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Well got the dredge fixed up as much as I'm gonna! Springs here and I got the fever. So in we go.

Took the dredge in assembled just skidded it in on the float and pulled it with a snowmobile. That was nice with all the snow it was about a mile in.

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Getting the dredge into the canyon was another deal. Although not to bad lowered it in with a rope and a pulley.

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Made for a long day but I was glade we got it in before the snow melted, skidding everything was a lot easier than packing in.

Went up the following weekend to try out the new six inch dredge!

Had big plans to get in early Saturday and work late, figured I could get 8-10 hours on the nozzle. LOL! Well its been a long winter and seems I'm a bit outta shape. After four hours of dredging in the cold I was done!

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All in all I had a blast. The new dredge really put out compared to the four inch I've been using. Even got a few grams for the effort.

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May not seem like much but after being cooped up all winter and seeing all the gold post from down south and across the pond........ I was getting Bitchy ;-)

P.S. Hope the snow pics helps you down in Texas.

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Nice, that is still some good gold for the first time out this year.  It will only get better!!

Sliding dredges on snow is pretty easy, just like a sled.  The runners on the bottom keep it going straight. 

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I am glad you got the snow that missed us this winter, mostly.

Nice color. I have yet to get out and test that 2 inch dredge I built last year.

Still waiting for my big toe to heal up.Had the nail removed permanent like , was tired of painful ingrown nails from after prospecting trips. we are having 70's weather and sunny this week, YIPPEE !!!

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21 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Great post and photos, thanks. I miss the dredging but I sure don't miss the cold!

Cold? Sure Steve, you lived in the banana belt. In Fairbanks spring dredging fever comes early. In 1997 I decided to make an early trip, needless to say, the water was quite "stiff."

Chain sawing through 2 1/2 feet of ice was not much fun. Didn't get to do any dredging this day.

 

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Steve, dredge is at the creek - Any time your ready. LOL

Jim, I actually thought about taking chainsaw in this winter. Then I came to my senses. I got to ask did you end up dredging under the ice? And was it worth it?

Glad to know this brings back good times for you guy's.

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Headed up last Saturday by myself. My dredge buddy had birthday parties for the kids.

With all the ice coming down the river I decided not to put the six inch dredge in, incase I couldn't get it back out, instead I ran my subsurface dredge.

The water ran very cloudy and I think I nocked my goggles in the river when I lunched the dredge so I was long arm, blind dredging.

Ran for about 20 minuets and had to make an emergency stop. Coffee gets me every time:rolleyes:

Checked the box to see how things looked. (Best part of a small dredge is you can do a clean out really fast). Anyway found a nice little picker in the mix. 1-2 gram. Well that got me motivated a bit so I cleared overburden from a 10 x 10 area in the next few hours. Getting a bit cold and tired I stopped to check the box. Pretty packed from hogging material not much there so cleaned her out and took a motivational break. I'm finding you really have to CON - vince oneself to keep dredging in cold temps.

Spending the last few hours clearing a nice big area of overburden and thinking of that nice little picker I got - well I got back in there and gave it the "Old Hail Mary". I just knew my effort was going to be well rewarded if I cleaned the bedrock good.

Boy was I getting tired and the ice drifts were floating down and wacking me and the dredge. WHEW- prospecting is starting to be a lot of hard work!

At about 5pm I got a solid plug in the hose and I had cleaned most of the nooks and crevis in the area, so I said enuf. Time to see the reward.

Crawled out of the hole and to the dredge I went. #@!&*** I see my hose sitting in a way that it looked fine from were I was dredging, BUT it popped of the sub surface tube and I had spent the last few hours dumping what ever treasure I just sucked up- back into the river!!!!! ( pretty sure it was a multi ounce loss :mellow:)

Here is a picture of the little nugget that got me to do a lot of practice, I think i'm  gonna name this one.

                                                     " FOOLS GOLD"

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On ‎4‎/‎25‎/‎2017 at 4:14 PM, tvanwho said:

I am glad you got the snow that missed us this winter, mostly.

Nice color. I have yet to get out and test that 2 inch dredge I built last year.

Still waiting for my big toe to heal up.Had the nail removed permanent like , was tired of painful ingrown nails from after prospecting trips. we are having 70's weather and sunny this week, YIPPEE !!!

Tom, I know about things that need to heal up! After last Saturdays outing I need the swelling to go down on my EGO.

Keep me posted on that 2 inch dredge. Curious how that dose for you.

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7 hours ago, sjmpainter said:

Steve, dredge is at the creek - Any time your ready. LOL

Jim, I actually thought about taking chainsaw in this winter. Then I came to my senses. I got to ask did you end up dredging under the ice? And was it worth it?

Glad to know this brings back good times for you guy's.

No I never did get to dredge under the ice. Once I got a hole cut there was not enough water between the bottom of the ice and the river bed. I didn't cut a very big hole once I saw how little water there was.

I just keep that picture to remind me of crazy younger days. I did lots of crazy things back then that I would not even dream of now.

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We did a trial run of a homebrew 3 inch dredge down at Lake Michigan one year in Chicago, in JANUARY !! The waves ,as they rolled in, would instantly freeze to solid ice. I don't know how my buddy talked me into going down there with him that day? I think we dredged up a quarter just hit or miss in the swim area by the beach we went to.

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