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+--- Thread: Fishing Prospecting trip photo attached (/showthread.php?tid=331184)
Fishing Prospecting trip photo attached - anglerp - 04-30-2007
First shovel of sand.
By Patti aka anglerp
Father’s day 2006 I awake in the beauty of the Willamette national forest
Oregon on Quartzville creek for my first ever gold prospecting and camping
fishing trip as a GPAA member. My boyfriend Steve and my eight year old
daughter Kinzie Are so excited to get to the creek and try there luck. Hair
uncombed and bellies empty they head down with bucket, shovel and gold pan in
hand while I, My name is Patti, get the grub going on the fire. Before I can
even get the fire started I hear, Mom, Mom, I found gold. At first I am
thinking, no way. She runs up to me saying see, see Mom. Sure enough to my
amazement there are 3 flakes in her pan... Forgetting all about breakfast the
fever is on and I head down to the creek to join them. There was a big rock at
the bottom of the path at the high water mark that Steve thought would be a good
place to start .The sand from Kinzie’s pan came right off the top from behind the
rock; I was so excited for her that she made the first find. We spent so
me time panning getting a few flakes out of each pan when we decide to take a
bucket full up to our spiral machine which we have never used before. Feeling
like kids in a candy store we get set up and start running sand. Right away we
are seeing flakes run up the spiral pan and into the container. I just can’t
believe it; in the first few hours of being here we already have enough flakes
to about cover the bottom of our vile. What a great start to our first ever 3
day prospecting trip.
Being avid fisher men and woman we are also excited about
getting some fishing in while the morning bite is still good. At the same time
we are locating the GPAA claims on the creek called Angie M. and Momentary Lapse
of Reason to do some more panning. We spot this really nice fishing hole at the
top of the Angie M Claim on the creek. Can you believe it we forgot to bring worms, something we have never forgotten before? We tried using
power eggs for awhile and didn’t even get a nibble. We are starving by now so as
a last resort I put on a rooster tail before we head off to eat. First cast and
a hit. I saw this fish belly roll and it was huge. It was father’s day and I
wanted it to be the best for Steve so I yelled to him, that fish was huge here
take my pole they are biting spinners. First cast and fish on, he catches a
bright beautiful 18 inch landlocked Chinook salmon. It had to of been one of the
happiest most exciting moments I have seen him have aside from fin
ding gold. Second cast and another one same size. We tried a bit longer without
luck so we headed to town for worms and food.
Over the next three days we spent time on both GPAA
claims and the recreational area where we continued to find color and some nice
flakes, but nothing like that first shovel of sand fathers day morning. We all
caught our limit in trout. , Steve caught his two salmon and we had the greatest time learning, exploring and
spending quality time together in some of the most beautiful country we have
ever seen. Learning about and practicing the art of panning gold. We are hooked
for life! Our trip was so filled with fun and good times I could probably write
a book telling what all we saw and did but instead of going on and on we would
like to say thank you to Gold fever, GPAA, LDMA, Prospecting America and the
Massies for giving us great tools in your shows and the opportunities to spend
our time together out in the beauty of nature and the excitement of adrenalin
running through our veins when we find our earths most precious metal, Gold!
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