clam guns

[Sitka_Blacktail]

A shovel is easier and faster than a clam gun. You will never see a commercial digger with a gun. A gun is hard on your back from all the pulling involved. A gun will suffice to get a limit of 15 clams, but is still slower and harder to use than a shovel. I like a short bladed long handled shovel. The long handle gives you better leverage for breaking the sand and also you don't have to bend over when pounding. Astoria Prop makes the Cadillac of clam shovels with a nice stainless blade you will never rust and a long handle. Put the blade about 4 to 5 inches on the ocean side of the hole push the blade straight down til it's buried, lift slightly with the handle and when the sand starts breaking, scoop it out, you don't dig it out. Don't let your handle go farther than straight up and down when lifting. That's where you start breaking clams. Once you get good at it you can feel the clams when your blade comes up against them. One or two quick scoops gets most clams.

[mainer78]

There are a few guns out there that make it easy to pull out the clams.   There is a guy who sells them by the green lantern tavern.  They cost a little more but are really easy to use.  Also there is the clam hawk that is supposed to be easy to use.   go out 2-2.5 hrs before the tide, and if its dark have light and a lantern.. have fun.  We will be down there the 30-31st.   I will be trying out my new go pro.  hopefully get some good video...

[Sportfury]

For the clam guns I prefer the PVC, but have seen some really nice stainless steel setups that guys were buying out of Oregon. They were upwards of mid $100s. Like Sitka_Blacktail I like the long handle clam shovels. They do take some getting used to. The clams in twin harbors seemed to be closer to the surface and a whole lot easier to get with a shovel. When I went further north to Mocrocks the clams seemed to be a lot deeper and my shovel success went down as the sand wanted to fill the holes as fast as you could move it out. In twin harbors and Ocean City it was two scoops and a clam. In Mocrocks it was more like three and four scoops. Either way it is a lot of fun and you should have no problem getting your limit if you start a couple of hours before low tide. We will be heading down in a couple days to hit one of the low tides (-1.4, -1.7).

[lokidog]

I like the gun because you can dig closer to the surf line w/o worrying about getting as wet or a wave filling your hole. 

[Igottanewknee]

For some of us with bad knees, shovel won't work. Aluminum or stainless with the T-handle, which has a bigger tube, helps in not breaking shells.  As mentioned above, face the ocean, tilt the top of your gun slightly back towards you, then push in. You may have to hit the hole a second time if the clams are deep. I rarely break shells with this setup. Good luck!

[Sitka_Blacktail]

I like the gun because you can dig closer to the surf line w/o worrying about getting as wet or a wave filling your hole.

LOL I like digging out in the surf. That's where the big clams live. No worries!

[pilebuck]

The candy of the sea sweet razors from nov this yr

[Sitka_Blacktail]

Cleaned up tonight. 10 minute limits of beautiful, big clams. I didn't even make it to the surf, which is rare for me.

[ac_156]

where were you at(if you don't mind telling) would be interested in meeting up with someone down there that would be willing to show me what to do. will be in long beach the afternoon of the second and third.

[Sitka_Blacktail]

I usually dig at Ocean Shores. Will be digging at Grayland the days Ocean Shores aren't open.

[dreamunelk]

Try this

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/shellfish/razorclams/howto_dig.html 

Or just google it.  Or just go to youtube and search razor clam digging.

[Sitka_Blacktail]

The web site shows only three types of clam "shows", the dimple, the doughnut, and the keyhole. Truth be. there are many more types of shows, depending on sand consistency, wave action, and weather conditions.

First there is necking which can be divided into at least three categories.  The first you will actually see the neck sticking out of the sand. It's rare, but I've seen beaches where multiple clam necks are sticking out of the sand and sometimes they are laying over on their sides like giant white worms. This seems to happen mostly in very sunny warm weather. The second version of necking is when just the tip of the clam neck is visible right at the surface of the sand. That was happening a lot today. The third version of necking is when you are digging in the surf. Sometimes the tip of the neck is visible and sometimes it's not, but there is enough of a disturbance in the surface of the sand that it creates a v shape in the water as the water runs back out after a wave comes in. At times you can see 10s of Vs as a wave rushes out.

Then there is the eruption, when a clam starts digging down is wet sand and they literally squirt water and sand into the air, sometimes quite high.

Sometimes, you won't be able to see a trace of a clam hole, but there will be little brown circles on top of the sand madeof the brown foam or diatoms that the clams feed on. Not a hole or dimple to be seen, but the clams are right there. We got a lot of those today too. One time I was digging commercially in Alaska with an old Mexican friend. The first couple days on one beach I was beating him by two or three 5 gallon buckets full each day. Then we moved to another beach and he was seeing something that I wasn't and he beat me by about 5 buckets. Turned out the clams were leaving a weird discharge that was whitish in color on the sand and looked a little like bird poo. He'd dug there before and knew what to look for and had his best day digging. That was the day we shared the beach with six brown bears who were busy digging for who knows what, worms, clams, crab??? They were within 200 yards of us for 5 hours until our skiff floated again which was kind of unnerving. But they ignored us like we weren't even there even when we yelled at them. lol Maybe that was why I didn't do as good that day, busy watching my back side. That was on Switshak beach just north of where Tim Treadwell met his end at the hands of a brownie.

When you are surf digging, besides the necking, Vs, and the holes that appear when you pound, there are what I call ghost holes. When a wave comes in, it stirs up the sand  making it impossible to see the bottom until the water slows down enough that the roiled sand sinks to the bottom again.  This is an opportunity to pound a bit with the wood end of your shovel. (the wood end kicks up way less sand to block your view than the blade end in the water.) I've dug many clams in water as deep as a foot. You just have to be ready when things clear up and it doesn't last long until the water runs back out, roiling things up again. Now while you can't see the bottom very good through the stirred up sand, you get glimpses. And if you're pounding a clam hole will appear and disappear in a split second. It takes a knack to mentally mark where the hole is and then start digging it, even when you can't see it any more, but with practice, you can get pretty good at it. I was lucky enough to grow up when you could commercially dig at Iron Springs so I got lots of practice when I was a teenager. I also learned how to "mark" holes in my mind when they got covered up by a wave. Some you can mark with your shovel, then I might mark another with a foot, then I'd note if one is a few inches in a certain direction from one I'd already marked. You don't get them all, but you get enough of them to make a difference in how many you can get in a tide which is important to a commercial digger.  And it's a skill that helps when the crowds of sport diggers hit the beaches and most of the easy clams are dug up.  You can do good in the surf when people aren't getting their limits in the dry sand.

[bigelk1030]

Went to Grayland today, we got 4 limits (60) in less than an hour, and that was with showing my kids how to do it and helping them a bit.  Just got done cleaning them, that takes the most time.

It was sunny and nice down there today, rare for December.  Had to listen to the hawks on the radio, but worth it.

Gonna be some great eating.