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Subsurface Gold Dredge At Mills Creek, Alaska


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This is an interesting dredge. I was really into subsurface dredges for portability. Keene for a brief time sold a set of inflatable pontoons, so I got a pair and in 1999 put this 5" subsurface dredge together. The frame was homemade out of stock aluminum, and the pontoons were held in place with plastic drums I split in half length-wise. The tube was a standard Keene 5" subsurface dredge tube of the time. The old black marlex version was a pain because the tray clipped on at the forward end. I had to reach into the middle of the assembly to release the clips, and then the tray would drop down in front. In current this was a problem for sure as the current would want to grab the tray and knock it down. The later granite gray marlex tubes were improved with the release clips at the rear, which were easy to grab from the back of the dredge. The rear of the tray would drop down and was easily slid out to the rear. Much better. 5.5HP Honda powered Keene P-180 pump with 5" suction nozzle. Nice dredge, very compact and light-weight.

This was on the Mills Creek Cooperative claims on upper Mills Creek on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska. We got a lot of nice gold in the stretch in the picture as a narrow canyon widened out at this point. Bob(AK) is a member of the forum, and he also did very well here.

Another couple photos of the dredge taken with the crappy digital cameras of the day while being built in my back yard.

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Right on Steve, I recovered a good bit of nice gold on the other side of the creek (photo). Same setup with the riffle box clips on my 4" subsurface in an awkward place. I have made some changes including widening the frame to get my dry gloved hands between the tube and the floats. 

If you see Gaine when in Hawaii say Hi, Bob

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Here are a couple more pictures of Mills Creek and this inflatable pontoon dredge on the creek. This was a very short lived experiment. I put it together and then after this outing decided that the advantages of being inflatable were not nearly as important to me as the durability of marlex. I had to worry about the pontoons being against a rock and vibrations from the dredge motor or movement from water action wearing away at the float fabric. This would be a great way to go for somebody flying remote in a small airplane or for some extreme back country backpacking expedition, but I decided right after this outing to sell the inflatable pontoons and go back to marlex.

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Very nice Bob! I have seen similar pontoon boats at Cabelas and Costco for $400 - $600 and thought they would be a heck of a good idea for a dredge platform. Are the floats a bladder in a protective shell or tough single layer models?

Google "inflatable pontoon fishing boats"

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I went for DNK hard plastic floats myself, inflatable pontoons and sharp sticks a constant worry otherwise,plus air leaks,hopefully not an issue for Bob? Bob, how did you attach the frame to the pontoons?

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Steve, this did come from Cabela's. 9 footer was $350 and if I remember right does have an inner bladder. Here is another photo where you detected numerous nuggets on bedrock. It is now all covered with willows and weeds.

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Tom, very easy, used the frame that came with the boat with very few changes. Pretty tough material, think it will last quite well. Actually left it over winter with a tarp over and it was fine when I checked Friday.

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WOW, nice chunks of gold Bob! That is really encouraging for me, I'm a bit down from Mills and so far got a lot of fine gold and a few nuggets about a penny weight each. So yeah thanks for the motivation.

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While portability holds a certain attraction for remote applications and ease of set up for those of us who are "getting up there" in age, I would like to hear opinions regarding the age old subject of reduced fine gold recovery that has been inherent in subsurface dredge applications in the past.

How's that for a long sentence? Steve and Bob, were you satisfied with fine gold recovery on these subsurface dredges, or were you able to notice a difference between these and standard dredges?

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