JkbWorld

Paula, Clark (her dad) and I drove up to Ocean Shores, Washington the other day to dig some Razor Clams! They were a lot of fun to dig, and they were especially tasty, too!

During the fall, winter and early spring, Clark and I went down to Newport, OR out on the beach to dig for Razor Clams out in the sand.  We did well a few times, getting many nice clams sometimes, but other times, we got one or two or even none at all.  The Newport clams were very difficult to spot, and there were a lot of people digging and thumping, which got the clams to hole up and hide, making it even harder!

Clark laughed and told me about the Washington clams from back in the day!  There would be a rush for the clams during the best tides of the year, and people would park all up and down the beach for miles and miles.  If I recall the story correctly, the Washington clams also were easily twice the size of the Oregon clams, and were much easier to spot, as they showed easily.  In fact, so easily, you could get a limit of Razor Clams in 10 minutes!  I laughed, thinking he couldn’t be serious…

Then, the last time we went clamming in Newport, it was later in the day, the wind and water were pretty cold and we got ONE damn razor clam after both of us combing the surf for nearly an hour before it got too dark to see!  We gave up and headed back to Toledo with our lonely clam–not even large enough to justify bringing out the frying pan for a clam fritter, and ate it chopped up and sprinkled on a U-Bake Pizza.  We decided that we needed to go up to Washington to dig some of the mythical giant Washington Razor Clams.  Clark called Paula and me a few months later and told us that the Razor Clam tide was coming in Washington, so we’re headed up to Ocean Shores!

On the way to Ocean Shores, we met up with Clark’s brother Tom.  He made some excellent clam chowder with his Razor Clams.  I asked him about the Razor Clams and what his take on Clark’s first-hand account of the clams and his story matched up.  I admit, I was still a little skeptical, especially after clamming in Newport those few times!  From there we cruised around Ocean Shores and saw all of the vacation houses that were up for sale–nearly half the island!  We stopped at this big jetty and took a look around.

The sun went down and we turned in, ready to wake up early in the morning to get our clams!

The next morning, we got up early after dawn, grabbed our clam guns and shovels and headed for the beach!  We were about a full hour before low tide when we arrived, and already it was a zoo, and people were leaving with their limits.  I couldn’t believe it!  It was just amazing the number of people and cars on the beach!

There were people everywhere coming from miles around to get their fresh Razor Clams!  There were cars parked two and three deep in spots on the beach, almost exactly as Clark said.  There were also Razor Clams showing all over the place!  Clark said that the smaller clams were closer in to the beach, and if we wanted the bigger clams, we had to go further out towards the surf!

So Clark was right on about the rush to get the Razor Clams at low tide, but we hadn’t seen these mysterious monster clams yet.  Clark dove in to get one, and they were BIG!  Once she figured out how to use the clam gun, Paula was a clam digging maniac, digging her whole limit on Saturday in almost as much time as we did.  On Sunday, she got her limit first!  I also used a clam gun on Saturday, but I tried the clam shovel on Sunday, which was a bit more challenging, and I limited last!  Clark showed off his clam shovel skills and zipped through with his clam shovel!

Holy Cow!  These Razor Clams Were gigantic!  These clams LAUGHED at the puny Newport Razors!  We fried some of the fresh razor clams up over at Tom’s house and they were really delicious!

So, Clark was right on all counts about the Washington clams, bigger, badder, easier to spot and dig, and more tasty!

The End

Clam or Be Damned!!  (Reprinted From 5/14/2009)

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 at 1:30 am and is filed under Fishing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.