Clamming
Most productive between hour before and after low tide.
California
Best in late spring / late summer. The clams here tend to be larger, harder to get, and in muddier areas. Large clams include:
- Horseneck / gaper
- Butter / Washington
- Geoduck (hard to find)
Small clams include:
- Cockles
Good clamming grounds include:
- Humboldt Bay
- Tomales Bay
- Bodega Bay
- Campbell Cove Beach
- Dillon Beach
- Hank Shaw. "Fishing and foraging on Bodega Bay."
- Half Moon Bay
- Linda Mar Beach
- Pillar Point
- Elkhorn Slough (at Moss Landing)
Oregon
Shellfish license required for people 12 or older.
Clams may not be taken by hand or hand-powered tools. They may not be removed from shell before leaving digging area. Each digger must have own container, dig own clams, and may not possess more than one limit of clams while in digging area.
Daily catch limit per person is:
- Butter, littleneck, cockle, gaper, and geoduck: 20 clams, of which only 12 in aggregate may be gapers or geoduck
- Purple varnish clams: 72
- Softshell and others: first 36 taken
All gaper and softshell clams must be retained, regardless of size or condition. If unbroken, butter, cockle, varnish, or littleneck clams may be returned only in immediate digging area.
Keep off the eelgrass, which is essential habitat for fish and invertebrates. Once dug up or trampled, can no longer provide habitat. Look for gaps in eelgrass — digging is easiest and best here.
Refill your holes.
Store them in the shell in a cool, wet burlap bag. Will not survive long in a bucket of water, as they will use up all the oxygen quickly.
Useful links:
