Tomales clam fest

Decided to make the best of the nice low tide and head out to Tomales for some clam digging with bigeyedave and some of his friends.  Weather at Tomales was a 10+, sunny and a light breeze.

We had a nice picinic on his friends deck and then we loaded up the old skiff and cruised out to the flats.  Dave and Jelly in the back...

I rode up frontwith the wild women of GWKC...

Then we started digging.  Dave was our guide (again). We even ran in to Eyeatbay on the island and Dave showed him the way.  Jelly getting dirty...

Success!

Dave was limited in no time but us newbies struggled a bit at first, and we kept mangling the heck out of our clams.  A little more schooling from Dave and we were on our way to nice limits.  The "Fishsniffer" even works with clams!

Some of them were actually pretty huge.  After cleaning 20 of these we had a LOT of clam meat.  Chowder time!  Yet another fun day in Nor Cal.

Nice of meeting Sean, Sean's family & Dave at Tomales. It was coincident, but great. Thank Dave for coaching and schooling.

It was the 1st time for me. I and my family had a slow start. I did not know what was supposed to do. After learning techniques from Dave, we picked up the steam quickly. By the time I saw you leaving, we found a "honey hole". We had ~12 clams today. My family had wonderful experience today.

We finished around 5PM. By then the tide was coming fast. Wind also picked up too. I transported my boy, daugter and my wife to the opposite side by my yak. I was alone to manage the paddling. Unfortunately, the sand bar on the other side already was surrounded by the water. It was a little scary. There was no time for me to think and I quickly transported them out to the beach one by one. The current was against me. By the time we all got to the car, it was 7PM. I had 2 hours of paddling and hauling the yak. Plus clam digging, I was pretty exhusted.  Outside it was pretty dark by the time we started driving.

The lesson is I should have got out sooner. The tide was coming faster than I thought.

Eric

p.s. Pictures to follow

Beautiful Goden Gate Bridge

I got nice ones. Here is an example:

It has wonderful weather - sunny, calm and clear. The view is incredible. This picture was taken from the top of the road.

Glad you made it out ok.  Beautiful pics of Tomales!  It was late by the time me and jelly cleaned all of the clams and cleaned up ourselves.

WOW! nice harvest of clams. Is that a home made tool( the white ring) Jelly is digging in. Looks interesting.



 

Mirugai sashimi ! YUMMY! 

Okay, let me just state that I have never harvested a clam or prepped or cooked one.  This is not what I get served in the restaurant.  These things are good?
Pat...clearly demonstrating a gap in her knowledge.

I buy the little 'cherry stone' clams aquacultured in british columbia from patrick @ mtn. view
farmer's market on sundays. They are about 2" across, no more.

these you simply steam until they open, dip the clam in the water you cooked them
in and then dip them in a little melted butter. I guess that's the east coast way.

Those large wild tomales bay ones looks like monsters!