Make A Living Alongshore...Digging Clams

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Once you establish where that level is, you'll know just how deep to dig. The small ones you don't want will go out between your legs . . . and the really big ones will be still deeper. Unless the digging is sparse-or the market wants them-don't bother with the big ones. Each time you go ahead, clean your hole out slightly deeper than the bulk of the clams. Follow the inshore edge of the thickest clumps, "carrying" your ditch-so to speakwith you. If the tide is out, you may want to follow the edge of the bed all around (the clams will be bigger where there are fewer of them). Or you may want to double back alongside your first strip. All this time, your drainer should have been kept near your left hand and hitched slightly forward each time you moved ahead.

VARIATIONS

Of course, there are infinite variations on this procedure. If the sand is so porous that the water runs in where you are digging, you'll want a hoe with wider teeth and you will have to move faster. You can't wait too long, or the water will get ahead of you, and you'll be trying to wash out your clams. If you are in hard clay-mud, water may not be a problem, but it may take a lot more backbone to turn the clams you want upside down. In compact bottom, two-inch clams usually won't be deeper than the length of your clam hoe's teeth. If you get in sloppy mud, particularly when digging big clams, you may have to carry an extra bucket for bailing out the excess water.

Dyking clams is a technique for the experts. It is usually done in soft mud bottom where the clams are never uncovered at low tide. It's not the easiest digging in the world, but it can pay off when you learn it. Start inshore, but instead of throwing the mud out between your legs, throw it ahead of yourself . . . to build a dam or dyke around the clams you want to dig. Each time, throw the mud ahead until the dam is higher than the water surrounding it. As you dig to your dyke, push the mud ahead, building the wall farther and farther out into the tide. Once in a while, if the water gets ahead of you -or if your dyke leaks-you may have to bail yourself out with that extra bucket.

When you are finished, don't leave a lot of juvenile clams exposed. Take the time to fill in the last of your holes, covering whatever "short" clams will be exposed to too much sun or to the hungry mouths of minnow fry when they come in on the flood tide.

STORING THE CATCH

The modern trend seems to be to put clams in baskets as they are dug, but I still think the old way was better. When the weather was bad and we had nothing else to do, we used to build clam "hods" . . . a few more than we actually needed. In the days of threebarrel digging-when I started-that meant a lot of hods.

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