If a razor clam dig is approved for the Christmas holiday, and if you’re interested in participating, chances are you won’t be lonesome. That’s because only one beach is likely to be open — Copalis — and all diggers will be concentrated at Ocean Shores and Ocean City instead of being spread out over four or five venues.
As of the first of this week, the dig was tentatively scheduled for Dec. 24, 25 and 26 at Copalis, on evening tides, but was dependent on approval by the state Health Department. Marine toxins have been a problem since the spring digging season was closed early because of higher than acceptable levels of domoic acid in the clams coastwide. Samples were monitored over the summer, and readings recently dropped to a safe level at Copalis — but not the other beaches — for two successive periods.
“Results from Copalis have met state health standards after two rounds of testing,” said state Department of Fish and Wildlife razor clam manager Dan Ayres in Montesano. “If not for unfavorable surf conditions, we would probably have been digging last weekend.”
State health authorities require a toxin test within 10 days of an opening, making one more test necessary this week. Samples were taken Tuesday, and results were expected late Wednesday or early Thursday.
“I’m very hopeful the beach will be clean and we can announce the dig by perhaps Thursday afternoon,” Ayres said.
That was the situation as of Wednesday, and the announcement may well have already been posted on the agency website, www.wdfw.wa.gov/fishing.
Tides on the tentative opening are as follows: Dec. 24, 5:47 p.m., minus 1.2 feet; Dec. 25, 6:30 p.m., minus 1.3 feet; and Dec. 26, 7:12 p.m., minus 1.1 feet.
Ayres said he prefers not to open a single beach, but with this situation, there’s little choice.
The clam population on Copalis is higher than it was in 2014, he said, and better than the long-term average, both in numbers and size. “The dig could be a good one, but maybe not a real barn-burner,” he said.
If the dig takes place, and after the numbers are crunched, Ayres said another opening could be scheduled during the good tides over the second weekend in January and maybe, with acceptable test results, another beach.
Copalis is the most popular of the five coastal razor clam beaches, probably because of a slightly shorter drive to get there, plus good tourist amenities, including a casino, campgrounds and other infrastructure. The beach runs from Grays Harbor at Ocean Shores, north about nine miles to the mouth of the Copalis River, just north of the town of Copalis Beach. Anything north of the river mouth is off limits.
All diggers age 15 or older must have an applicable 2015-16 fishing license to harvest razor clams on any beach. Licenses, ranging from a three-day razor clam license to an annual combination fishing license, are available on the state’s website, https://fishhunt.dfw.wa.gov and from most tackle shops and other vendors around the state. A Discover Pass is necessary only when parked at a state park.
Comprehensive information about razor clams — from updates on tentative digs to how-to advice on digging and cooking — is available at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/shellfish/razorclams.
The daily limit is the first 15 clams dug, regardless of size, and each digger’s clams must be kept in a separate container. Diggers may not harvest any part of another person’s limit, unless they possess a designated harvester card.
Crab
State biologist Don Velasquez at the Mill Creek office said both tribal and non-tribal commercial crab fishermen were on the water Tuesday and Wednesday, and that it’s unusual for that to happen. “We try to keep the two separate,” Velasquez said, “but it doesn’t always work out that way.”
The winter Dungeness crab season in Puget Sound ends Dec. 31.
Steelhead
The Forks-area rivers are dropping into shape this week and fishing should be good by the weekend, according to Bob Gooding at Olympic Sporting Goods in Forks. The Bogachiel, as usual, will be the top producer of hatchery steelhead early in the season.
“Most of the guys have been fishing the Sol Duc for a pretty good run of late coho,” Gooding said. “It was only about Tuesday that a few started working the Bogachiel and taking a fish or two.”
It’s early yet for peak winter fishing, Gooding said.
Meanwhile, the state Fish and Wildlife Commission met Friday and, as expected, adopted nearly 50 new sportfishing rules, including the required release of all wild steelhead caught in several rivers on the Olympic Peninsula. The rivers involved include the Quillayute, Dickey, Bogachiel, Calawah, Sol Duc, Hoh, Clearwater and Quinault, the only streams in the state where anglers can currently catch and keep one wild steelhead.
The controversial rule change takes effect July 1, 2016.
And here’s what the Ohio Division of Wildlife feels about stocking hatchery steelhead in Lake Erie tributaries, as reported in The Fishing Wire by Berkley: “Ohio’s primary steelhead streams are Vermillion, Rocky, Chagrin and Grand rivers, and Conneaut Creek. The latter three rivers are scheduled to receive 90,000 steelhead smolts annually, the Vermillion, 55,000 and the creek, 150,000 smolts. Wild production varies widely, but is too low and erratic to support the quality fishery that anglers have come to expect. The fantastic fishing has been maintained by annual stocking and by the practice of most anglers to catch and release.”
Closer to home so far this month, some 148 bank fishermen and 70 boaters fishing for steelhead at the Ringold Hatchery on the Hanford Reach section of the Columbia caught a total of 51 steelhead, according to state biologist Paul Hoffarth in Pasco. Bank fishermen landed 21 for an average of 19.4 hours per fish and boat anglers took 30, for an average of 9.7 hours per fish.
Smelt
Not much smelt jigging activity yet on area piers such as Oak Harbor Marina, Cornet Bay and the Swinomish Channel at La Conner, but Kevin John at Holiday Sports in Burlington said it’s about time for the fishery. Look for it to come on after dirty water from flooding rivers dissipates, he said.
Forecasts for Columbia River smelt (eulachon) this year are for a “modest” return, and less than last year. The possibility of a recreational dip-netting season is iffy, seeing that just two days on the Cowlitz and two on Oregon’s Sandy River were allowed last winter. Those four days produced a harvest of approximately 291,000 pounds.
For more outdoor news, read Wayne Kruse’s blog at www.heraldnet.com/huntingandfishing.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
