>>1945001its easier to mine the banks of a water course, all ways remember, wet gravels will not hold gold, it will travel deeper and deeper down in your hole. I ve chased gold down cracks in puddles for hours trying to scrape the last bits of mud from bedrock because you know your not getting the bigger heavier gold. Digging in running water is a fools errand usually, the current washes the best gold off the shovel and back to the bottom out of your reach, a dredge is your best option in that situation but is not always legal. Pic related is a rare time I got a little nugget stuck to the side of a rock in a creek bed while hand mining, you can make it work if the conditions are right. Thinks like impermeable bed clay or bedrock in the river bed, or slow points where the above meet can allow you to recover what the creek would normally hoard to its self.
