Clamming- Digging for Redemption.

I figured I'd post this up here for those of you who don't frequent Spearboard. I had fun writing up a bit of a tongue-in-cheek account of a recent clamming trip.

Late last year a buddy of mine described to me what sounded like one of the funnest activities we hunter-gatherer types could ever hope to engage in (short of actually getting in the water, that is). He described it as follows: You show up at a bay-side or estuary-side campground with 5 of your buddies. You set up tents, pop a few beers and wait. At the appropriate time, you load up your shovel and other equipment and trek across the mud flat as it is revealed by the receding tide. Upon reaching your destination out on the mud, you chat and joke and drink and have a grand ol' time while digging some holes in the mud- out of which you pull 1, 2, even 3 massive, delicious horseneck clams per hole. In no time you have your limit of 10 clams and you head back to camp drunk on your conquest of the sea (and beer) to devour your catch. You then sleep, wake up the next morning and go on your way...

With such a description in my head, I eagerly checked the tide charts... ... not a single good negative tide for weeks.. no... MONTHS even. In fact, the next good tide wasn't for more than 3 months, all the way in January of 2012! Well, I circled it on my calendar and patiently awaited the day. As January finally rolled around, my excitement rose to a feverish pitch. I couldn't wait for my first clamming expedition! Finally, the week before that faithful day, not one, not two, but three different people who were slated to join us said they couldn't make it afterall. Unfazed, Joel, John Banks, and I arrived at the campground on the afternoon of the ideal tide, ready for action and excited for the fun ahead. We watched with great anticipation as the tide dropped and more and more mud was exposed. Well... I'll cut to the chase by simply saying that other than the drinking of a few brews at the car before heading out, nothing went according to plan. The wind was howling, the sun was setting, the mud was full of sharp rocks and shells that tore up our hands and made digging the necessary 36'' hole nigh on impossible. Hours later we found ourselves back at the cars, in the dark, exhausted from having dug 8-10 holes each, with bleeding fingers, bruised egos, and 1 clam a piece. Clamming FAIL.

We were disheartened, but not deterred. Right then and there we resolved to return on the next favorable tide and succeed where that day we had failed. Approximately one month later, there we stood- Joel, Bryan and myself (John Banks needing to excuse himself in order to spend time with the family)- poised to correct the mistakes of our previous outing. This time, rather than heading out as the tide bottomed out, we headed out well before. Rather than trying to dig one area of the mud flat, we moved to a completely different area. Rather than digging bare-handed, with frigid fingers exposed to the dangers of shell fragments and sharp rocks, we wore good rubber-palmed gloves. We were ready for round 2.

... And this time our preparation paid big! First 2 holes of the day and first 2 clams of the day- and one was a real whopper at 7.5'' in shell diameter! We were beyond psyched (at least I was) to have exceeded the success of the previous outing on the very first digs! (see video) The day went on in a similar fashion, with nearly every hole yielding nice to very nice sized clams. Though it was tough, dirty work, it was oh-so satisfying and gratifying. A few hours later, as the tide began to rise and the sun began to lower on the horizon, we headed back to camp victoriously redeemed! Joel and I each had our 10 clams and Bryan was only prevented from his limit because he headed in early (his girlfriend, who was brave enough to join us, was freezing to death in the wind). Beers were drunk, chicken soup was eaten, and a good time was had as promised.

Digging Horseneck Clams - YouTube

(note: the goofy attire is because a) it was cold and b) you don't want to wear anything nice because that stinky mud smell never washes out...)

I guess there may be a moral to this story, but instead of worrying about that, here's one of the tasty recipes I whipped up with some of my clams: Horseneck Clam Hash.

Quote from Dan

Fun video, I was happy for you when you pulled out that big clam. I guess the buckets are to prevent the sand from collapsing? Is there any logic to choosing where to dig? Do these clams get tough when cooked like our conch?

Yeah, they're actually ~10'' diameter pvc tubes that are 36'' long. You shove them down into the sand around the clam's "show" to hold the walls of the hole up. Before you dig, though, you want to make sure that you've for sure seen the clams neck retract down into its hole because the mud flats are full of shrimps and tube worms that make holes that are very similar to a clam's. Once you know what to look for, though a clam's show gets to be fairly easy to identify.

Yeah, horsenecks definitely get tough. Its like cooking abalone or calamari- either short and hot, or long and low is how you have to cook em or you'll end up with rubber bands.

Quote from ladvr

Are they the same species as gaper clams? Nice catch.

I've seen/heard horsenecks referred to as "gapers". If I'm not mistaken, there are a number of different species of clams called gapers and horsenecks are one of them. So, yeah.

Quote from Adrian

I've seen similar looking clams in Seattle's Pike Market but they call them geoduck clam. I don't know if they are the same thing or not but they are pretty big. Cool video, thank you for sharing.

Yeah, horsenecks look similar to geoducks, but they are a different species. The flavor is similar (that's my understanding anyhow- I've never had geoduck).

Quote from spearomen

it seems "weird" looking and it seems like a lots of work... BUT i wanna try it!!!
i'm wondering how does it taste.. .(?)

Its a lot of work and a lot of fun. You'll definitely be sore the next day when you finally try it. The trick is finding an appropriate tide. They aren't all that common, so it takes some planning ahead. This time of year (march-july) is when we tend to have some of the biggest tide swings, therefore the most opportunities for clamming. I like this site for tide charts: California Tides by ProTides.com

They taste delicious, btw. I have friends who describe them as the single tastiest seafood their is. I wouldn't go that far, but its certainly tasty and worth trying. Taste like a cross between abalone and normal clam.