The first coastal razor clam dig of the winter season comes on line Friday and Saturday at four beaches, bringing mixed prospects for those who like their clamming cold and dark. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife clam manager Dan Ayres in the agency’s Montesano office said an excellent harvest last spring means winter digging on somewhat smaller clams recruited over the summer.
The numbers aren’t bad, Ayres said, but the size generally won’t match that of the spring digs. Additionally, “This season’s tides aren’t as favorable as those the past few years,” he said. “Low tides will occur later in the day, so diggers will have to be prepared for the dark during evening digs in fall and winter.”
And third, the very popular New Year’s Eve dig, usually the largest draw of the razor clam year, won’t happen this time around because there will be no diggable low tide. The New Year’s Eve circus has drawn up to 20,000-plus happy diggers on occasion.
But the outlook isn’t all doom and gloom, and many recreationists still prefer winter digging, with its smaller crowds and unique atmosphere. Ayres said that while the tides this winter are late in the evening, they are good, low tides, offering solid opportunity for a limit of tasty bivalves. And tribal commercial diggers, already into their season, have been finding lots of clams, he said.
Mother Nature has also supplied a substitute of sorts for New Year’s Eve, providing a low tide and digging opportunity for the day after Thanksgiving.
Ayres said Mocrocks beaches will offer the best opportunity, both for numbers and size. Copalis is down a bit this winter, as is Twin Harbors and Kalaloch, while Long Beach will be about average.
A population heavy on smaller clams sometimes leads to wastage, as some diggers try to “sort” for larger clams. Not a good idea, Ayres said, since discarded clams will not survive. Enforcement personnel will be watching for diggers disregarding the “first 15 clams dug, regardless of size or condition” rule.
A good light source will be crucial for these late-evening digs. Ayres said that while various types of head lamp are popular, providing hands-free digging, he still prefers the old Coleman-type lantern. And that’s not just habit or nostalgia, he says.
“Head lamps are handy,” he says, “but I still think the low-angle light from a lantern shows a clam ‘dimple’ better than light coming almost straight down from head height.”
Four of the five coastal beaches — all except Kalaloch — will be open for this Friday-Saturday dig. The tide on Oct. 28 is a minus 1.8 feet at 8:28 p.m., and on Oct. 29, minus 1.5 feet at 9:17 p.m.
Other proposed winter digs, subject to approval by the state Health Department, are: Nov. 11-12, on Long Beach, Twin Harbors and Mocrocks only, Friday tide a minus 0.4 feet at 6:48 p.m. and Saturday tide a minus 0.4 feet at 7:23 p.m.; Nov. 25-26, on four beaches Friday (Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis and Mocrocks) and three beaches Saturday (Long Beach, Twin Harbors and Mocrocks), Friday tide a minus 1.9 feet at 6:27 p.m. and Saturday tide a minus 1.8 feet at 7:14 p.m.; Dec. 10, Long Beach, Twin Harbors and Mocrocks, minus 0.5 feet at 6:30 p.m.; and Dec. 22-23, three beaches Thursday (Long Beach, Twin Harbors and Mocrocks) and four beaches Friday (Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis, and Mocrocks), Thursday tide a minus 0.9 feet at 4:40 p.m. and Friday tide a minus 1.4 feet at 5:29 p.m.
For a lot of good information on scheduled digs, digging technique, cleaning and preparing razor clams, go to www.wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/shellfish/razorclams.
Bassin’ gal
Bonnie Ward of Snohomish won the three-day Lady Bass Anglers Classic tournament Oct. 8 on Kentucky Lake, near Paducah, Kentucky, the first national championship awarded by the new Lady Bass Anglers Association. Ward won $1,250 and a trophy for her six-bass total of 13.07 pounds.
The new organization was formed “after Bassmasters dropped us,” Ward said. She has been fishing bass competitively on various ladies’ circuits since about 1990.
“It was tough fishing, with bass scattered and in transition,” she said, adding she had her best luck on a Yamamoto Senko in watermelon red flake.
Westside pheasant
Belinda Schuster, state manager of the Skagit Wildlife Area, said the local western Washington pheasant release program has been going pretty well since opening Oct. 1.
“Our largest problem seems to be the fact a lot of pheasant hunters aren’t aware we’re continuing to plant the old Smith Farm/Leque Island site, just west of Stanwood and south of the Stanwood-Camano Island highway,” Schuster said. Head west out of Stanwood, cross the bridge, and immediately turn left. Follow that road south for about a half-mile.
The relatively new Ebey Island release site, just east of Everett, adjacent to Ebey Slough and south of the trestle, is becoming more popular as hunters learn where it is, Schuster said (because of construction, access is currently somewhat limited), but probably the most popular site under her supervision is the Samish Unit, on Padilla Bay west of Edison. Maps of all the release sites (soon to include Smith Farm/Leque Island) are available on the agency Web site, www.wdfw.wa.gov/hunting, then western Washington pheasant release program.
Somewhere between 45 and 60 pen-raised pheasant are released at all sites on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays for hunting on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Hunting, however, is not limited to those three days.
“People should really try to hunt the uncrowded, non-release days,” Schuster said. “I check all the sites and see residual birds all the time, with not a soul out there. And I don’t even have a dog, so think of the possibilities here.”
Coho
Still a lot of silvers coming down the Strait of Juan de Fuca. State creel checks Saturday at the Ediz Hook public ramp in Port Angeles showing 26 fishermen with 43 coho, and on Sunday, 44 anglers with 58 coho, 1 chinook and 2 chums.
Winter steelhead
Among a lot of other salmon and trout processed at the Cowlitz Hatchery separator last week, were the season’s first two winter-run steelhead.
Whitetail counts
Thanks to Andy Walgamott at Northwest Sportsman magazine for passing along the following from state wildlife biologist Dana Base in Colville:
The state conducted the second and third of five deer hunter chcks scheduled for this fall on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 22-23, at the Deer Park station north of Spokane. A total of 63 hunters came through the station Saturday, with eight whitetail and one mule deer. On Sunday, it was a total of 114 hunters with two mulies and 18 whitetail. Of the 26 whitetail checked both days, seven were antlered bucks and 19 were antlerless. Two bear also came through the station, one each day.
The totals for this same weekend last year, were 153 hunters on Saturday with 17 whitetail, and the same number of hunters, 153, on Sunday, with 22 whitetail and three mule deer. Of the total 39 whitetail checked that weekend in 2010, 15 were antlered bucks and 24 were antlerless.
For more outdoor news, read Wayne Kruse’s blog at www.heraldnet.com/huntingandfishing.
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