Clamation

Have you ever had a fried clam meal that cost fifty dollars, five hours of hard work and a nice one inch slash on your index finger? We're having one tonight.

All outdoorsman know you can't try and justify the cost of your recreation by estimating the food value of what you harvest. Its ridiculous and nothing underlines that more than our right of spring razor clamming.....and they're really not even that good. But something drives MP and me to the beach and I've found theres alot of reasons to go besides the clams. Its usually cold, its certainly muddy and theres just something strange feeling about walking around staring at the mud in search of that perfect 'dimple' that signals the clam. But who wouldn't go clamming just to get a pic of their best friend like this? That my friends is one Alaskan women.

Naturally we go to Clam Gulch. I like to make things simple and even though theres lots of great clam beds at Cohoe or Ninilchik or Whiskey Gulch or even Deep Creek my intuition tells me that they didn't name it Clam Gulch for nothing. We drive exactly 2 miles south, my beach fishing partner in Mexico, Slah , would love this and thats what I'm thinking as we park right next to this waterfall. Now how cool is that? We change into our digging gear all the while listening to the snow melt and chorus of a real 30 foot waterfall. And the weirdest thing is that theres no people around.

Believe it or not, the first real money I ever made in Alaska was commercial Clam digging directly across the Inlet from where we are now. It was the 90 dollars that I made in the spring of 1972 that made me realize that Alaska and especially Clam digging was going to be tough. But that experience might not have made me any money, but it did turn me into....'super clammer'. I know how to do it, just ask me. So this pic on the right is a craftsman at work. Like alot of things you need to appreciate the subtleness of it all. I know it looks like I'm just digging a hole and I am...but, its a properly placed 35 yeared ( I just invented that word) hole. In the mud.

Today the clams were kind of small. I'm hoping they're a bit more tender that way. The last pic is our harvest, all 50 bucks worth. I guess most of the allure is just to simple...keep doing it, all of it, when you can, how you can,... especially while you can.
KENAI REPORT

It all starts now. Although not alot of Kings have been caught theres been enough that it makes me optimistic for this first run. We've not really tried in earnest yet but several nice fish have come through the boat launch. So in the next few days we'll have pics of gorgeous King salmon, please come back.......