It’s midsummer on the Oregon coast. Families gather for beach picnics under brilliant clear skies. Children build sand castles, dogs chase tennis balls. Brown pelicans flap purposefully above a deep blue horizon to the steady, hypnotic thrum of surf.
You notice none of this. Instead, you are prone on a sand bar, elbow-deep in a muddy hole, tightly gripping the phallic siphon of an enormous clam while your other hand struggles to wiggle its fist-sized shell free from the sucking muck.
Digging bay clams is not glamorous. It will leave you damp, sandy, and smelling pungently of low tide for the next 24 hours, despite your best efforts with the loofah. The best possible outcome is that you have a busy afternoon of processing clams ahead of you. And yet I know of no cheaper or more entertaining way to engage, literally and intimately, with the coastal landscape. Summer is a perfect time for it, since razor clams are closed on the north coast and Dungeness crabs are still filling out. If you’ve never done it before, here’s how to get started.
Permits and Gear
The only things you really, truly need for a successful clamming experience are an Oregon shellfish license—buy one online from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (myodfw.com) for $13 per year, one of the world’s last remaining bargains—and a separate bucket or bag for each licensed clammer.
Recreational bay clamming is generally open all year round. Always call the ODA’s shellfish hotline at 1-800-448-2474 before heading out. Don’t take more than your limit: 20 bay clams per person of any species, and no more than 12 of those can be gapers. The exceptions are purple varnish clams (72) and softshells (36)—more on those different varieties later. You can put back small littlenecks and cockles, but you must take all gapers and softshell clams you dig, as well as any broken clams (they’re fine to eat if you clean them).
The tools you’ll need depend on what kind of clams you’re hoping to dig up. Different types of clams live at different depths and locations on the beach. Cockles and littlenecks are up high, sometimes even right on the surface, and you can often find them simply by raking with a heavy garden rake or cultivator. Butter clams are six to 12” deep, while gapers can be two feet below the surface of the sand and only accessible at very low tides, so you’ll need a shovel and/or clam gun. Bring an assortment of tools so you can find what works best for your site and clams.
Where to Go
Each coastal bay has its own mix of clam species. ODFW’s website offers incredibly detailed maps of Alsea, Coos, Netarts, Siletz, Tillamook, and Yaquina bays highlighting popular digging areas accessible by land and sea, with species-specific maps showing density per square meter. Tillamook Bay is the bay closest to Portland with significant populations of all six species.
Just as important as the location is the timing. Consult a tide table and go at low tide, especially if you’re targeting gaper clams; minus tides are ideal. Avoid digging in eelgrass beds, which provide important habitat—look for thick patches of what looks like unspooled cassette tape growing straight from the sand. And be sure to fill in your holes after you dig, since mounded sand can suffocate plant and animal life beneath it.
Techniques
Once you’re on the beach, start by looking for “shows”—little holes in the sand that indicate the presence of a clam beneath. With practice, you’ll learn to identify what clam lives beneath just by the show. Some dig next to the clam shows, then work their way over to keep from accidentally breaking the shell. Some remove a few shovelfuls of sand, then switch to their hands. Others dig gently right on top of the show. Some swear by clam guns, or special brands of shovels, or metal trash cans with the bottom cut off to hold back the collapsing sides of a big hole.
All of these techniques can work, but the real secret is to pay attention and adapt to your circumstances. The right technique totally depends on beach conditions and the type of clam. If you rake one area and turn up nothing, move around. If your holes keep caving in, try a clam gun. Chat with other diggers on the beach. I’ve learned almost everything I know about clamming from other clammers, who are usually delighted to share their tips and tricks.
Get to Know Oregon’s Bay Clams
American clam nomenclature is a robust reservoir of linguistic localism, with the same clams going by different names from state to state and the same name used to refer to many different clams. Here, “bay clam” refers to essentially any clam that isn’t a razor clam and lives in one of the Oregon Coast’s many estuarine bays created when rivers meet the ocean.
Small Clams
Petite enough to eat whole, these clams live near the surface and can be found by raking, digging, or even just feeling around with your hands. They need to be purged before eating to remove grit; just soak them for 2-3 hours in cold salt water, changing the water at least once. They’re perfect for clam pasta, pizza, or steamed with your seasonings of choice.
Littlenecks: These tasty little clams have round-ish white shells with ridges running in both directions.
- Purple varnish: These non-native clams have an oblong/triangle-shaped shell that’s varnish brown on the outside and purple on the inside. Commercially farmed versions are marketed as “savory clam.”
- Softshells: Native to the Atlantic, where they are called steamers, these often live higher up on the beach which means they’re diggable even at borderline tides. Their neck protrudes from the shell like a gaper, but they’re much smaller and there’s no gap in the neck end of the shell.
Big Clams
Too large to eat whole, these clams must be shucked and cleaned—check myodfw.com for videos or head to YouTube—and, thus, there’s no need to purge them. I prefer to clean clams raw because it reduces the chance of overcooking the meat, but some people lightly steam them open first (strain and save the liquid in the pan for chowder). All are great for chowder, fritters, stuffies, or fried clams, and gapers and butter clams are also good raw or in ceviche.
- Gapers: Weighing up to four pounds, gapers are also called horse clams and are found 1-2 feet below the surface. Recognize them by their thick necks that protrude from shells that “gape” open at the neck end. Look for quarter-sized shows and be prepared to dig.
- Butter clams: These dark-shelled, sometimes sizeable clams have a slightly ruffled mantle. Shows are rectangular.
- Cockles: Ridged shells make these look a little like scallops. I think these are delicious and totally underrated. They grow in muddy, sandy, and rocky areas and are close enough to the surface that you can use a rake to find them.