.   Stick with me for a minute and open your mind.

In my younger years I hunted deer every chance I could.  Like gold fever has taken over now, the deer fever was stronger back then.  I was good at it and you know why?  I became the deer, not its hunter.  I learned their habits, their environment and their daily routine.  I learn what was innate to them or was their “nature” that they couldn’t change.   Soon, it became easy to see deer while hunting.  Well the same has come to me with gold, after MANY years of studying it.

Most people hit a creek or river and just start panning. They’ll test here, there and everywhere until finally they find some gold. Now they set up their equipment and attack with a vengeance. Sometimes it works others it’s a bust.  

For me, I stop and look, for quite some time.  I become GOLD, my prey.  I understanding where I would hide and it has become a lot easier. Here are a few things that might help you.

Learn what gold is, how it acts, learn its NATURE… that it cannot change.  

Gold is the heaviest thing in the creek.  (99.9% of the time.)  Nothing else will be heavier. So, it will concentrate low and want to move very little. (I call it lazy.)

Gold is “always” at the bottom, even when a river or creek is forcing it to move.

Gold will want to travel the path of least movement.

Gold will want to travel straight whenever it can.

Gold falls quickly into holes, bedrock, cracks, and other areas that offer low flow or hidden areas or protection.

Creeks and rivers vary in flow speed based on levels, layers, and sections…

Where does the maximum water velocity occur in a straight river channel?

        a)      On the bottom near the middle

       b)      On the bottom near the shore

       c)       On the surface near the middle

       d)      On the surface near the shore

       e)      Velocity is usually uniform throughout

(Answer:  c) On the surface, near the middle.)

The bottom of the river / creek, near the creek bed, has a slower flow than the upper layers. (Understanding this is important and relates to laminar flow.)
The same with straight edges / the sides of the creek.   Lots of people think about working the banks or sides of creeks, I want to work a deeper center line.

What I look for…

I often look for the “pinch point”.  This is a narrowing area, often where a slight bend will also occur, that releases into a wider mouth area.  It does NOT have to be huge.  You can see from the illustration what happens to “lazy gold”.  It does not want to move much and will take the MOST DIRECT and shortest path.

Think about fishing weights?

OK… here’s one more visualization trick. Find an area in the creek. Think about dropping large 2 ounce lead weights in the middle of the creek.  They sink fast and don’t move.  Even if it rains, and the creek starts to flood, the weights won’t move much. 

If they do start to move, they will move slowly and drag along the bottom. (Where the flow is slower than upper levels of water.)  If they were to go down the creek shown in the picture here, what would they do?  The same thing that lazy gold would do. They follow a narrow route, staying more in a straight line than lighter material. (You will often see large “light piles” on the far edge of creek turns. The light material moves easily and piles up here.)   

So, when you arrive at a creek or river, think LAZY gold.  Watch for the bends and turns and understand that these “release points” or just behind them, will often contain good deposits of placer gold.