I heard that clams are going to be opneing here on vets day for a limited time. I was wondering if I could possibly get a homeboy hookup to where I can go and get some of these shellfish. If you dont want to post it PLEASE PM me. What utensils are needed out here are they the same ones we use in New England?? Please hook me up I sound pretty bad dont I. I really would like to try some of these clams out here in my Chowdah.

P.S. Dave Vedder I still owe my Real New ENgland Clam Chowder recipe I will PM it to you shortly. Sorry it took a while

You need a clam shovel, a license and a teacher. I am going down and would be glad to meet you and do some tutoring. I think we will be digging at Iron Springs.

I don’t know anything about digging those quahogs or whatever it is you have on the east coast, but here is a basic primer on digging razor clams.

For razors all you need to do is dance around in the waves like an idiot while thumping the sand with your shovel, like a Watusi on crack. Then when you think you see a “show”, a dimple in the sand that looks a lot like all the indentations made by your frenzied shovel thumping, you dig rapidly, while the sand collapse around the hole you are trying to dig. Then you lay on you stomach in 42 degree mud reaching into the hole up to you arm pit. You will know you have found the clam when the tips of your fingers are lacerated – hence the name razor clam. Once you have a hold of the top edge of the shell, which often shatters either causing you to lose your grip or making subsequent cleaning much more difficult. If you manage to hang, on you will be fighting the clam’s desperate and surprisingly strong efforts to dig deeper, cramps in your bleeding fingers and sucking mud. Just as you begin to make progress prying the clam out of the mud a huge wave comes in washing you up the beach 50 yards Once you can breath again go look for your shovel and repeat.

PM me if interested. No recipe no lesson!

I will be digging up some of these wonderful specimens on the 12th and 13th in the Klipsan Beach area. If you are interested shoot me a PM. It is a fun diversion and yields some of the best the NW has to offer in my opinion. I am also showing a buddy that has lived here practically his whole life and has yet to dig these guys. No guaranteed openers on these clams either.

CF

Dreaming,

Please bear in mind that Dave is a professional writer and is using his literary license to give you the romantic, sugar-coated description of razor clamming.

For next week's dig, it addition to Dave's comments, you can probably add:

Temperatures in the low 40's
Horizontal rain
Total darkness (remember your lantern!)
Scarcity of clams
If you do find one, it's a dink

I can't wait!

Welcome to the PAC NW!

SQ:

You are right on all counts. And I love it. Must be the steelheader gene that makes us so crazy for the sport.

So these clams are like ambrosia, make a man virile beyond human endurance and are as big as a loaf of bread?
Please tell us all that have not done this type of clamming, why travel out to the peninsula, dig for a dozen clams and then travel back. All while laying in the freezing mud, getting washed away in salt water, and tearing up your steelhead sensitive fingers.

SMF:

If you are looking for logic in razor clamming it will be a futile search. It's a bit like asking a steelheader why he will stand in a 40 degree river all day without a strike and be eager to get back out the next day. In part it's the old hunter gatherer instinct gone awry, in part it's a Northwest traditon, in part it's simply insanity.

I will say that nothing beat a mess of fresh fired ravor clams. I prefer them to any other local seafood.

Dave V.
Have you ever clammed up in Alaska? Went to a place called clam gulch once (named for obvious reasons) ...WOW! Five of us and I must confess, a little clam frenzy occured (at times two huge clams per hole, necks practically sticking out an inch). 300 clams later we realized that our fishing for the rest of the day was over as we set up the cleaning assembly line. And yes, I'm sure the resident Alaskans resent that sort of thing.

Athough we were nearly too tired to chew, they were great when we cooked some up that night along with steak and fresh King fillet!

GF: Yes I have clammed in Alaska. It's the best. Big limits and big clams. It helps that they have a short window of opportunity and about as many people in the state as live in
Tacoma.

While we never did have clams as big as Alaska's we did one have as many.

When I was a kid my family would tent camp at Copalis. The four of us got our limits in the morning. I believe it was 36 each. My mom would then can clams on a Coleman stove all afternoon. Then we would do it again the next day. Gee, I wonder where all our razor clams went?

In those days there were non-tribal commercial diggers who would drag large mesh bags behind themselves and dig out in the water. They were like machines often digging more than a hundred clams on a tide.

Dave, just wanted to see if razor fever was anything like steelhead fever (I have it) and I guess that answer would be yes. Who knows, thats the next sport I may take up!

Over 700 clams on this table. Smart Alaskans know you don't clean your own ... you pay Mary Anne to clean the for you

WOW, Mary Anne sure has her work cut out for her.........