CONFIRMED Razor Clam digs for the Long Beach Peninsula:
- May 10, Friday, 7:37 am, -0.9 ft.
- May 11, Saturday, 8:12 am, -0.8 ft.
Morning tides; no digging will be allowed after noon.
The best digging occurs one to two hours prior to low tide.
Clam diggers and other beachgoers are cautioned to avoid disturbing western snowy plovers, which nest on the state’s coastal beaches from April through August. The small white birds are listed under the federal Endangered Species Act as threatened and by the state as endangered.
Plovers – and their eggs – are extremely vulnerable at this time of year because the birds nest in the dry sand. Diggers are to avoid signed upland beach areas which are closed to protect nesting western snowy plovers. At Long Beach, the closed areas are located north of the Oysterville Road from the state park boundary north to Leadbetter Point.
Read the latest WDFW press release on clam digs.
Harvest Rules
- By law, clam diggers are limited to 15 razor clams per day, and are required to keep the first 15 clams they dig. Each digger’s clams must be kept in a separate container.
- All diggers age 15 or older must have an applicable 2012-13 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 WDFW’s website at https://fishhunt.dfw.wa.gov and from license vendors around the state.
- The final word on beach openings is announced about a week before each dig is scheduled to start, provided marine toxin tests show the clams are safe to eat.
- Information about current and proposed digs, as well as the location of Washington’s razor clam beaches, is available at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/shellfish/razorclams/current.html.
More information on how to dig, clean and enjoy clams can be found on our funbeach.com Razor Clam page.
Went Clamming last night, Thurs 11/15, and it was so DARK!, limited on clams but they are running a bit on the small size. Anyone else see the deep tide pools with the huge live crabs? I have never seen so many live crabs on the beach while clamming.
Can you keep the crab if they are of size when your clamming?
We also have been clamming at Long Beach and found what we caught to be way smaller than last year. I also found some very large crabs while out clamming and after asking the guys at Linda Brand Crab in Chinook found that the crabs were laying their eggs in the sand in the clam beds. We found one that was nearly a foot across the shell and it had a strange looking orange thing hanging out its backside (found out this was the eggs). Biggest Dungeoness crab I’ve ever seen but you can’t keep the females or the males with soft shells.