Cape Lookout SP

[FishSchooler]

Couldnt find it

Couldnt find it

I couldnt find it in the reg book, but is there a limit for perch/lingcod/any other common catchable food fish?

 

[yaknitup]

Rockfish(includes greenling, cabezon): 6 for sure, but I think it might be 7 as of May 1st
Surf perch: 15
Lingcod: 2

 

[madoc]

Okay, just got back from Cape Lookout - no fish, didn't get the chance (the problem with being in a group). We did try for crab, didn't really spend much time on that either. Struck out, only caught one small male dungeness off the the jetty by the launch.

We did get a fair haul of clams - mixed species. I think next time I go out I am going to choose one or two specific species to target, as each has a different digging style that leads to success. Butters, cockles, gapers, softshells.

I think I am going to head out there soonish by myself - having more hands to dig is great, but coordinating just five grownups is a little difficult.

 

[Oregonchris]

How many gapers did you get?

 

[madoc]

I got six, my bud targeted them exclusively and got his limit (12).

As far as digging advice goes - if you know which kind of clam you want to dig up, you should focus on that. Since I had a couple of novice diggers with me, we didn't really focus, it was more "See that hole? Dig it up and see what is in there."

we were carrying a mix of clam guns and shovels. For gapers, I wouldn't bother with the gun - it works well enough for the butters and softshells, but the larger gapers tend to be deeper than the gun can get and not tear up your back lifting the sand out.

*edited to add*
As far as digging for Gapers goes
I've tried shovel and gun. This is only the second time that I have gone digging for clams, so I am sure folks who have been doing this a while can chime in. but, in the two outings thus far, I have learned a few things.
The ODFW page on Gapers gives a hint at how to prevent the hole you are digging from collapsing - cut the bottom off of a 5 gallon bucket and drive it in the sand around the show. Haven't tried it yet, but I can see how that would be helpful, having had most of the holes I dug for gapers collapse in on my arm - nothing like being stuck with your hand around clam buried in wet sand above your elbow. Another idea that I have yet to try is to take a small diameter dowel and follow the neck down as it retracts. This is supposed to give the digger an approximation on the direction the clam body is in relation to the neck. If you find a show with the tip of the neck still at the top, you may even be able to figure out how deep the clam is.
Keep you bounty on you. I dug up a gaper that was bigger than my fist, neck was over a foot long. I stuffed it in my bag, laid the bag down and started digging. Within five minutes the seagulls had looted my bag, and had bitten off half of the necks of the gapers that I dug up. At that point the birds were lucky I didn't have a .22 on me.

On my next run out I plan on doing a little bit better organizing with my gear. Trying to carry a shovel, a clam gun, a bucket and a bag full of clams with sore and tired arms, while covered in sand, is pretty draining.

So, if I cut the bottom of the bucket off, I am going to bolt some strapping to it to use as a sling to carry it in, and strap the gun and shovel to it as well. I will twist tie the dowel onto the shovel handle.

The image is of the Netarts bay map, and the yellow circle is the general location of where I was digging for Gapers.

Cheers,
Madoc

 

[The Nothing]

sounds like a good time. I really need to get out to the coast and give my Surf King a rip to see what I can find. Once this hearing I have is over today, my life will (hopefully) be less complicated.

 

[FishSchooler]

Cockles are fun with a rake.

 

[madoc]

Okay, went back out today,

36 softshells, 12 gapers, and 8 cockles, all from area 6. I used a 1/4" dowel - dropped it down the show hole - it made it really easy to not break the clams, although the cockles I just plucked out of the sand. Managed to hit the limit in less than three hours. I then went up to the area by the boat basin, and caught a few crabs - only two keepers from the bunch, One was a small-medium sized male red rock crab (4" across), and a small-medium sized female pacific rock crab (4"). Used shad as a the bait. Now is not the best time, as the dungeness are mating.

I was using a crabhawk, and pulled in probably a dozen crabs total, but the funniest aprt was hauling in the seastars - I pulled in five enormous stars - each probably 24" across or larger.

 

[Oregonchris]

Okay, went back out today,

36 softshells, 12 gapers, and 8 cockles,

Wow!...that is a lot of clams! I have a new hunting dowel ready to go! Next week I will be in Garibaldi bay clammin...yeehaw!

 

[madoc]

Yeah, using the dowel sped things up, allowed me to dig a smaller hole, and allowed me to really decide which shows to dig up - so fewer broken clams and larger clams overall.

The trick with the dowel - if a 1/4" dowel will drop down the hole without touching the sides, most of the time (so far in my limited experience) the clam will be at minimum 3" in length (softshells). a lot of the shows looked like a flathead screwdriver mark - I gently scooped an inch or two of sand off the top, and then plunked the dowel down the hole. don't push too hard, as you may just skewer the clam - which I did for one softshell and one gaper.

I also tried purging the clams in the water while I was crabbing - used a luandry bag and submerged the clams in the incoming tide - I was on a rock wall by that point, so there wasn't much sand.

Next time I go out I may bring a small float ring to suspend the clambag from while I am crabbing.

 

[FishSchooler]

Wow!...that is a lot of clams! I have a new hunting dowel ready to go! Next week I will be in Garibaldi bay clammin...yeehaw!

I swear, all the shows at garibaldi (tillamook bay) are from worms. No matter how big they are, whatever comes up is some type of worm. I would take a clam gun and push it down 2+ feet in less then 2 seconds, and all that would come up was a couple worms. Long/heavy tined rakes work much better there. Take one, wade in the water knee to thigh deep (shallower if you are taller than 5' 3") and drag the rake around. Anything hard and clangy is probably a clam (I also caught 3 grabs doing this... and another kid pulled up a small flounder or halibut :shock.

I am going to Cape lookout on the weekend... where is the best for lingcod and perch from the bank? Oh, and what hook size is good for perch? I have size 10,8,2,1, and probably 1/0 or 2/0.

 

[fourgotten]

On my next run out I plan on doing a little bit better organizing with my gear. Trying to carry a shovel, a clam gun, a bucket and a bag full of clams with sore and tired arms, while covered in sand, is pretty draining.

If you don't mind a couple of bits of advice...

First, ditch the clam gun for bay clamming... while great for razors, it's only mediocre for bay clamming... I find that my clam shovel gets anything that I want without breaking the clams.

The cheap, folding fish baskets (that they sell at that blue, big box store that begins with a W) work excellently for carrying your bounty. More importantly, the lid is spring-loaded so that you can drop a clam on the lid, lift the handle and the clam drops into the basket where it's safe from seagull raiding. Also, you can just set the bottomless bucket on top of it, reach through to grab the handle and carry them both with one hand.

Here's my normal kit:

• Clam shovel
• Fish basket
• nitrile-palmed gardening gloves (inside of basket until I'm digging, then they are on the hands... there's some sharp sh*t in the clam flats at times!)
• garden trowel with foam and wood handle (handle floats) for delicate digging near clams. (also carried inside basket)
• clam knife (in the basket... mostly for gathering mussels)
• bottomless bucket (if the area warrants it)

I usually just hang the basket on my shovel as I'm walking out so I have a hand free.

Tools that I use occasionally are:

• large screwdriver and hammer (for piddocks)
• clam gun (for razors)
• rake (for cockles and littlenecks)

There are few clams that I haven't gathered successfully (and I'm working on those...) such as the geoduck (not too easy to find around here) and bodega tellin... and I'm still waiting for a really NICE low tide where I can fill all three of my clam limits (15 razors, 20 bay clams, 36 softshell and others) in one tide! MUAHAHAHAHA.

If you ever need a clamming buddy and are heading a bit further south than Netarts... lemme know..

Though I am heading to Netarts on a research mission this coming Monday night (to camp out for the really low morning tide on Tuesday).

Almost forgot: one other advantage of the basket is that you can suspend it in the water (some even have floating lids) above the bottom to help purge your clams... and because it's wire rather than cloth, you don't have to worry about anything chewing through it and eating your clams.

 

[madoc]

I've actually pared things down quite a bit.

Next outing is just going to be a mesh laundry bag, shovel, magic clam pointing stick, and maybe the rake. I'll bring the gun with me for giggles, and probably bring the shrimp gun as well.

I've been putting on nitrile exam gloves and covering those with some Ironclad work gloves - works pretty well to keep the sharp intrusions down.

You can limit this weekend. Supposedly there are razors at Cape Meares, so if you time it right, you can roll out for razors following the negative tide at Meares, and then when you limit on those, head south to Netarts - the negative series has the water going waaaaayyy out, so the flats in area 6 on the map will be accessible for quite some time.

IN fact, I may just go do that on Monday as well.

 

[FishSchooler]

I've actually pared things down quite a bit.

Next outing is just going to be a mesh laundry bag, shovel, magic clam pointing stick, and maybe the rake. I'll bring the gun with me for giggles, and probably bring the shrimp gun as well.

I've been putting on nitrile exam gloves and covering those with some Ironclad work gloves - works pretty well to keep the sharp intrusions down.

You can limit this weekend. Supposedly there are razors at Cape Meares, so if you time it right, you can roll out for razors following the negative tide at Meares, and then when you limit on those, head south to Netarts - the negative series has the water going waaaaayyy out, so the flats in area 6 on the map will be accessible for quite some time.

IN fact, I may just go do that on Monday as well.

Hmm... I might do that...
Cape Meares looks a loooot more feeeshable for leeeingcoods. I dont know though, if there are trails on the rocky part of Cape Lookout, Im in look for Lings! Otherwise... where else nearby are there? The bay looks all sandy, and the main jetty thing at the park is all sandy too

 

[fourgotten]

I've actually pared things down quite a bit.

Next outing is just going to be a mesh laundry bag, shovel, magic clam pointing stick, and maybe the rake. I'll bring the gun with me for giggles, and probably bring the shrimp gun as well.

I've been putting on nitrile exam gloves and covering those with some Ironclad work gloves - works pretty well to keep the sharp intrusions down.

You can limit this weekend. Supposedly there are razors at Cape Meares, so if you time it right, you can roll out for razors following the negative tide at Meares, and then when you limit on those, head south to Netarts - the negative series has the water going waaaaayyy out, so the flats in area 6 on the map will be accessible for quite some time.

IN fact, I may just go do that on Monday as well.

You gotta make SURE that you're there at least 2 hours before peak low... otherwise, there's no chance... and you'd better make sure that you know where the razors are gonna be... otherwise, finding them AND digging them and THEN digging a limit of gapers and a limit of softshells (or varnish clams) would require some quiiiiiiick work!

It'd be fun to try!

BTW.... might leave the clam gun and just take the slurp gun... you can dig gapers with those, too...