Yeah the Yuba, Klamath, feather, Sacramento rivers are all really big rivers lots of places for gold to hide, here the rivers aren't so big.
I tried going into a mine once I got my body inside and got hit hard with claustrophobia
, the neat thing about the mine was the outside was all setup with an arrastra ( sp) where they crushed the ore the huge piece of granite with a huge eye hook was still sitting there next to it. The guys found a lot of stuff around there with the metal detector especially nice were the Chinese coins that had been left behind and old tools .
Last time I went out was to take the 3" out for a test run and everything that could go wrong did LOL I got it primed one time before the motor went down so we just put our masks and snorkels on and cruised around the river and I found a few really good spots that way for the next visit, I found exposed granite bedrock in a few areas that ran against the river, I should have gone down and sniped the cracks but i'm going to go back to that same spot and get them with the dredge.
It is nice just to get away from everything I have been anxious now to get back out for a month or more now I have such an obsession with this it got rediculous i'm getting ready to go an look at a 4" to buy sometime this week I know for sure i could buy and sell it and make a nice proift but I probably wouldn't want to get rid of it I ran a 4" once and it was fantastic moved A LOT of material with a dredge that size.