10_2025_REELLIFE_digital - Flipbook - Page 13
If you visit the Washington
coast in October during
low tide, you’ll likely see the
beach lined with hundreds
of people of all ages.
Beyond the rolling sand
dunes and swaying grasses,
where the receding
waterline reveals miles of
open flat beach, they walk
with heads down and eyes
fixed on the sand. The
experienced ones are likely
tapping at the ground with
some sort of apparatus,
almost as if they were
knocking to see if anyone
was home beneath the
surface. It turns out, that’s
quite literally what they are
doing. This is the time of
the year when the longawaited razor clam season
opens back up after its
annual summer hiatus.
Each year, an estimated
400,000 recreational
diggers go out in search of
these clams on Washington
State beaches. Razor clams
have been an important
part of Pacific Northwest
history, dating back to the
first commercial canneries
along the coast of Grays
Harbor in the early 1900s.
They are ingrained in
the cultural identity of
indigenous Coast Salish
people like the Quinault
and Cowlitz tribes, who
have been harvesting these
bivalves for millennia.
Each month, on their
website, the Washington
State Department of Fish
and Wildlife will post
tentatively scheduled dig
dates for the Washington
coast. Digs are generally in
the mornings or evenings
and always during low tides
that are anywhere from a
+3 ft to -3 ft level. The best
time to start digging is 2
hours before the listed low
tide. This is both the legal
start time for digging and,
as I’ve found, when the
most success happens.
LOCATING CLAM SHOWS
The “clam show” is a
colloquial term for the hole
in the sand left behind as
a razor clam retracts its
neck back into its shell,
and it is what allows you to
locate the razor clam. When
walking the beach, look for
the clam shows that are
roughly the size of a nickel
or a quarter. If you’re not
seeing any existing holes,
you can tap the sand as you
walk with your clam gun
or shovel, and this often
causes clams beneath the
surface to retract their
necks, thus creating a hole.
EQUIPMENT
Razor clam digging doesn’t
require a lot. In a pinch, you
could potentially dig your
limit with only a chunk of
driftwood and your hands.
Heck, you could even do
this while wearing sweats
and tennis shoes if you
wanted.
