Clamming in Humboldt bay...

is everything I hoped it would be. 

Last year I attended the Humboldt Bay Symposium and saw a presentation on Humboldt bay clams that ignited an interest in me to go clamming.  Apparently not many people around Humboldt bay clam.  And in fact the number of clammers continue to decline every year.  For this reason, the bag limit of clams is 50 here, practically double the limit of any other county or state in the Pacific Northwest.

So for the last few months I've been amping up my enthusiasm to try this.  The biggest hurdle to going clamming here seemed to be the lack of information of where and how to.  I could find plenty of information about clamming in Oregon but nothing came up online for Humboldt.  I emailed around and eventually found a map from 1978 that showed Humboldt Bay and the different types of clams that could be found in certain areas.  I also talked to someone who had clammed around here and got some good tips.

The tides were right this weekend to get out on a low tide during daylight hours.  I purchased a fishing license grabbed my mud boots, shovel and a bucket and we were off.  I really wasn't sure what to expect.  I didn't want to get my hopes up, not knowing if I would find any clams or not.

But that worry was short-lived as Trevor pulled out a large gaper clam, arm covered in sandy mud, from the first hole that he dug.  Just a few minutes later I had one myself.  We dug and dug and dug for 2.5 hours as we honed our technique.  Towards the end we were both getting tired and our hands quite numb.  At one time I had both arms completely submerged in a large hole I had dug and it was collapsing on my arms.  I no longer had the strength to pull myself out and had to solicit Trevor's help to pull me out before I went in head first.

We ended up with 19 clams in the end.  Mostly gapers and Washingtons, and we were exhausted!  We both woke up sore the next morning but with smiles on our faces.  I was a little worried about cleaning the clams but it really wasn't that bad.  I gave thanks to the clams many, many times and did my best to get all their meat and not waste any.

We ended up making a yummy fresh Humboldt Clam Chowder for dinner with extra meat to spare for fritters.
We are looking forward to the next time we go out, having a little experience now, and would love to take anyone else interested in helping to dig some holes.