Luke Taylor, Corvallis, Oregon, prepares to use his clam gun while Cheri Grocott (left), Ilwaco, inspects the beach for razor clams with the help of Julie Taylor, Corvallis, on Dec. 2, 2017, at Long Beach.
Luke Taylor (right), 13, Corvallis, Oregon, empties the contents of his clam gun into the incoming tide on Saturday afternoon at Long Beach. A surging surf made digging difficult for most diggers that day.
A few final sun rays shimmer off of the surf during a razor clam opening at Long Beach late last year.
Julee Taylor of Corvallis, Oregon takes a break from digging clams in order to dump ocean water from the inside of her boot on Saturday evening in Long Beach. She is accompanied by her grandson Luke, her friend Cheri Grocott of Ilwaco and an old salty dog.
A clam digger walks toward the sunset on Saturday evening in Long Beach.
Cheri Grocott (left), of Ilwaco, inspects the beach for razor clams with the help of Julie Taylor, Corvallis, Oregon, last December at Long Beach while Luke Taylor, Corvallis, prepares to use his clam gun.
Clam diggers meander about at Long Beach on Saturday afternoon. The weather cooperated with digging efforts until sunset when the rains came in.
A razor clam digger makes his way toward the surf at Long Beach on Saturday evening. A surging tide gave most diggers fits and made the clams shy.
Clam diggers mill about with their heads hung low in advance of sunset on Saturday evening at Long Beach. The daytime weather was perfect for the opening but the clams proved to be hard to come by.
FILE PHOTO — An assortment of sea birds and clam diggers take in the view at Long Beach just before sunset in 2017.
Sea foam rolls in thick just before sunset at Long Beach on Saturday evening. A surging tide made razor clam digging difficult despite sunny daytime conditions.
A group of razor clam diggers set off toward the surf in search of the succulent bivalves on Saturday evening in Long Beach.
Nathan Chose, 15, Vancouver, scans the beach for signs of razor clams as his initial catch dangles at his side on Saturday evening in Long Beach.
Assorted razor clam diggers, and one salty dog, share the beach with sea birds on Saturday afternoon in Long Beach.
Luke Taylor, 13, Corvallis, Oregon, empties the contents of his clam gun into the tide on Saturday afternoon in Long Beach.
Nathan Chose , 15, Vancouver, prepares to pull his clam gun from the sand at Long Beach on Saturday afternoon.
A jolly clam digger explains his preference for minimalist clothing before heading out to corral his haul of razor clams on Saturday evening in Long Beach.
LONG BEACH — It seemed that nearly everyone and their old dog showed up to the Long Beach Peninsula this weekend with hopes of taking advantage of a three-day razor clam dig at “The World’s Longest Beach.”
Everyone except for the razor clams, that is.
Thousands of people crowded Long Beach beginning on Saturday afternoon and turned the sand strip into a pickup and pedestrian highway of sorts. Surprisingly sunny skies cast rainbow hues over the shallow surf, and dedicated clam hounds stalked the beach for hours in search of the prized mollusks. The rare respite from the rain helped to buoy spirits up and down the beach, but eventually everyone was left wondering where exactly the clams were.
Speaking to locals and tourists alike on Saturday, most folks were carrying fewer than two clams in their possession, and only two wind-socked locals claimed to have dug their full limits. The vast majority of shovel and gun toting beachcombers had nothing to show for their efforts other than cold hands though as the clams simply refused to show.
“I know I talked to an awful lot of people who were pretty disappointed. Everybody was really struggling,” said Dan Ayres, coastal shellfish manager for the WDFW, on Monday as he kept an eye on the last day of digging at Mocrocks. While Ayres reported plenty of limits being pulled from Mocrocks and other beaches during the four days of digs that began on Friday, he admitted that the show at Long Beach left much to be desired.
“I hardly saw anybody who even had one clam. I think the high was four,” said Ayres, who focused his survey efforts on the south end of Long Beach while additional WDFW personnel kept tabs on the north end of the beach.
“The secret to Long Beach, almost always, is the best digging is at least north of the Oysterville Beach approach,” explained Ayres.
He recommends digging north of milepost 18 for best results. Ayres noted that increased outflow from the Columbia River last winter and spring created decreased salinity off the coast that was not conducive to growing new razor clams. Those conditions have created a scenario where population pockets are hit and miss at Long Beach, particularly on the south end. Ayres noted that he counted about 1,000 people on the south end of the peninsula on Saturday while at least three times that many people were counted on the north end.
“The population at Long Beach has really taken a nose dive, especially on the south end,” explained Ayres. “Those local folks have that figured out."
Over at Dennis Company on the main drag of Long Beach proper, the line was backed up into the hardware section on Saturday afternoon as eager diggers loaded up to hit the beach. Rhonda Lopez, a cashier at Dennis Company, said that “The Clam Hog” digging gun is one of the most popular, and certainly the biggest, clam gun that the store sells. The ubiquitous clam digging tools cost anywhere from $13 for the standard white PVC style to $115 for the chrome Clam Hog.
“They’re a little more expensive but they work really good,” said Lopez, who noted the importance of the razor clam digs for the economy of Long Beach.
Kevin Crites, of Chehalis, was one customer caught up in the long line at Dennis Company over the weekend as he outfitted his children (Austin, Caydence, Rylan and Cali) with the appropriate licenses and gear.
“We just came down to play around at the beach and then a local told us that there was a clam dig going on, so it just sort of worked out this way,” explained Crites. “We always like to get away and when we do we like to find something fun like this to try.”
Out on the beach most folks remained chipper despite the long odds of heading home with a fresh limit of succulent bivalves.
Nathan Chose, 15, of Vancouver, made the trip to the beach on Saturday with his younger brother Ryan and his mother Kim. Outfitted in neoprene digging gear from head to toe, Chose was one of the few diggers with any clams in his possession by about 4 p.m. on Saturday.
“Usually I’m here and done in five minutes,” said Chose, who enjoys the semi-regular clam-centric excursions with his family. “But today is more fun because I actually have to look.”
Luke Taylor, a 13-year-old from Corvallis, Oregon, is another young buck who hit the beach with his family and friends over the weekend. Unlike Chose, though, Taylor was making his inaugural debut as a clam digger.
“I really like this kind of stuff,” said Taylor as he plunged his gun into the sand again and again in search of his very first clam. “I like fishing and cold weather, so this is perfect.”
Cheri Grocott, a family friend of the Taylors and a coastal native from Ilwaco, was also out testing the waters on Saturday. She insisted that razor clam digs are as much about the social gathering as the clams.
“Everybody’s hungry for clams because there weren’t very many last year,” said Grocott, who insists she hits the beach, clam gun in hand, every chance she gets. “The locals love to come down and hang out on the beach and chat. A lot of the locals will even close up shop so they can get away.”
With the poor digging results and spotty population of razor clams, the immediate future for recreational digs at Long Beach is a bit uncertain at this point. For at least the past month, Ayres has warned of the possibility that future digging dates may be pulled off the table in an effort to rebound the floundering clam stock.
“We’re not going to be offering a lot of digging there,” said Ayres on Monday.
He expects to have a better idea of what the future holds after the most recent digging data is compiled this week.
“We’re going to be going slow so that we still have some clams left for spring digs,” Ayres added.
However, Ayres said with confidence that the proposed razor clam digs on New Year’s Eve will go ahead as scheduled. Those digs are currently awaiting marine toxin testing results for final approval. That proposed razor clam dig is listed below, along with evening low tides and beaches:
• Dec. 31, Sunday, 5:12 p.m.; -1.2 feet; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis, Mocrocks
“That should be a good dig as long as the ocean cooperates,” said Ayres.
In Washington, all clam diggers age 15 and older are required to possess a fishing license. State law allows up to 15 clams to be harvested per day, but no high grading is allowed. Additionally, each digger must dig their own clams and carry their catch in an individual container.
Additional information on razor clams can be found online at wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/shellfish/razorclams/.
