Beach openings for upcoming digs, along with morning low tides, are:

April 21, Saturday (7:28 a.m., -0.3 feet): Long Beach, Twin Harbors only
April 22, Sunday (8:01 a.m., -0.4 feet): Long Beach and Twin Harbors only
April 23, Monday (8:35 a.m., -0.4 feet): Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis and Mocrocks

Note that you are not able to clam on Copalis and Mocrocks beaches on the 21st and 22nd. Also, Checkout our other pages about How To Razor Clam and How to Identify a Razor Clam hole or Razor Clam Show on the beach. Also, See our Razor Clamming Gear Checklist by clicking here!

That's right we are growing! This time our new addition to the fam is a blog dedicated to the quaint town of Index WA. Headed out to the town of Index? Or maybe headed out to Stevens Pass and just passing through Index WA? If so then http://indexwa.org/ is a great site to review before your trip! This site is a great site to visit if you ever wondered about the history of Index or if you are looking for a quiet town close to Seattle to visit. This site is packed with Index facts, updates and changes. Please give a warm welcome to another part of our Pacific Northwest network!

We just came back from our razor clamming session and take a look at what our report:

A Razor Clamming trip to Ocean Shores WA March-April 2012:

We jumped into the car and off to the Washington coast to get some razor clams. We did have some rubber boots, clam shovels and a clam gun but really you can dig razor clams by hand and without tools if you are careful. First lets talk about a few things:

Why are they called Razor Clams? -
Their thin shells are sharp and the absentminded digger can suffer a paper cut like cut to the fingers or hands. To avoid being cut by a Razor Clam you should dig parallel to the ocean rather then perpendicular as the Razor clams sharp edge of the shell will face the ocean.

How do I identify a Razor Clam hole on the beach? -
When you walk along the beach you are looking for a slight dimple or depression in the sand. This is called a "Razor Clam show". Once you find something that matches this description you can tap the ground nearby with a shovel or your boot and the depression should turn into a clear hole. See a video of this behavior here:


Once I find a Razor Clam Show what next!? -
Razor Clams are fast, they can dig at about an inch every second. So once you find a Razor Clam show you have to dig fast! There are 3 Razor Clam digging tools to choose from. You can use a Clam Shovel, a Razor Clam Gun or just your hands! Click here to see how the Washington State Fish and Game government website suggests using a Clam Shovel or Clam gun to harvest clams. If you are careful and you don't want to buy any extra clamming equipment, you can do it by hand. (this is our preferred way as it leads to less broken clams!) See a video of us hand digging a razor clam:

At the end of the day we had a good amount of clams and enjoyed a great day on the Washington coast as you can see!

Our Razor Clam Catch for the Day

If you haven't Razor Clammed you haven't lived! Haha really though if you want to try to razor clam on your own there is an upcoming season opening here check it out:

PROPOSED beach openings, along with morning low tides, for upcoming digs are:

April 7, Saturday (7:36 a.m., -1.2 ft.): Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Mocrocks, Kalaloch
April 8, Easter Sunday (8:23 a.m., -1.5 ft.): Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Mocrocks, Kalaloch
April 9, Monday (9:11 a.m., -1.5 ft.): Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Kalaloch

APPROVED Morning low tides and beach Razor Clam openings for this weekend are:

Saturday, March 10, (7:39 a.m. -0.3 ft.): Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis, Mocrocks
Sunday, March 11, (9:28 a.m. -0.4 ft.): Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis, Mocrocks
March 24, Saturday (8:25 a.m., +0.3 ft.): Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis, Mocrocks
March 25, Sunday (8:59 a.m., +0.3 ft.): Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Mocrocks

PROPOSED beach openings, along with morning low tides, for upcoming digs are:

April 7, Saturday (7:36 a.m., -1.2 ft.): Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Mocrocks, Kalaloch
April 8, Easter Sunday (8:23 a.m., -1.5 ft.): Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Mocrocks, Kalaloch
April 9, Monday (9:11 a.m., -1.5 ft.): Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Kalaloch

Razor Clam Fishing Checklist:
Check to see Razor Clams are in season and low tide times: wdfw.wa.gov
Make sure you have proper licensing: WA State Fishing Requirements - A current standard WA State Combination Fishing License DOES cover Razor Clamming so no need for extra licensing.
Preparation: Watch How to Clean Razor Clams , How to Cook Razor Clams- cooking instructions from CookingNorthofSeattle.com
Gear: Clam Gun or Clam Shovel, Boots, Light, Bucket
Hotel: Ocean Shore WA Hotels and surrounding areas from booking.com

We have provided a map of the areas that you are allowed to fish for Razor Clams in Washington this year in Long Beach Wa and Ocean Shores Wa areas. Some added notes are that you must keep the first 15 Razor Clams you catch reguardless of size or condition. Also, 15 is the limit per fisherman. Each fisherman must have their own clam bucket or sack as there is no sharing. Fires are allowed on the beaches in Ocean Shores WA but you have to stay away from grasses, drift wood and sand dunes. Hope everyone can get out there and we will follow up with some pictures of the fishing day.

We just got back from a trip to Whidbey Island to do some Salmon fishing. We lucked out and found a campsite at Fort Ebey Campground thanks to a guy named John Coffin. He let us have a site that he wasn't using but had already reserved! Thanks John! The campsite was sweet! We did some evening fishing that night at Fort Casey just down the street from Fort Ebey. We didn't have any luck but we did get a couple of hits using pink middle sized buzz bombs. I have included a picture of me holding a monster Silver salmon that I caught just the weekend before right off the shore of Fort Casey. On Saturday we didn't catch any fish but we did see the Orcas playing in the sound off of Fort Casey. Anyways after catching nothing Friday and Saturday on Fort Casey we moved up to Deception Pass Campground to fish around the North Beach area of Deception pass. There we saw several Pink Salmon get caught on Pink Buzz Bombs. Then we moved down to West Beach where we watched another two pinks get caught. The tide was slack high and people were still catching. I was told the Pinks were kinda past and that the Silvers were mostly in the water. But, I also talked to a fisherman that said he had been up the last couple weekends and caught a total of 9 Silvers. And I watched people catching Pinks right in front of me.  So anyways. Moral of the story: get to fishing on the sound asap before it gets cold!

Silver Salmon on Fort Casey WA 9-5-11

Orca (Killer) Whales off of Fort Casey on Whidbey Island 9-11-11

Two Orca Whales off of Fort Casey beach in WA State 9-11-11

J

Black Morel Mushrooms at Lake Chelan 2011

These are some black Morels we found in the pines ^

Two Huge Blond Morel Mushrooms at Lake Chelan 2011

Whaaaat time is iiiiit? Time to eat these monster blond Morel mushrooms seen here next to my normal sized wristwatch ^

Martin Smit Holding a Deer Antler we Found

Lastly, we found this 7 point deer antler. I know you can't see all seven but they are there! It was a pretty cool find.

The final harvest for day one....a good mix of blondes and blacks.

Day 2 started with a bang.  I broke camp, had a bite to eat, and was in the woods by 9.  By 9:30 I had half a bread bag full. Once again, a good mix of blondes and blacks.

I pretty much was finding Morels in all kinds of areas; however, the shaded areas around 2800'-3000' we producing the biggest and freshest morels.

The harvest after 2 days.....Really starting to fill the cooler now.

For day 3 I decided to check the other side of the lake.  The conditions in this location where much drier, a lot rockier, and filled with downed branches.  I spent a good 4 hours over there and found nothing but blonde morels, about two bread bags full to be exact.  Once again, unfortunately, I forgot my camera at camp so no pictures for that day.

Day 4, the final day was one of the best.  To start off the morning, I meet up with two individuals from the Seattle area to help show them the ropes of the mushroom world.  They really seemed to enjoy themselves and we all ended up going home with at least a few mushrooms.  This day was filled with HUGE natural black morels.  I mean HUUUGGGEEEE.

Overall this trip was a huge success.  I checked at least 7-8 different Forest Service Roads and pulled all kinds of Morels from each area.  When it was all said and done I had nearly 22 pounds of market quality mushrooms for my friends at Manzo Bros. Produce down at Pike's Place Market and another couple of pounds for personal consumption.  Just look at this bounty.

Things are really starting to take off now so it looks I'm heading off to Lake Wenatchee next.  Check in next week for any updates, and feel free to let me know how any of your seasons are doing.  In addition, if you have any time you should take a trip to Pike's Place Market and stop by the Manzo Bros. Produce stand and check out the fresh Morels; let them know that Ediblemushrooms.org sent you.  Good luck again, and Happy Hunting.

Our mushroom adventure was short, but somewhat fruitful.  Being that neither of us had ever hunted for morels in this area, we were on more of a scouting mission.

We searched two different forest service roads for a total of about three hours.  We started by searching some partial shade areas, but as it turns out the only place that we found some where in the open grass sunny areas.

Total we only found 5 morels.  It still feels like it may be a little early for the Cle Elum area.  Just need a few more warmer days and nights.  However, on a good note, this is the first trip with my girlfriend that we actually found some morels.

In conclusion, it was a great trip to a new location and we both had a lot of fun.  So, if you have never been to Lake Cle Elum it's definitely worth the trip.  Good luck and Happy Hunting.

Well, after all this craziness, I finely arrived at my final location just outside of Rimrock Lake around lunch time.  Due to some other craziness regarding my car's warranty I had to get my car back to Seattle by the end of the next day.  Unfortunately, this meant that I only had about 6-8 hours of hunting time.  The first day started a little slow.  I wasn't really sure of what specific areas to be checking, but after an hour or so it seemed to be the flat, half-shaded, open forest areas at 2500'-3000'.

I didn't really find many locations, but the ones I did find were fairly large in quantity.

I'm sure I missed plenty of mushrooms though because most of these locations were also covered in Pine cones. Just take a look for yourself.

The first day ended pretty well with a good pile of black morels, and a super bomb campsite with a great view.

The second day was a little slower, and most of the morel locations I was finding were in full to partial sun.  This seemed a little weird to me because the sun was getting pretty intense; almost in the 80's.  In addition, most of the mushrooms that I found were of the gray type.

Nevertheless, both days finds may have been slightly different, and in slightly different locations, but they were all super young and fresh.  So young and fresh that I even found a few mushrooms that were still on there way up.

With both days harvest combined I had roughly 5 pounds.  Not to bad for 6 hours of hunting this early in the season.

While on this trip I also had some pretty cool other mushroom finds.  Just take a look at this golden mushroom I found; not really sure what it is. Any ideas???

I also found all kinds of False Morels - Gyromitra montana

and a bunch of Caloscypha fulgens.

Overall the trip was short, but a big success.  I harvest a good amount of mushrooms, checked out some new areas, and soaked up a lot of sun.  This area was looking good, but I can't wait to see what it looks like in a few weeks.  I'm not really sure on my next trip yet, but I'm thinking Highway 97. Check back next week for more information.  Good Luck, and Happy Hunting.