Its probably because my empathy was removed with my tonsils as a small child but even a medical emergency counts as an opportunity to go clamming... I conned Kat into joining me and we collected our 160 clams for the weekend. We found excellent clam beds at Bywater Bay at the very north end of Hood Canal and this takes the crown for easiest protein collection. You could get your limit of steamers in your tennis shoes with just a hand rake and bucket.
Day 1 was all steamers and the most notable event was Fish and Wildlife pointing out that some of our steamer clams were just a little too small. Using Kat's finger as a measuring device was not very precise but luckily they were just surveying catch totals. They weighed our clams, took a picture of a mutant we found, and gave us a free crab/clam measuring tool!
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| Hand Rake and Tennis Shoes (trust but verify) |
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| High up on the beach is where you rake for steamers and near the water are folks digging for the big clams with shovels. That brown patch in the back is the oyster beds. |
Day 2 we came back with a garden shovel to explore some very large clam shows (depressions in the sand). The butter clams were packed in so tightly that a single shovel scoop would expose 6-8 other clam targets. We grabbed as many as I was willing to clean and then finished the limit on steamers. The two largest clams turned out to be horse clams which are almost geoduck in size but with much shorter necks.
The steamers were excellent and even the in-laws agreed that small bits of protein soaked in wine and butter turn out pretty good. No verdict yet on the butters or horse clams, waiting for some good chowder weather. What I can report is that horse clams will need to taste fantastic if I am ever going to clean one again. Luckily for you my hands were too clammy to get a video of what climbed out of each one:
