Saw a very entertaining video on social media a few days ago of people harvesting razor clams. That’s “harvesting” razor clams, not “digging” razor clams.
It showed folks in either the U.K. or on the U.S. East Coast — I can’t remember which — on a beach, gathering razor clams, but with not a shovel or clam gun in sight. What they were armed with, if you can believe this, was a container of salt. Plain table salt.
They simply poured salt down a clam hole, added a glass of saltwater, and watched the clam come up out of the sand as fast as it could dig. Amazing.
So when I stopped laughing, and thinking that perhaps I had found a better, easier way to put razor clams on the table, I decided to talk to an expert.
Enter Dan Ayres, razor clam manager for the state Fish and Wildlife Department.
“Yeah,” he said, “I’ve seen some of that material and, unfortunately, it doesn’t work for our razor clams.”
He explained that the clams in question are a different species, and that they live in a softer, muddier environment than ours.
“We have a few here,” he said, “but not many. We call them ‘jacknife’ clams, and in at least some parts of Europe they’re called ‘razor fish.’”
The clams are longer and more slender than ours, but the shell color is the same and they resemble the handles of old-fashioned straight razors. Ayres said Japan has the clams, as well as coastal Europe and some other areas.
“I was in Amsterdam with my family a while back,” he said. “We happened to walk past a market, and there were all these long, skinny razor clams for sale, stacked like cordwood. If cooking facilities had been available to us, we would have liked to have tried them.”
I asked him if he ever saw people attempting the technique on any of our coastal beaches.
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “Every now and then we’ll see somebody out there with their container of Morton’s, giving it a shot.”
So, being pretty much an idiot around electronic media, I’m probably well behind the curve on this one. But if you haven’t already seen the video, you’ve got to search for “razor clams” and see what you can come up with. It’s a gas.
Meanwhile, closer to home, the state has approved a month-long dig at Long Beach only. Copalis also tested below the allowable level of marine toxins in the clams, Ayres said, but it was the first beach to open this winter and diggers have already taken 40 percent of the annual quota. Managers are saving some of the remaining clams for later digs.
The other Pacific beaches — Twin Harbors, Mocrocks, Kalaloch — remain closed.
“It’s possible that sometime during this upcoming Long Beach dig we can add another beach,” Ayres said. “Probably not Twin Harbors anytime soon, but perhaps Mocrocks or Copalis.
The status of all the coastal beaches can be monitored at the state’s razor clam webpage, http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing.
The extended dig at Long Beach opens today and runs through March 10, on evening tides. The fastest driving route to the Long Beach Peninsula, Ayres said, is probably south on I-5 to Portland, then west along the Oregon side of the Columbia on Highway 30, then back across the river on the Astoria bridge.
A list of tides will be posted on the razor clam website (above), and on the NOAA webpage, http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/map.
Tides for the first week of the dig are as follows: today, 3:41 p.m., plus 0.8 feet; Friday, 4:28 p.m., plus 0.2 feet; Saturday, 5:11 p.m., minus 0.3 feet; Sunday, 5:52 p.m., minus 0.7 feet; Monday, 6:32 p.m., minus 1.0 feet; Tuesday, 7:12 p.m., minus 0.9 feet; and Wednesday, 7:52 p.m., minus 0.7 feet.
Smelt update
The latest word from state biologist Joe Hymer on Saturday’s Cowlitz River recreational smelt dipnet opening is positive. He said a short commercial fishery Monday found smelt on the mainstem Columbia from Longview to Astoria, and that there were birds and sea lions working smelt on the lower Cowlitz.
The dipnet opening runs for just six hours Saturday — from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. — with a limit of 10 pounds per person, about a quarter of a five-gallon bucket.
Derby
The Olympic Peninsula Salmon Derby is scheduled for Feb. 19, 20 and 21, with a ticket price of $40 and a first-place payout of $10,000. Second place is worth $2,000 and third, $1,000. There are also merchandise prizes available.
Mike Chamberlain at Ted’s Sport Center in Lynnwood said his tackle shop is the only place selling tickets in our vicinity.
The event will incorporate the same boundaries as last year — Marine Areas 5 and 6, and a portion of Area 9. A complication has come up, however, with word that the state has cut the hatchery chinook limit in Area 6 from two fish to one, effective Friday through April 10. The reason given by salmon managers is that anglers have already taken better than 70 percent of the set quota.
Some knowledgeable anglers are expressing doubt about Area 6 being available to derby fishers by Feb. 19. Even if it is, anglers will need to decide whether their first legal fish should be entered, or released and replaced (maybe) with a larger one. Neither derby spokesman Barry Wood nor the state’s Puget Sound recreational salmon manager, Ryan Lothrop, were available for comment. Try the derby website, www.gardinersalmonderby.org.
Spring Chinook
The first verified springer of the 2016 season was caught over the weekend below Prescott, on herring, and joint seasons for the Columbia were set by Washington and Oregon.
The fishery is open now below the I-5 bridge with a limit of two spring chinook per day. The action normally doesn’t pick up until March, however, when the new rules take effect. From March 1 through April 9, anglers fishing below Bonneville Dam may keep one hatchery springer. The fishery will be open to both boat and bank anglers upriver to Beacon Rock and, for bank anglers only, from there upriver to the fishing boundary just below the dam.
The sport fishery closes in all areas of the lower Columbia on two Tuesdays — March 29 and April 5 — to accommodate potential commercial fisheries.
For more outdoor news, read Wayne Kruse’s blog at www.heraldnet.com/huntingandfishing.
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