by David Johnson

Last Saturday I joined a half dozen friends for a fun day of harvesting shellfish.

My morning started off rolling out of bead at about 9:30 and after kicking around for a little bit I met the guys down at the bay for low tide.

Steamers are remarkably easy to harvest. Simply take a rake out on the mud/sand flats and rake away. They are found one to three inches under the surface.



It probably only took 20 minutes for all six of us to have our 20 clam limit of steamers.



We took a break allowing for the bay to fill up with the incoming tide, baited our rings and pots and got onto the water.

There were six of us so we armed ourselves with the maximum amount of traps the law allowed-18.

It was a good thing too since crabbing wasn't great but after fishing through high slack we finished with 19 crabs.





Saturday night was feast night! A feast fit for a king. We cracked and ate crab almost until our fingers bleed. And the clams, best I've ever had. Dennis cooked up a pot full of clams in a broth made of coconut milk, beer, curry paste, garlic and onions.







Crabbing and clamming can provide some very good family time. It exposes them to the outdoors and can be pretty easy.

Soon the weather is going to be getting better and the all through spring we will be having some great tides.

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/resources/fishing/crabbing_clamming.asp

Comments (3)