Clam Dig!

Last weekend we went to Ocean Shores on the WA coast for the final clam dig of the season. We had gone once before and came home with 3 tiny clams. We were hopeful that our second experience would be better. It was much, much better! In less than an hour we had dug our family limit of 45 clams! What's more is they were all really big! The weather was perfect and we had so much fun being out at the ocean. David really enjoyed it too.

Clam digging is very different than crabbing or fishing. Basically, as long as you can spot a clam mark in the sand, it's yours. Razor clams dig into the sand and make little coin sized impressions in the sand when they breathe. You can dig with a special clam shovel but we used a clam gun. The clam gun is a hollow tube with a hole in the handle. You plunge the gun into the sand over the clam mark, plug the hole with your finger and pull up your gun full of sand. Sometimes the clam is in what you pull out, sometimes it's still in the hole. If you can see the clam you can grab it with your hand before it digs deeper. If it digs deeper you plunge again. It's pretty fun and exciting.

The only downside of getting that many clams is that you have to clean them all. Daniel did them all and it took him about 5 hours! Granted, he wasn't very experienced so the beginning was slow going, but by the end he was super fast. Also, he's very thorough and made sure he did a good job.

Clam digging family.

Daniel digging.

My haul.