LONG BEACH – I headed for the beach over the weekend in a singularly focused search for the elusive succulent bivalves otherwise known as razor clams but came home with an empty bucket. What I wound up with instead was a crash course in unavoidable projectile bipeds, otherwise known as “pukers” in the preferred parlance of the locals.
Fact check: The arched sign at the main access point to Long Beach reads “World’s Longest Beach,” when in truth it is likely only the eighth longest beach in the world, trailing Praia do Cassino Beach, in Brazil by a sandy 122 miles for the true lead. However, with 28 miles of straight and flat continuous shoreline to boast, coastal motorheads have taken to adding the qualifier that it is actually the World’s Longest Drivable Beach.
Either way, I figure it’s nothing to get sand in your britches about. Considering the shifting sands of indisputable truths along the coast we will now take a queue from the wind blown locals, and all fishermen for that matter, and no longer let facts get in the way of a good story.
It all began much like any other day at a Washington beach, but different. It was different in two striking ways. One, the sun was shining and there wasn’t a gray cloud in sight. Two, the beach was chock full of people like we were in southern California or some other alien locale. Instead of copper tone bead bods, surfing and flex competitions though, Long Beach was full of rubber booted clam diggers in hoodies looking to flex on a grip of mollusks.
Well, there was that one guy, the barefooted jolly gentleman with the sand eating grin who preferred to feel the sand between his toes while sporting a t-shirt and shorts in the knee high surf.
“I get just as cold like this as I do getting dressed,” he insisted as he shuffled toward the tide line.
Up and down the peninsula eager beachcombers inched along, heads bowed and eyes fixed on the shimmering sand. The conditions were perfect and the sunshine was a great excuse to get out early during typically peak digging hours. And yet, the sand lay eerily still.
Overanxious newbies plunged shovels and guns into the beach in doomed and desperate attempts to raise a razor clam from its hideaway only to be disappointed again, and again. All along the shoreline old salty dogs splashed in the surf and dug at the beach, mocking their masters’ futile efforts and making sure to shake off in their nearby vicinity to add saltwater to the wound.
A surging tide topped wader boots and sent the masses scattering time and time again. Buckets bobbed on the tide. Wet young bucks cried at their daddy’s side.
Locals gathered in clusters, leaning on rusted shovels and scratching their heads with sandy hands as they tried to figure why the clams were so shy. The intermittently scheduled digs provide a rare chance to connect with old friends and they collectively strained to recall the last time they’d been skunked. Some refused to admit it has ever happened at all.
“Everybody’s hungry for clams because there weren’t very many last year,” explained one local lady from Ilwaco who openly longed for the days of plentiful clam populations that spouted like ten million tiny Old Faithfuls and tidy 15-minute limits.
As a neoprene clad chap in a fanny pack and a plastic clam gun strutted by with what looked like the day’s only limit sagging in his side satchel I noted that he looked like a tourist.
“You know what we call those down at the docks?” asked one salty local who would have to go without pounding his fresh morning clams for at least one more day. “We call ‘em pukers, as in ‘Look at all those pukers getting off the boat.’”
It was a fishing joke in a fishing town and it made all the locals laugh with the local flavor as a familiar rain began to fall. They all shuffled about awkwardly in advance of their ungraceful exits but smiles slowly etch-a-sketched across their salt cured faces as they turned heel for the short walk home.
As they departed, a Bob Ross sunset sloshed watered colors across a glass kodachrome shore and hopeful lanterns bobbed along the coastline Happy dogs. Happy sand. Happy hideaway clams.
No bad days at the beach. Pukers be damned.
FISHIN’
If forecasts hold true the sunny and dry weather that has marked the beginning of the week will likely last a fortnight. That relief from the rain is giving local drainages a chance to settle down and anyone with a half a nose for fish would be wise to cast their lot before the unseasonable dry spell reaches its inevitable end.
“What I’m hearing from a lot of people is that the Willapa is red hot on fire right now for both steelhead and coho,” relayed Jerry Barr from his station at the Sunbirds sporting goods desk in Chehalis. He noted that the Willapa River has been producing particularly well from the Rock Crusher on down.
With the rivers slowly slowing down and gradually clearing up prospects are quickly picking back up on the Chehalis River as well.
“I heard on the Chehalis that from Montesano all the way to Independence it’s as good as it gets this time of year,” said Barr. “I’d really like to get out there.”
Now that we’ve reached December, winter steelhead will become the main show on the lower Columbia River and its tributaries for the foreseeable future. Salmon season is currently open from Buoy 10 upstream past McNary Dam.
“Most anglers do best when water levels are rising or dropping,” said Joe Hymer, a WDFW fish biologist, in a press release. “It's a lot harder to catch steelhead in the peaks and troughs.”
The best lower Columbia tributaries to troll for steelhead include the Cowlitz, Lewis (including the north fork), Kalama, Grays, Washougal and Elochoman rivers. On tributaries below Bonneville Dam the daily limit is three hatchery steelhead, plus the salmon limit for individual rivers.
The run hasn’t reached the Cowlitz River yet though. Up at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator last week employees recovered 2,187 adult coho, 41 jacks, four fall Chinook, 12 cutthroat trout, five summer steelhead and just one winter steelhead. The river has been blown out recently but anglers may find coho still willing to bite below the barrier dam once things clear up. On Monday river flow at Mayfield Dam was reported by the WDFW at about 12,100 cubic feet per second with a temperature of 47.5 degrees and visibility of just two feet. A sampling of anglers by the WDFW last week showed the coho were still hungry even when they couldn’t see what they were biting near. No catch was tallied downstream of the I-5 Bridge but 54 bank rods upstream kept eight adult cho and released seven more. No boat anglers were sampled.
On the lake scene things have been muddy as well. Barr noted that reports have dried up coming off of Mayfield Lake since the waters turned turbid but he expects things to pick up soon. Elsewhere, the prospects have been buoyed by WDFW trout stocking efforts.
“Of course Borst Park and South County are both hitting good for the triploids they planted before Thanksgiving,” said Barr. Each pond was planted with about 1,750 rainbow trout weighing an average of 1.25 pounds each during the third week of November.
Battle Ground Lake was planted with 69 ten pound steelhead on Nov. 28 as well as a load of 1,000 one pound rainbows the week before. In a prospects report the WDFW also noted that “Merwin Reservoir and Yale Reservoirs are producing some nice kokanee.”
HUNTIN’
As the hunting seasons continue to sort themselves out Jerry Barr over at Sunbirds insists that the local returns have left many hunters hungry for the prospects of yesteryear.
“The hunting reports that I got this year, it was dismal at best. A lot of people said they went out and they didn’t see any bucks whatsoever,” said Barr. He noted that those anecdotal tales are primarily a Westside story though, with folks who headed for the Willapa Hills seemingly having a particularly difficult time.
“With the licenses and the locked gates and the way they been been jacking us around, the hunters, a lot of them, they’re just going out of state now,” added Barr.
Still, there are plenty of persistent woodsman who will continue to stock the prey of their choice as long as the seasons allow. The WDFW says that waterfowl prospects are particularly upbeat this year and noted that the first wave of winter storms have put ducks on the wing from their Alaskan and Canadian hangouts.
“Success rates should continue to improve as more northern birds move into the region,” said Eric Holman, a WDFW wildlife biologist, in a prospect report. “The best hunting early in the season is around the Columbia River and other large bodies of water, but the birds disperse when seasonal ponds begin to form on the farmlands.”
The populations of those northern ducks are well above their long-term averages and the number of white-fronted geese have set new records. Those skyrocketing numbers have prompted the WDFW to change regulations to allow for a much larger daily bag limit than in years past. The new rules allow bird hunters to take up to four Canada geese, six white geese and 10 white-fronted geese a day. In Goose Management Area 2 (Clark, Cowlitz and Wahkiakum counties) a special permit is required to hunt geese and that Dusky Canada geese are off-limits to hunting.
Up in the hills pheasant hunters will be on the lookout through Dec. 15 and grouse hunters will be in luck through the end of the year and the late fall season for turkeys will continue in GMUs 105-154, and 162-186 through Dec. 15.
Bow and muzzleloader hunts for deer and elk will also continue through various dates in December depending on the area. Cougar hunting is permitted through at least the end of the year in most areas and extended seasons are dependent upon updated harvest numbers.
Bobcat, fox, cottontail rabbit, snowshoe hare and raccoon seasons will all remain open through the March 15, and of course, coyotes are legal to hunt all year long.
CLAMMIN’
Results from the four day coastal razor clam dig that began last Friday were a decidedly mixed mesh net. Dan Ayres, coastal shellfish manager for the WDFW noted that easy limits were pulled from the beaches at Copalis, Mocrocks and Twin Harbors but diggers in Long Beach were largely left wanting.
“I know I talked to an awful lot of people who were pretty disappointed. Everybody was really struggling,” said Dan Ayres, coastal shellfish manager for the WDFW, on Monday as he kept an eye on the last day of digging at Mocrocks. “I hardly saw anybody who even had one clam. I think the high was four.”
Indeed, a survey conducted by the WDFW found that an estimated 6,125 diggers at Long Beach on Saturday averaged just 2.7 clams per person. For the weekend Long Beach clam hounds averaged 6.8 clams per person. For comparison, diggers at Twin Harbors and Mocrocks averaged 10 clams per person during the opening while diggers at Copalis averaged 12 clams per trip.
Ayres spent Saturday in Long Beach and focused his survey efforts on the south end of the peninsula while additional WDFW personnel kept tabs on the north end of the beach.
“The secret to Long Beach, almost always, is the best digging is at least north of the Oysterville Beach approach,” explained Ayres.
Ayres recommends digging north of milepost 18 for best results and noted that he counted about 1,000 people on the south end of the peninsula on Saturday while at least three times that many people were counted on the north end.
“The population at Long Beach has really taken a nose dive, especially on the south end,” explained Ayres. “Those local folks have that figured out."
With the poor digging results and spotty population of razor clams, the immediate future for recreational digs at Long Beach is uncertain until harvest data can be analyzed. For at least the past month, Ayres has warned of the possibility that future digging dates may be pulled off the table in an effort to rebound the clam stock that has been impacted by salinity issues.
“We’re not going to be offering a lot of digging there,” said Ayres on Monday. “We’re going to be going slow so that we still have some clams left for spring digs.”
However, Ayres expressed confidence that the proposed razor clam digs on New Year’s Eve will go ahead as scheduled.
“That should be a good dig as long as the ocean cooperates,” said Ayres.
Those digs are currently awaiting marine toxin testing results for final approval. That proposed razor clam dig is listed below, along with evening low tides and beaches:
• Dec. 31, Sunday, 5:12 p.m.; -1.2 feet; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis, Mocrocks
In Washington, all clam diggers age 15 and older are required to possess a fishing license. State law allows up to 15 clams to be harvested per day, but no high grading is allowed. Additionally, each digger must dig their own clams and carry their catch in an individual container.
COMMENTIN’
The WDFW is inviting the public to comment on proposals for simplified freshwater fishing rules, salmon fishing regulations in Willapa Harbor, and protective measures for Columbian sharp-tailed grouse, among other topics. Those comments can be delivered during public meetings in Olympia on Dec. 7-9.
On Dec. 7 the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission is set to meet for an informal discussion of administrative and operational issues in Room 175 of the Natural Resources Building on the Capitol campus located at 1111 Washington St. SE. The workshop is open to the public and scheduled to run from 2-5 p.m.
A two day meeting in Room 172 of the Natural Resources Building will follow that special session. Those public meetings are scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. both days. An agenda for the meeting is available online at wdfw.wa.gov/commission/.
Up for discussion is a proposal by state fishery managers to simplify recreational fishing rules. One proposals calls for the creation of six standard seasons for lake fishing rather than setting a different date for each lake. Additionally, the WDFW is considering the creation of separate daily limits for trout and steelhead.
Additional changes are expected to come in 2018 for salmon fishing rules and shellfish and saltwater rules are set for consideration in 2019. The proposed rules, listed by geographical area, are available online at wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations/rule_proposals/.
The commission is also considering the recommendation of wildlife managers to continue classifying the Columbian sharp-tailed grouse as an endangered species under Washington law. First listed as threatened in 1998, the remaining populations in Washington are considered by the WDFW to be small, isolated, and prone to extinction. A draft review on the Columbian sharp-tailed grouse is available online at wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/endangered/status_review/.
Discussion will also be held on salmon management in Willapa Bay. Additionally, the commission will listen to briefings on proposed changes for rules regarding compensation for livestock killed or injured by wolves, target shooting on WDFW lands, a proposed relocation of Olympic Peninsula mountain goats to the North Cascades, ongoing farmed Atlantic salmon operations in the state, and various overviews of WDFW operations.
BIRDIN’
With birds on the wing in advance of true winter it’s time to start gearing up for the annual Christmas Bird Count. Organized by the Audubon Society, the Christmas Bird Count is the longest running bird database in the world.
Designated counting circles that are open to the public tally all of the birds that they see in a 24-hour period and then compile the results into a national database. Both veteran and novice bird watchers are encouraged to participate.
Locally there are Christmas Bird Count circles hosted in Longview and Olympia. The Olympia bird count will take place on Dec. 17 and will be organized by Bill Shelmerdine, who can be reached by email at georn1@hotmail.com. The Longview area bird count will take place on Jan. 1. That bird count is run by Bob Reistroffer, who can be contacted by email at breistrof@aol.com.
Additional information is available on the Audubon Society website at audubon.org/join-christmas-bird-count.
