You either need more water flow or the angle on the sluice needs to be steeper .You need about 1 '' of drop per foot .An easy way to test is to use some dirt and it should only take about 3 seconds to exit the sluice .Or you are feeding it to fast and overloading it .

Thanks for the advise. I was feeding it fairly slow. It seemed like a lot of water was going through it but perhaps not. Ill play with it some more.

 

Thanks again

 

-Dave

Hello David... For your sluice to be operating properly you want the downstream side of each riffle, the low pressure zones where the heavies collect, to fill up... As the water swoops into the next riffle, the high pressure zones, you want the mat to clear or show... If this isn't occurring then your gold will  just wash right on through, especially your fines... Sometimes in small streams you may have to build a funnel with rock or other material to increase the water flow into your sluice... if that doesn't work,  try placing something like a stick or gravel under the flare raising it almost to the surface of the water to increase the velocity of the flow... Just a little practice and you will be seeing color in your cleanups... Now and then I like to hear that little clink when a picker hits the flare and doesn't move... That's what I'm talking about... Good luck...