Garibaldi Clamming

[King Krusher]

I am going down to Garibaldi this Friday and wanted to do some clamming. I was told to go to the mud flats and told to go to the north side of the Coast Guard Station. I was told that gapers or geoduck clams are in the mud flats and look for the places with streams of water near the Coast Guard Station for Cockels. Are th mud flats in the same area as the CG Station? I am not sure where the CG Station is at, maybe at the boat launch? My 5 year old nephew has been bugging me to take him clamming or crabbing so I want to make it a fun and successful trip and I figured clams right now would be the best bet because of the great tides Friday. My wife is also from Oklahoma and has never clammed, so I want to make it a fun trip for her also. I have clammed quite a bit in the past down south around Coos Bay but never up here. Any suggestions on where to go, what to look for in the sand, around Coos Bay we just stuck our finger in a hole and if we felt a neck pull down, we dug. I have never raked for cockels though, actually never ate one, but hopefully after this weekend I will.

Again, any suggestions would be helpful and greatly appreciated.

[Buck Fever]

The mud flats are right next to the CG station. Take HWY 101 all the way through Garibaldi, make a left just past the NAPA store and the old Miller's resaurant (it's the only street to the left there). It's directly across from the historic coast guard house (I believe). Take this very short street and take a right to the gravel parking area. You'll see the "crab" dock. Lot's of cockles to the north of the dock and all other clams to the south of the dock. Basically, the area between the crab dock and the coast guard station/dock (immediately south of the crab dock) are mud flat. It's generally a bit sandier north of the crab dock. Lot's of cockles on minus tides...Split em' in half, clean em', dip em' in egg (shell and all), dredge in cracker crumbs, and fry in plenty o' butter!!! Good luck...