Clamming techniques?

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Gidds

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Ok how does one go about digging clams with scuba? There is this local clamming spot where we have seen folks catching nice clams and there are shells everywhere but two different divers have come up empty there two days in a row. Are we doing something wrong? Suggestions?
 
I know you Rhode Islanders like your Quahogs (having been one myself-Rhode Islander that is). Now, did you put your waders over your drysuit, and bring your rake and basket?
 
I was supervising from the surface. I am NOT a Rhode Islander either :mad: And it's QUAHOG! One individual had a three-pronged garden scratcher and the other was digging with his hands.
 
Thank God for editing. I'm formally from the home of the Internationally acclaimed Quahog Festival (also featured in Family Guy!)
 
I will NOT! Rhode Islanders are flatlanders AND swamp Yankees. I am NIETHER and I never ever ever will be! :devil:
Come on though, are we digging clams wrong or are we just looking in the wrong place?
 
I've been trying to figure out the technique also. My wife and her two sisters will just stroll along in calf-deep water talking away a mile a minute, and then absentmindedly reach down and pick one up after stepping on it. They'll come back with a bucketful of large ones.

I go out hunting, looking for siphon holes or the little hills around a closed siphon hole, and only find a couple of quahogs, both too small to keep.

My best technique is going to Mac's Soda Bar, the little restaurant two blocks away which has an awesome stuffed quahog. :)
 
*splashes Rap with COLD RI water*
 
You need to go to your local spot,,,I got my spot,,,Take a long screw driver,,,the longest one you can find. The hardest part is finding the clam bed but once you find it,,,then it easy to get your California limit of Pismos clams... Take the screwdriver and stick it in the sand as many times as possible until you hit something hard. Usually it is a clam,,,then just dig it up...Once you get one clam,,,you have hit the bed. Just work the are until you get ten....The clam bed usually migrates throughout the beach, but once you hit the first clam look at the depth your at,,,then stay at that depth,,you should then get your limit pretty fast.....Last week i went out,,,it took me about 45 minutes to find the bed,,,then when i found it,, i got my limit in less then ten minutes...Remember the clam beds moves around,,,,but once you find it your there...Sometimes you if the clams are shallow,,meaning only a few inches under the sand,,,you can see there siphons sticking out of the water...The best tool ive found is the screw driver,,,just stick it in the ground and when you hit something hard,,,its a clam,,,,When you go Fish and Game requires you have some time of measuring device to measure the clams. Good Luck and I wish you the best..
 

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