Took the family to our clamming hole today. Showed up and there's abut 20 cars parked on the side of the highway because the lot is full. We "luck out" and get a spot alongside the highway right by the parking lot entrance. We make the 1/4 mile walk down the beach and I notice, we are the only non-Asian people on the entire beach! I swear there were 1000 people there today. I've never seen it so busy.
Now, the couple of members I have shown this beach to can vouch for the fact that it takes longer to get to the beach than it does to dig 4 limits. Not today. After an hour and a half, we FINALLY got our 4 limits and were on the way back to the van. Get to the parking lot and what do I see? 2 Game wardens and 3 Sheriffs. One of the Sheriffs is writing tickets to cars parked along the highway (including mine
) one is in the bushes on the trail head making sure to grab unsuspecting people as they exit the beach with their catch and funneling them to the 3rd sheriff who is basically pre-processing people for the 2 game wardens.
The first sheriff gets us. Scared the crap out of me coming out of the bushes. He points us to the 2nd sheriff who, looks at my license, looks at our 4 buckets, eyeballs our clams and says "no problems here. That looks like 40 in each bucket. Have a nice day" I had to ask and he said they were looking for the egregious violators, of whom there were many. at least a dozen people (not trying to be racist but, all Asians) lined up. 2 in hand cuffs. 2 of the people had 3/4 full 5 gallon buckets of clams in front of them.
Rundown:
1. $20 ticket for parking where I wasn't supposed to
2. 160 clams spitting now
3. Gamies earning their keep
4. crazy rambo sheriff in the bushes
5. I was probably closer to a bear than H20
6. Going back tomorrow!!!
