Because of the closed beaches due to COVID all of last year the clam population is very healthy and as such the limit has been increased to 20 clams per digger per day. WOW! I don't remember it ever being this good. All these digs are late afternoon and evening times and alternating between two local beaches; Copalis and 7 miles north at Mocrocks.
This could be a challenge as we don't like digging in the dark, so we may be out digging a bit earlier or later than we like. I did buy a new Coleman NorthStar (1500 lumens) propane lantern that is supposed to light up the butt crack in a crab at 200 yards so that might help. The bad thing about 'night digs' is the light is nowhere near the same as daylight. Propane lanterns, head lamps, and even flashlights provide a different perspective and often times we are not able to see the 'shows' nearly as well. We alternated one digging, one holding the light for a bit, but in the end Barb wanted to do all the digging. I willingly became the lantern bitch with extra clam pickup duty. Very nearly born to this, she had fun.
Unlike our past visits here there was no competition between my wife and I. She is now a seasoned professional and we both concentrated on sacking up, processing, and vacuum sealing/freezing as many clams as possible for the winter and beyond. Besides, she'll always be my Clam Queen. We did make a $5 wager for the first clam dug, gotta have some fun. Barb collected on Day #1. In fact she was up 17-0 before I dug my first. I have to hand it to my bride, she kicked my ass all week on the sand. This continued to be my week. Rise of the Clam Queen.
Chopping
Here for 9 days I prepared meals such as Shepard's Pie, Pastys, Fried Walleye, Fire Pit TBones, Tillamook Moondog Grilled Cheese Sandwiches n Soup and Hot Dogs among others. Much of this designed to create as much freezer room as possible for clams. The same strategy will apply later this winter as we make room for Texas venison and beef.
Another adventure at the beach. Some days rain, some days sun, some days stormy, always breezy. Welcome to Western Washington in winter. Mocrocks did not reward our digging nearly as much as Copalis Beach. Day 3 & 7 were windy and rainy so much that we didn't dig. Some still do, but we're not young diehards anymore. We're more like comfort meat hunters. We always have a good time here. Barb loves clamming and I love having someone to share it with. We dug two days with high school friend Ruby Garlinghouse. Not able to dig for herself, she has a 'Harvest Tag' so we dug for her as well as ourselves. She's such a good person, just paying it forward. We also met up with another high school friend, Tom Ainslie who came down for a dig. Always good to see him as well. Although our numbers weren't what we hoped our final tally was 140 clams; divided into packs of steaks, diggers, chowder meat, and clam strips. Its beginning to look like we'll make it through the winter. We'll also finish off the freezer with some Sablefish fillets. We have come to the realization that we aren't kids anymore; digging a couple hundred clams to stock up isn't as easy as it used to be....lol. We set our sails to the south now to visit mom and my sister and her family in Salem, OR.
"As soon as I get home all I want to eat is seafood"
Quevenzhane Wallis
WiFi courtesy of AT & T Wireless
No comments:
Post a Comment