Clamming amateurs and experts from the coast of Monterey to San Diego seek Pismo Clams with their distinct stripes that cross vertically along the shell. The Tivela Stultorum or the Pismo clam is named after the Chumash word “pismu” which translates to tar.
To have the full legal Clamming experience you need to follow the rules accordingly.
- The Pismo clam must be four and a half inches long to be a legal catching size.
- On your person, you need a valid saltwater license to have access to clamming. Prices in California range from $19.18 for the day, $29.42 for a 2-day license, or $58.58 for a year. Foreigners to the State of California must pay a hefty $158.25 for the yearly pass. If you or your child are under the age of 16, you can clam in the area for free, just remember the legal limit (prices are accommodated to Pismo Beach, California).
- Clams are delicate creatures that should be nurtured and cared for when clamming, take your time digging them up, which is why you need the proper tools of the bare minimum size. If you are on a budget-friendly hunt all you need to do is grab a long-headed shovel or a spade, a big bucket with a floral design (not optional), and a rake. These are the fundamental, common-level clamming tools that everyone should have. On the expert side of Clamming, you will need to find yourself a clamming gun and a shellfish basket.
- Locating a clam might be difficult due to how deep it resides on a vast beach. There will be slight indentations that are located on the surface of the wet sand, they often range from a dimple-sized hole to a donut hole-sized. All of these holes will be within the diameter of a dime which is 17.91 millimeters and can be found bubbling when shallow waves wash over them. It took 35 minutes to find my first legal sized clam, digging up sand.
With a bucket and a shovel in my hand, I walked the beach trying to find any indentations on the surface level. Looking up and down I had no luck so I tried in the water after every wave looking for the bubbles. I found many indications of clams in the water so I scooped some up, finding less than legal-sized Pismo clams where I decided to move more down the beach.
At this point I was far beyond pole two, inspecting cool-colored rocks and clams that flew up onto the shore from the reckless waves. I found a legal-sized clam in thirty-two minutes where it measured in at 5’’, I quickly washed and shoved it into my fabulous floral bucket for later.
I lost all sense of time, walking past Pole Two on the beach, taking photos of the sunset with my phone, and putting vibrant-colored rocks and fairly big-sized clams into my bucket. I cut my adventure off around the 3-hour mark with 7 plenty large clams. Clamming is a unique experience on the coast, almost like digging for edible gold. I rate this adventure an 8 out of 10 due to the cold-ish water and how long it took to find legal-sized clams.
Cooking Clams
Completing my journey around 7 p.m. because of the cold wind, I walked the distance to my house to attempt to cook the 7 clams I acquired. For anyone under the age of 21, it might be a difficult challenge to find access to white wine, or any wine, preventing most recipes from being made. If you have a trusting elder who will lend you enough white wine to cook your clams then more power to you. For this cooking session, I chose to go for a garlic steaming option without the use of any sort of wine.
I grabbed a metal pan that measures around 3 inches in depth and 14 inches in diameter with the idea of steaming the clams with seasoning to drown out any salty flavors. It took around 5 minutes for the clams to pop open, revealing the meat inside, adding the garlic, butter, and other seasonings into the pan.
Eating the clam was underwhelming due to my poor ability to cook any type of seafood but shucking and clamming is a fun experience.
