Digg'un was good tonight and weather was also great.

Went before dark so we were a little early but we
got our limits in about an hour.

Back for a lantern dig tomorrow night.

Can't figure out how to make my pictures smaller
so I can't post them anymore since I got this new
camera.

fp

my buddie said it was terrible where he was.. north beach somewhere

Allen from M. Park?

no.. but hes my bud..lol

Well, I struggled.

Ended up going to a beach I don't normally hit only because I wanted to dig before dark and it was much closer for me to leave after work. Started about 4.

The early crowd did well as there was apparently a pretty good show of clams high up on the beach. That was pretty picked over by the time I got there. As the tide continued to recede and darkness approached, they just weren't showing down near the water. I said "to hell with it" as I had enough for a good dinner and beat it outta there.

I think they're there, they just didn't feel like playing tonight.

I went just north of Ocean city.Started clamming about 400 pm.I did squat for the first hour.Mostly dry digging.I ended up getting my limit in the next 45 minutes.All of them were taken in the surf.They were all quality clams.Left the beach at 545 pm.I used the "Eye Doctors" cleaning technique.Worked great.

Eric I think it's just bad juju/karma coming back to bite you for changing over to the fufu clam tube. They could see you didn't have a shovel on hand.

Verdict: NOT WORTHY of showing for this dude..... NEXT!

Yeah, I know.

I'm almost embarrassed to be seen with the thing in daylight.

That said......I had the shovel this day. Maybe the clam gods penalized me 1 dig for using the tube last time. I hope it's only 1 dig!

If your heading for the coast WSP and local police are doing a major speed enforcement.I counted 6 between McCleary and Aberdeen.

We went again tonight(Sat) and got our 3 limits. 2 diggers and a lantern holder. It wasn't easy but we gott'um. Nice weather again.

Big clam chowder, fried clams and Hoods Canal Shrimp seafood fest tomorrow night at the fp house. yummies!

fp

Yeah it was a little tougher and they were a little smaller then yesterday but fun just the same. I was just short of getting mine in the daylight. Had to walk back up to the truck and get the lantern for three clams.

Hit my favorite stretch of beach with my two youngest along with my brother Noel and his two sons. It was slim pickin's thru the available daylight. Beautiful sunset from our vantage point.... the only stretch of beach for miles with blue skies. As the fading daylight surrendered to nightfall, we fired up our lanterns with only one limit between all of us. Worked our way north to Eric's favorite stretch of beach. By the time we decided to turn back toward the truck an hour and a half later, we had about two and a half limits.

About the time we pounded our way back to my usual sweet spot, the tide turned.... along with our luck. Dirty buggers started showing right at the surf line as fast as two shovels could dig 'em between manageable surges. It was a fast and furious finish to a very HEAVY 90-clam limit for 6 diggers.

Size distribution was fantastic. Two dinks, perhaps a dozen mediums, and the rest very large, with four magnums well over 6 inches apiece!

Gotta say that I sacrificed one bag of clams to the "pour boiling hot water over 'em" technique. Not one shell popped. So I kept a steady stream of hot water on individual clams and it took 30 seconds or more for the shell to pop open. Each time felt like an eternity.... all the while seeing the clam's natural translucency opacify and feeling them toughen up as I pulled them from the shell. Half the time the adductor muscle (scallop) stayed on the shell. I was unimpressed so I stopped after 5-6 clams.

The only advantage I saw was that the mantle was 100% shed away on the scalded clams. Not worth it in my book.

I'll keep mine ice cold as I work with 'em, shuck 'em by hand with a fillet knife, and deal with the tenacious mantle as I clean 'em

I get my 3 gallon kettle boiling, then put the clams in a strainer and dunk for a count of 5....no more!

Slight loss of translucency? Sure, but it does not toughen them. Using the 5 sec. "dunk" method allows the water to work much quicker to loosen the shells. You get the odd, stubborn adductor but most fall away from the shell with little to no effort. I do follow with cold water on them as I dump the strainer in the sink.

Probably too late to convince you otherwise but you might do a test on 1 or two individual clams in the future to see for yourself.

May get one more chance. I believe there is a potential dig in latter Feb. pending toxin results.

Hit it Saturday north of Copalis.
Amazing! Great weather! Lots of big clams!

I walked down to the beach at 4 pm.2 hours and 40 minutes before low tide.Dug first 3 clams in 10 minutes.Then the rest of the limit in 10 more.All in the same spot. 100 feet from the surf.The wife also got her limit in about 15 minutes.

These clams were probably the biggest I ever dug on average on the Washington coast.

Several did a good job hiding a dollar bill.

I wussed out,if you can call it that and used the gun on em.Some clams the first pull.A lotta clams the second pull.And a few the third pull.Those suckers went deep fast.

Watched as most people working the surf for a clam here and there.Woulda thought they would get clued in seeing where we were digging.But not many did.Crowds were very light too.

Anybody else see the chainsaw carved elk across from the green Lantern.Awesome!

Never made it coastal. Some friends did well , others were short.

Still, the weather was better. Just the clams only showed at the bottom of the tide?