Rough of new experience

This past weekend I did something that I have never done before. I went to seaside and tried my luck in razor clamming and surf perch fishing. I had to wake up at 2 am to start the drive to the coast with my friend. We were there just in time to start digging on the outgoing tide. I was amazed at how easy it was compared to digging bay clams.
     For razor clams you are on the beach and you have a clam gun to suck the clams out of their holes. All you have to do is bang the sand with a shovel and look for their necks going down in the sand. Put the clam gun over the hole and push it all they way down and then bring it up and grab your clam. The limit was 15 per person and we easily obtained our limits pretty quick. I also picked up a bunch of sand dollars to give to my wife.

         Next we moved south to start surf perch fishing. All was needed for this was a steelhead rod with a 3/4 oz. bullet weight followed by a 4mm bead and barrel swivel. Then your 2 and a half foot leader with a number 4 bait hook, the bait we were using was Berkeley Gulp camo sandworms. Its a good thing to have chest waders to do this type of fishing. We waded out to our knees in the Pacific surf and casted as far as we could. This is an exciting kind of fishing, literally every cast I was getting a bite. The hard part was not setting the hook. They nibble on the bait for a while and you have to wait until the commit and bite the book before you can set the hook and reel them in. A weird side note is that these fish do not lay eggs like most fish. They have their offspring internally like a human would. After you catch a female perch it is common that she will push her babies out to save them. We fished for a couple hours until the surf got pretty rough before calling it quits. We got most of our limit between the 4 of us.

           We came home loaded with lots of clams and perch. We filleted the fish and cleaned the clams after we got back to the valley. The perch don't have much for fillets but they are a tasty treat. I coated mine in panko bread crumbs and fried them, turned out to be a pretty good meal. The razor clams are packaged and frozen in my freezer for a treat later in the year. It was a great experience and I can't wait to go do it again. It is a long drive but if you go with a couple people and do both clamming and fishing I think it is worth it.