looking for a clam tube (for gaper/horse necks)!

Does anyone know of a source of cheap pipe (approx 12-14 diam x 3-4 feet long) to make a gaper clam pipe? Or anyone want to sell me one? Bay Area.

Thanks!!
bryan
bryan (dot) hains at gmail

I bought mine from Lawson's landing for 35 bucks. Its worth it because then I didn't have to source it and I got my share of clams with it

What about buzzing the bottom out of a 7gal. bucket?

Home Depot/Lowes.  Metal (or plastic) garbage can, bottom cut out. 

GO! 

Home Depot/Lowes.  Metal (or plastic) garbage can, bottom cut out. 

GO! 

don't do plastic it will collapse on you because of the weak plastic it has on it.

and you will waste your money. i saw this from my own personal experience and the person threw the garbage pale away. always use the right tool for the right thing

the place i got mine works, but it's pretty far.   Similar price to lawsons but a little wider diameter.

Growers Supply & Irrigation Inc.
20750 Geyserville Ave, Geyserville, CA 95441
(707) 857-3484

I've got two I would sell. One plastic, one metal.
 The reason I would sell is because they are pretty much useless.  All you need is a trenching shovel. Find a clam by sticking your finger in its hole,  you'll feel it retract. Once located, simply dig to the side of it, following the siphon gallery down. Then plop that sucker out. It really is just that easy.

I've got two I would sell. One plastic, one metal.
 The reason I would sell is because they are pretty much useless.  All you need is a trenching shovel. Find a clam by sticking your finger in its hole,  you'll feel it retract. Once located, simply dig to the side of it, following the siphon gallery down. Then plop that sucker out. It really is just that easy.

Even in wet sand that collapses back into the hole with water?

 Even in wet sand. The trick is to just dig on one side. The clams aren't going anywhere once you locate them.
  Had an old timer show me while my daughter and I were killing ourselves digging a bunch of big ol holes. It's been easy limits since then.

I've heard of folks that drop a long dowel or fiberglass tent pole down the hole with the clam in it.  Just follow the dowel to the prize. 

Never actually tried it myself, so your mileage may vary. 

There are all kinds of substrate that hold clams. It all depends what type you are trying to dig in and how deep the clam is. Once you figure out the area where you are digging, the kind of clams, and how deep they are, you can adjust your methods accordingly.

In areas where the substrate is very loose and unstable, you will need a way to keep the walls of your hole stable. It might be a garbage can, but that's a big hole and a lot of earth to move. You can use a length of 8" pvc pipe with your clam gun fitting inside of it, work it down as you dig until you find the clam. You can use a 5gL plastic bucket with the bottom cut out if the clams are shallow enough.

If the substrate is sufficiently stable, you can just dig with a shovel. If it is particularly dense, you have to use a shovel, the clam gun won't work. If it is just right, you can use a slurp gun to get the clams.

We have all of these types of substrate that all hold clams in Humboldt bay. There are horsenecks, Martha washingtons, little necks, piddocks, and geoducks. On the beach there are razors. I've taken all except the geoduck, and Ive got my eye on some tides this spring to finally find and get one of those.

Up here in Oregun, I found piddocks in Netarts Bay.  Holy crap those were hard to dig. 
The first foot or so of substrate was mucky but diggable. Once I hit the base layer it was like really really compressed clay that was hard like plastic.  I could chip away at it with shovel, but holy crap that took forever and was difficult due to the fact I was in a foot of water, then a foot or more deep hole, then the base.  That piddock was land locked under this base layer and only his neck came out through a hole.  The hole would NOT break! 

But, in the area I was hunting there were literally 1000's of these necks sticking up like tree stumps.   I guess I could have just locked onto the neck with both hands and pulled until the guts ripped out of the shell and I got 90% of the meat available, as their shells are pretty small and cannot ever contain the neck when fully retracted. 

Oregon and Washington laws different of that in California. might be considered wanton waste in the state of California

Yeah you have to be selective when going after piddocks.  They bore into and through extremely solid objects.  Ever found a rock with an inexplicable perfectly round hole in it at the beach?  That was probably done by a piddock.  They bore into petrified wood and the hardest of material.  If you can't dig it, move on to easier pickings. 

What you describe isn't necessarily illegal in California for piddocks (and good luck to the warden recovering the part that you wantonly wasted), but it is definitely illegal in Oregon to remove a clam from its shell while out on the clam grounds.

They bore into and through extremely solid objects.  Ever found a rock with an inexplicable perfectly round hole in it at the beach?  That was probably done by a piddock.  They bore into petrified wood and the hardest of material.

I've found some really cool rocks at Shelter Cove that had numerous holes bored through them.

Thought they may have been used by the native indians in creating tools etc.

Turned out there were too many of them to actually be the cause of the holes. Have also found lots of them along the San Mateo coast.