Razor Clams in Oregon

[Threemuch]

Anyone ever dig for Razor Clams on the Oregon Beaches? I will be down near Nehalem this Saturday and noticed the early evening minus tide. Washington beaches are closed, but Oregon's aren't. I thought I might do some poking around with the old clam gun. Are there razor clams in the surrounding beaches?

[Drachir]

I've lived in Oregon all my life, and as far as I know, the only Razors in Oregon are on the Clatsop County Beaches (Astoia-Seaside). I have also seen very few around the South Side of Yaquina Bay Entrance. That's all the areas I know of, don't think Nehalem Bay area has anything but some great Bay Clams (Butter, Cockles etc.). Maybe someone else knows more than I do, but I've only dug them in the areas I mentioned. :grin:

[verysweepy]

Went down to the beach by fort stevens in warrenton a couple of weekends ago with the kids and dug around in the sand and we would dig hole around the waters edge and tons of little razor clams would come up, these were only about a quater inch long, didnt see any bigger than that. Someone correct me if im wrong but I think the beaches on the northern oregon coast are closed to harvesting clams because there not edible for some reason, something like the red tide

[letsfish]

Best cockle, bay clam spot in the north coast is probably just west of the coast guard facility in Garabaldi.
As far as Nehalem Bay, there is an eastern bay clam that was accidently introduced by ships from the east coast maybe a hundred years ago.The ballast water taken on in east coast waters had the clam's littlun(scientific name for clam youngun) in it.Once the ships arrived in the bay the ballast water was dumped in the bay with the young clams.Or so the story goes.
Rockaway beach and I am sure Manzanita and Cannon Beach all had at one time some razor clamming. But the Razor clamming is pretty much done from Gearhart north to the Columbia River Jetty.

[WaterDog]

Clatsop county beachs are closed to razor clam digging until further notice due to domoic acid.

Click here for more info :smile:

[Bait O' Eggs]

I have dug razor clams behind the south jetty at Garibaldi. It has been 15 years ago, they were far and few between at the time.

I have been told short sands use to (may still) contain razors.

[Pilar]

Its only a few miles to Long Beach from the wreck of the Peter Iredale but it might as well be a million miles.

The beaches are open to razor clamming all the time in Oregon except for red tide or demoic acid alerts. As a result they are much smaller and fewer than on the beaches on the peninsula. The restricted harvesting in Washington has really paid off with plentiful and large clams now easy to pick.

I haven't tried it yet this year in Oregon, maybe it has changed. There are a few beds in the stretch of beach from the wreck of the Peter Iredale on the beach to the South jetty of the Columbia.

I have heard rumours of razor clam beds inside some of the bays on the central and south coast.

Does anyone know about that?

[Snapset]

A good alternative to Razor clams are the Eastern Softshells (Muds) mentioned earlier. They are meaty, easy to dig, and have a liberal bag limit. They are found in the areas of mud in all oregon estuaries. Ask around to find spots, if you are in my area you can E-mail me and I will send you in the right direction. Another advantage is it does not require a minus tide to find the little squirts.

[Snapset]

Pilar, I have heard the same thing, but I suspect the reason for the rumors are a smaller look alike cousin of the Razors called a Jack-Knife clam. They are fairly common in gaper territory but they do not compare to a razor.

[Threemuch]

Snapset,
I was going to try to find these guys in Nehalem, on the mud flats north of the boat ramp on the state park side. Is that a good location? What do the shows look like for these guys?

Also, what is you email?

[Cutter]

You are more likely to run into softshell clams there. They can get up to 8" and are pretty good eating.

[Trick]

Back in the 80's when I started razor clam digging I never noticed closures for Domoic acid poisoning back then. It seems like the last 5-10 years have been full of closures while the beaches a few miles to the north hardly ever close to poisoning. How can this be? How can a clam a mile away above the north jetty be OK when a clam along the south jetty be poisoned?

Could this be something political or just one of those strange occurances in nature? Seems a little strange to me.

[Salmonator]

Holy cow cutter! 8"? that's big for a gaper!

[Snapset]

Threemuch,
I'm sorry, the Nehalem is outside my clamming range. If you have questions on Yaquina or Alsea bays I can help you.

[will_e_fish]

Nehalem Bay has great varnish clams. Like the razor or butter, smaller but delicious. No limit for these thin shelled treasures. Ask Kelly at Jetty Crab boat rentals,he is a great friendly guy.