Story Published: Jun 10, 2009 at 6:00 PM PDT
Not ... quite ... big enough ... to keep. Shoot.
WALDPORT, Ore. -- Fishing guide Jim Martin puts the boat in the water, then motors across the Alsea Bay past some seals.
With the tide just coming in, Martin aims the boat for shore to go dig for clams.
Martin digs two or three feet down around the clam hole, then reaches in and pulls the clam out by its neck.
"That's a decent one," Martin said. "Here he comes."
Finished with clamming, it's back to the water to set out crab pots.
Martin baits the crab pots with chicken so the seals won't bother them.
"If we were using fish in there, these seals and sea lions will come in there, pitch it around, get 'em out of there, steal them and your pots will be upside down," Martin said. "They'll drag 'em out and eat 'em."
Martin puts out three crab pots, then another six crab rings, before circling back to check the pots.
"Hey, we got crab," Martin said.
"It's a little small," he notes. "An eighth of an inch short. Nope, not legal gentlemen."
On this day, Martin struck out crabbing, catching plenty of crustaceans but none big enough to keep.
He did have success clamming.
"With the clams, we caught gapers and we probably could have caught another 25 of those," he said. "We kind of split between that and the crabbing. We've got some cockles here. And with the crab, we probably ended up with a dozen crab that just quite wouldn't make the legal limit, but they were the right species of male. Just short. Next time we'll have some for you."
Links
This story is part of the Take Me Fishing series. Take us fishing: Post your story to YouNews
Related Content