Clammin' Chronicles

[Jimmy Carl Black]

OK so razors are most definitely out http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/fish/shelfish...clm/season.htm

Any veteran puget sounders or hood canal experts care to share info about how to/where to dig some geoducks.
I'm moving to Coos Bay soon and the sound is going to be an unfortunately extra four hours far. Going to make one more trip up there before I do.

JCB,
Do you have to dive to get to the ducks in the sound?

[Ramstrong]

I don't know if I'd be crying too much moving to Coos Bay. There is some excellent clamming in the bay. Especially for Big gapers, cockles and soft shells. Gapers aren't that much smaller than geoduks and they taste better. mmmmmmmm clam fritters.

Email me if you want to know the how and where.

[ 04-24-2003, 10:32 AM: Message edited by: Ramstrong ]

[Bounty Hunter]

No there are places to get ducks up there without diving, but it's usually at the really super minus tides. Went for the first time last year and man is that a lot of work.

[ 04-24-2003, 11:36 AM: Message edited by: Bounty Hunter ]

[Fishmstr]

So where do you get steamers along the coast. Are they in the bays or the beaches? Ditto on the fritters...all I collect are cockles anymore for chowder. I haven't figured out the razors yet, although they are tasty!!!

rcl,
Don't like ducks? When I get up that way you can give as many as you don't want :grin:

PS:
Is it legal to use a water pump to get the ducks for personal use?

[ 04-24-2003, 01:31 PM: Message edited by: Keta ]

[Ramstrong]

Clam strips are easy to make. I use Gapers for them. Clean the necks, pound them out and then cut into strips. Beer batter them and then deep fry. You don't need to dive to get big gapers. All you need are a bucket to put them in. Another 5 gallon bucket with the bottom cut out. Some wooden dowels, your shovel and a fairly low tide.

Find your clam show. Then poke your dowel in the hole gently. You will feel the clam neck retract all the way down. with the dowel sticking out the hole like a bore sighter you can tell at what exact angle and depth the clam is.

Take your bucket with no bottom and center it over the dowel. Run it all the way into the mud. Then start digging. The bucket will keep your hole from filling in. The dowel will show you how deep the clam is so you don't break the shell. This is a neat trick an old timer showed me on Coos bay. You can get your limit of gapers pretty quickly using this method.

Soft shells I normally steam and eat with butter. You dig them off to the side of the show because the shells break easily.

Cockles and steamers can be easily raked.

I haven't ever chased razors before, but they're next on my list.

[ 04-24-2003, 03:34 PM: Message edited by: Ramstrong ]

[Jimmy Carl Black]

I like those tips for gapers Ramstrong.
I've used them myself although usually I'm too lazy to use the bucket with the hole cut out and I end up with smashed shells on 2/3 of my limit.

What I'm wondering mostly is, would the same tips work for geoducks or would they be too deep.
They may not taste as good and be more work, but since when does any of this stuff we do have to make any sense.

[rcl187]

Maybe it's my young age or lack of experience but has any body actually had a "good" fritter??? I've probably had them 10 or 15 times ~ all by different people and none of them were what I'd consider good. I don't pick up anything except for steamers anymore. We pick our limits pretty regularly around padilla/samish bay and what doesn't get eaten that night is frozen for chowder.

I dive a lot around the sound and geoducks are everywhere. I just don't pick them up because I don't like fritters. How much work are clam strips to make? I love those. Anybody ever make them? This weekend we're going out in the san juans for spot shrimp and scallops. Talk about a good meal. Limits are 80 shrimp and a mess of scallops per person.

[slowbuilder2005]

We don't use dowels...we use thin bamboo poles that we got at the plant nursery for cheap. They were 7' long and we just cut them in half. We don't use the bucket either, but instead only dig where the mud/sand is firmer and the gapers not so deep. Limit typically takes 30-45 minutes, so I can't complain. Usually top out the remainder of the aggregate possesion limit by raking up a few cockles.

Clam strips: 3 minute blanch in boiling water followed by an immediate plunge into ice water slurry (50/50 ice/water) on those necks. The ugly black skin will roll off a lot easier that way. Run a knife up the hole in the neck, blade up, to split the peeled neck open, then pound with a meat tenderizer and cut into strips. We cut cross-grain for more tenderness. We use Pride of the West batter mixed thin, like runny pancake batter, and deep fry them.

:shocked:

[brshooter]

Used to dig geoducks as a kid back in the 70's at Dosewallips. They are a lot of work. We used to double team them. I'm not kidding, sometime you end up with a hole 3 feet deep. We used an old garbage can with the bottom cut out to slide down the hole we were digging to keep it the sand from caving in our hole. Don't know how that area is now, but it used to have good oysters too.

Geoducks are good eating. The necks made good clam strips or can be ground for chowder. We used to take the big hunk of body meat and tenderize it, bread it up, and fry them. Good eats.

Got lucky and got out of digging them. My cousin got out of the navy and was a geoduck diver for a number of years. He gave us all we wanted.

[fishisabonus]

I'll hold out for the razors! Fun for the whole family and you can take the dog along too!

Keeping my fingers crossed for October!