I still pan every now and again, but it's mixed with a pan followed by rest for awhile, maybe have a beer... I'm not as young as I once was! Metal detecting is definitely the best way to do it. Modern detectors can pick up very small amount of gold and the good ones are waterproof so you can wade in the river shallows and try to find some gold. I've mostly detected in the desert because there's really no water to make panning very practical.
!BBH
!PGM
!LUV
!LOL