A great eating fish!

I fish them periodically when I burn out on the salmon/steelhead thing and need to change it up a bit.

What has worked for me:

- A good minus tide. Start an hour before and fish a couple hours into the incoming. Starting at this time defines more of the irregularities in the beach and helps pinpoint where to fish.

- I've also found there's kind of a magic zone well out into the waves where they will concentrate. Find a school and it will be bites almost every cast. Fall short of this zone and my bites go way down. If the surf's up at all it's tough to get into this zone. I wade out deeper than I should to help reach this zone. I don't recommend this.

- They are infinitely more fun on light gear and given a chance, are damn good fighters. Before I broke the rod on a river trip I was regularly using a 9'6" 8 wt fly rod blank I had built as a summer run spinning rod. 1/2 to 1 oz on 8-10lb test gets it out there a ways. Finesse is a must as it's quite a load on the rod. But hook one of those big 2-3lb females or two at a time if your fishing tandem hooks and it's game on on that light gear. What a hoot!

- Clam necks are over rated and a crap bait compared to fresh sand shrimp (my favorite) or a chunk of raw prawn.

They can be caught year around but I've found spring/early summer to be best. all of our central/south coast beaches in Washington have populations.