From the
folks at Cape Cod Outdoors. The best, area specific, outdoor site.
From the
folks at Cape Cod Outdoors. The best, area specific, outdoor site.Betwixt the shore and the beach lay the bay, and all those rich opportunities for shellfish. Now, let's get something straight here. The ``shore'' is the land's edge; the beach is where, well, you ``beach'' your boat. In between, in Pleasant Bay, are the marshes, bars and flats where tasty morsels live. The bay may not be pristine, but it is rich ground.
A little story about the time before man. Many years ago, I walked to a salt marsh on the southeast coast of these United States with some friends and their kids. There we hoped to find some fairy oysters and quahogs. The oysters were plentiful; we just grabbed a 10-pound chunk from the mud bar and put them in a 5-gallon pail. Done. But the quahogs eluded us. Until the boy said, ``What are these rocks?'' Looking into the bottom of a hole, left from lifting a chunk of oysters from the mud bar, we saw quahogs, shell-to-shell and a foot deep! We filled a 5-gallon bucket from that hole. That's how it must have been.
In Pleasant Bay almost everything with a shell is food. Consider the following: steamers (soft-shelled clams), quahogs (hard-shelled), razor clams, mussels, whelks, blue crabs, lady crabs, lobsters and, finally, snails (yes, indeed). The only non-food animal with a shell is that green spider crab with the long legs. You could even make a meal of the grass shrimp if you could catch enough (hmmm).
Shellfish licenses are sold by the town that controls the waters that you fish in. That means that if you get a shellfish license in Orleans, you better not be raking at the south end of Strong Island in Chatham. Licenses are only a few dollars in your town of residence, but more for non-residents. You better have a glory hole in mind if you plan on buying a non-resident permit. Lobster licenses for personal use are sold by the Commonwealth. I'll get into more detail about lobsters later.
Study the map and the rules when you buy your license. Know the geographical limits of your license and any ``off-limit areas'' that may be protected or closed for pollution reasons. There are different size and quantity limits for almost all shellfish. You will have to pay extra for: a clam gauge (1-inch quahog), clam ring (2 1/2-inch steamer) or lobster gauge to size your catch. These are essential measuring tools. The fastest way to get a ticket (``You're(ital) a shellfish warden?'' you say in amazement to the woman with the camera around her neck) is to take undersized shellfish (seed) or too many. Many towns require positive ID, along with your license, like a photocopy of your driver's license.
Let's take a look at what you need to be a hunter/gatherer for family use. Steamers are dug at the tide zone. That gap of wet sand and mud from low to high tide is their home. It takes about a year to grow a legal softshell, so, if you have a place to yourself, you can go back year after year. (This is why the commercial guys don't ``give away'' their spots!)
Bring your basket and soft-shell rake, and just try a place that looks like it has holes. The rake has a short handle and flat tines. It is meant to be pushed straight down and levered up for the first hole. Then each subsequent dig takes an edge off the hole and then pulls it toward you, shaking the sand off into the old hole. This reveals the clams within, and creates a trench-like dig. As you kneel or walk forward, bent horizontally at the waist, you prospect a line through the shore.
If you are real serious about clamming, then watch for where the commercial diggers work all year 'round. Watch too, when you are strolling a shoreline, for the telltale squirts of steamers retreating from your steps. You don't need an extremely low tide to find softshells, just a sharp eye and the ability to do stoop labor.
After collecting your meal, separate the broken clams from the others. Leave the whole clams in a shallow pan of water for a day or two to siphon out the sand before steaming. Eat the broken ones immediately or use 'em for scup, fluke and striper bait, fresh or frozen.
Quahogs can be ``walked up'' or scratched with a rake. Walking them is just that. Walk along bars or the shallows, feeling with your feet for a firmness underfoot with a round shape. With a little practice, you will be able to tell the difference between rocks, mudders (full of mud) and the living clam. Just reach down and work it out with your hand; they're only an inch or so deep. Quahogs live from the tide line to the bottom of bays and coves.
Raking works well if you want more in less time (and don't want to step on so many crabs!) Quahog rakes are long-handled and have narrow, concave tines, spaced closely together. Extend your rake and let it scratch the bottom, pulling it toward you, while you feel for the solid resistance of a living clam. Again, a little experience will teach you the feel of the thing. When you locate a clam, use the curved tines to root it out and lift it up to you. Using extension handles you can bullrake 15 feet of water from a skiff.
Quahogs are size-classed by cherrystones, littlenecks, chowders, etc. The smaller they are, the tenderer they are. Eat 'em raw or steam them just until they open. They'll last up to a week in a bucket of salt water, if kept cool.
Razor clams are not the usual target of shellfishers. This is because they are fast, dig deep and will (ital.) cut you up! The name comes from both the straight-razor shape and shell's edge. You may catch one or two of these while digging steamers, if your trench is deep, but the best method I've found is stealth. Spot their oval siphon hole and approach with soft steps. Either dig with a steamer rake, very quick and deep, or go to plan ``B.''
Plan ``B'' involves pinning them sideways and digging them out while pinned. Razors have a very short siphon, meaning they are resting right at the surface. But their foot is long, about 6 inches, and very fast. Make a flat plane with your fingers together. Point your fingertips at a 45-degree angle, down toward the siphon hole, but back from it an inch or more. The task here is to push your fingers through the sand and into the side of the razor, thus pinning it. Once held in place, use the other hand to dig it out.
You may have to be patient if the foot is anchored. Just hold on like you would with a nightcrawler, in the same position, and it will eventually relax. The foot is the food part and is very tender and tasty raw.
Mussels are everywhere. The conventional wisdom is to collect the blue ones from areas of clear running water and not from the saltmarsh edge. The latter are said to concentrate ``by products'' and pollution. It's your call. They're all food.
An easy way to pick up enough of these smoky-flavored shellfish is to wade along a channel edge at low tide and just pluck them from the rocks. Another method is to use that quahog rake to reach down from your skiff and hook a few up from the bottom. Check your regulations for the rules.
One interesting way to gather mussels is by free diving. With just a mask, sans snorkel, you can dive down five or ten feet to pristine beds of these blue-black beauties. Getting them loose may be another story. Try wearing those tough rubber gloves that commercial fishermen use or take along a garden hand rake. Remember that there is a size limit on mussels too, so cull the bunch you've ripped free of the smaller members.
Mussels need only have their beards ripped off and a bit of steaming to pop open. For a really incredible taste, smoke 'em.
Let me just say here that if you can't outrun a whelk then you probably oughta catch some zzz's on the beach. Whelks are the other hunter/gatherers for shellfish. Eating a whelk is like, well, beating the other team really badly. Just snatch 'em up when you have the chance.
It takes some judgement to tell when a whelk is steamed enough, but when it's done, hook the foot with a fork and spiral the whole body out of the shell. The foot, without the chitinous plate, is the chowdah part.
Crabs are, for the industrious crab sheller, a real taste treat. Blues, and their less colorful lady cousins, are easily trapped with crab traps. Set your trap on channel and grass edges, in 1 to 10 feet of water. Put them out in the evening and check them first thing in the morning. Big blues are mostly night hunters.
You hear of folks baiting with chicken wings; I think this started because the bait was handy and fairly tough. A better bait is a fish frame or a handful of clams. These are, after all, the usual foods of the crab. Shellfish will attract so many crabs, so quickly, as to be almost a nuisance. Sometimes you can come back in just 15 minutes to a full trap.
If you aren't confident picking up a blue by the spines or a swimmer - don't (ital.)! Those claws are more like kitchen shears and will hurt you the same way, and in a blink of an eye.
Another, less labor-intensive method of crabbing is to gather them at night. Take a bucket, a long-handled net and a flashlight, and walk the shallows after the beach has quieted down. Watch ahead for blues that are hunting their supper, and try to let them walk or swim into the net. Remember not to keep females with eggs attached; they're pretty obvious. Crabs die quickly, so ice them as soon as you get home or cook them right away.
Lobster - these bugs can really be very easy to trap or remarkably frustrating. Location, location, location. Ten traps are the limit for personal use and are enough for a family's needs, if you figure one lobster per trap, every couple of days.
Here's how for the bay. Rig your pot with no more than 15 feet of line and chose buoy colors that you can recognize from a distance. Bait your pots with fish. Remember how clams attract crabs, so don't use 'em. Plan to check your traps at least every four days. Leaving a pot in longer just makes it more probable that the bigger ones will eat the smaller ones. What a waste!
Look around and see where others are placing their pots. You don't need to be right in among 'em, and maybe it would be a lot better if you found a similar place with less competition. Try to understand why others are fishing there. Is it herd instinct or is there a method to their madness?
Lobsters hide in the edges of grass banks and forage at night. Look for deep channels near shallow grass. Put your trap right on the edge of the deep water. Give it a couple of 4-day cycles before you give up and move it. Sometimes a short move of only 30 feet will produce nicely.
If one pot catches and the others don't, you can group a few pots around that spot, but try to understand why they are there. Is it a few feet deeper? Is it in a channel corner? Is big grass flat down current? Is there different bait in that pot? Consider these things and try to learn from your successes.
Carefully cull your short lobsters as you clean and re-bait your pots. Banding your catch as you store them prevents torn off claws. If you get a blue one don't freak out; it's not a pollution baby, just a natural rarity.
That leaves snails and oysters. The snails are everywhere and should be cooked thoroughly and then rolled out like little whelks using your snail fork. Actually, they're quite good.
The oysters are rare, to say the least. There are a few around, but not enough to hunt and probably better left alone in order to try to restore their stocks.
And that's it - except for the butter.
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Check the fishing reports for up to the minute info and ask at the local tackle shops.
Hiring a charter guide to find blues is always a cinch. This year you might even find a record.
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