Clam Digging Beyond Belief!

Little did we know what awaited us on this popular stretch of clam beach.

It was a bit blustery this morning....wind whistling through the trees shaking the branches like a teacher scolding a misfit student. As I looked out the window I noticed passing ice chunks slowly drifting downstream and a bit of lawn was already showing through the last of the snow.

Then that warm fuzzy feeling hit...you know, the one that happens every year at this time. Only now it was weeks earlier than usual. El Nino has spread Spring Fever throughout Alaska....that burning desire to get outside and DO SOMETHING, anything! Despite what Mother Nature was indicating outside the window.

It was still over a month before the first kings would enter the Kenai and all other drainages were closed to protect spawning rainbows so the only logical outing for this time of year would be clam digging.

Not really a noble excursion with visions of grandeur and subsequent photos to fill the family album but the clam larders have been empty for months now and this week's minus 4.5 foot tide was just too tempting. Especially with El Nino providing daytime temperatures into the low 40's already.

A quick phone call tracked down a couple of friends plagued with the same malady and plans were hastily laid. A 10:45 A.M. low tide gave us plenty of time to make our way to Clam Gulch with time to spare.

The weather hadn't improved much during our 20 mile drive from Soldotna and this had all the trappings of one of those clam digging trips that persist in the back of your mind for decades. Something most eastern Kenai Peninsula residents have all experienced at one time or another. But just perhaps the wind would lay down at slack tide like its suppose to do.

Surprisingly we weren't alone, even though it was a Monday in the last week of March. A dozen other vehicles were already in the wayside parking lot and another dozen 4x4s were already on the beach. Hmm, this fever is reaching epidemic proportions. The prescription called for some good honest work digging lots of holes and moving lots of sand in 30 degree temperatures.

I guess Wayne, Roger and I were ready to take our medicine as our brisk pace from the truck to the clam flats indicated an anxiousness to get down and dirty with our fellow mollusks. Or maybe we were just in a hurry to get this over with. It was still blowing 20 knots with white caps on the inlet and frozen sand on the beach where we parked our truck.

It didn't take long to strike paydirt. All three of us bagged a nice clam apiece on our first attempt. But the beach was still holding a lot of standing water which made digging difficult as the hole filled in. Soon there were enough high spots on the beach to spread out and do some serious clam prospecting.

I could see the other two guys were doing as well as myself so I maintained my distance. You don't want to be accused of being a clam jumper! But something didn't appear normal where they were digging. Normally 4 or 5 scoops of sand is all you need to create a hole large enough to find a clam. But these two guys looked like they were digging a fox hole for the coming invasion.

My curiosity was aroused so I nonchelantly strolled in their direction, stopping to dig another bi-valve or two on the way. And when I arrived at their location I couldn't believe my eyes. In 28 years of clam digging I have never seen what lay before me.

There on the beach next to this huge hole was the largest razor clam I have ever seen. And having a biology background I realized that I was witnessing an historic event. But it doesn't stop there. Both Wayne and Roger were still in the hole frantically digging and shuffling about. The hole had to be at least three feet deep by this time.

Finally after a lot of grunting and moaning a second clam was lifted from the hole. This one was even larger than the first. Well, that put a quick end to our clam digging excursion. We laboriously carried those two clams, our buckets and shovels back to the truck in two trips. After washing the sand from them we took a few snapshots of the historic event.

Roger's clam officially weighed in at 65 lbs. and Wayne's was a whopping 72 lbs. Since Roger's was captured first we can honestly say that each were World Records. We intend to send the largest to the Smithsonian Museum and keep the other here on the Kenai Peninsula as part of a traveling display.

Better clean the rust off those shovels....there may be another record-breaker just waiting to be found.

Klondike Kid
April 1, 1998

If you would like to try your hand at clam digging, we have a very informative article on the subject...Clam Digging on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula.