Need help recovering from a TN mountain river in high water

I live in the Great Smokies and have been panning in the rivers coming out of the mountains after several weeks of rain. I have found some color usually in the inside bends of the river, but not much and the only place I seem to be able to get to is the sand and gravel that is in the eddies near the bank in the slow moving water in the bend of the river. I have tried to move some of the big rocks to search underneath but with no success. The color I have found has been washed up in the shallow sand and gravel. Should I be digging deeper or trying a different approach to finding gold in swollen rivers - maybe I just need to wait for the water to come down! Should I try around the slow moving current in a particular area, or should I try to dig a deep hole in a particular area? I figure that the high water is washing up next to the bank some pickers that need to be taken advantage of before they have a chance to sink and hide. Any suggestions? 

TV Gold,
   I am NOT an expert however from what you've described you are finding "float gold".  This type of gold is so thin that it is light for its surface area, it easily picks up and hangs onto tiny air bubbles and even if it does not it will still relatively easily float in fast moving water.    As soon as the current drops and conditions are right this light gold that is up high in the water falls out and settles on the tops of the river dirt.  You will not find it an inch or two down as it is only on the top of usually fine dirt.    Be careful working around the high water as it is cold and dangerous.  Good luck with your prospecting.  You know there is gold in the area find out why it is there.  Is it a glacial deposit?  Why is it so fine?  What caused it to be fine?  If it was not dumped by the retreat of a glacier then it is likely coming from a long distance away.  Why?  Fine gold gets that way by being pounded and pounded and pounded, like being under the bottom of a huge glacier and being crushed and ground to literally bits or it has been ground up as it has been in the river for a long distance and time and has been pounded by river action to bits.  What's up river from where you are prospecting?  You could be looking for a glacier dump or a section of a historic river bed either of which is higher up on a hill or mountain and the fines are being flushed into the river by rain water??  This becomes a detective game.  It requires you to walk miles of river bank taking and checking samples along the way to find where the gold stops being there and then to back track to find where the gold starts up again and then to finally find the source of the gold.  This takes time and lots of work.  Again, good luck with your search...........63bkpkr

H i TV

To be safe I woould wait until the water recedes some. No amount of gold is worth a life. If you can safely get into the water around boulders and such use a suction tube or other suction device to clean the gravel out around the boulders. You can find plans to build them on the web or you can buy one already made from a prospecting supplier. You will never be able to dig in moving water and get very deep. The material will just keep filling in behind you. I'm pretty sure what you are finding is glacial gold. I'm not aware of any load mining done in TN. It will be mostly flour gold. Good Luck.

B H Prospector

H i TV

To be safe I woould wait until the water recedes some. No amount of gold is worth a life. If you can safely get into the water around boulders and such use a suction tube or other suction device to clean the gravel out around the boulders. You can find plans to build them on the web or you can buy one already made from a prospecting supplier. You will never be able to dig in moving water and get very deep. The material will just keep filling in behind you. I'm pretty sure what you are finding is glacial gold. I'm not aware of any load mining done in TN. It will be mostly flour gold. Good Luck.

B H Prospector

Thanks - I did find a couple of good pickers and it has been a challenge to find where it is concentrated. The river comes out of the National Park at about 4000 feet in elevation. The most I am finding is next to where the water flows aggresively in narrow widths of the river - by the way it is not really dangerous even if you fell in. Thanks for your reply!
    TV