Article by Sue Foster
“I want to go clamming! Where can I go from shore?”
Starting from the north, you can go to Holt's Landing which is a very good clamming area. It is part of the Delaware Seashore State Park and is located off Rt. 26. You go north into Delaware to Bethany and make a left on Rt. 26. You make a right in Clarksville and follow the signs. Visit the Fenwick-Bethany Chamber of Commerce to get a map before finding this area as it does involve a little trip into the country. You can also clam around the Cape Henlopen Pier in Lewes. You have to pay to get into the Cape Henlopen State Park.
Some people clam just south of the Indian River Inlet, but you must park on the side of the road and walk across the marsh. Make sure you always clam at low tide.
In Ocean City, people find clams in the bars just offshore of Convention Hall at 41st Street. At low tide, you can cover quite a bit of territory. Vacationers say they have the best luck walking north once in the water. Of course, you can walk out across the marsh at any location, but be careful. Green marshes usually have areas that are quite muddy. You can find yourself up to your knees in soft mud!
The Isle of Wight has some clams too. Go to the public area off Rt. 90. Walk east back towards Ocean City to the corner of the bridge span and the rocks. Clam there at low tide and wear long pants, as there’s sea nettles in the back water areas.
There are three clamming areas on Assateague Island. The first one is in the State Park. You have to park on the west side of the bridge and walk or bike over the bridge and clam on the east side. There is no parking on the east side and that's where the clams are! What many people do is get someone to drive them across the bridge and drop them and the clam rakes off. Avoid clamming there on a west wind. Those biting flies and mosquitoes can carry you away on the west shore of Assateague!
The other two clamming areas are in the National Park. After crossing over the Assateague Bridge going onto the island, take a right and go to the National Park. There’s a fee to get into the park and you will see the two areas for clamming. You need to walk out into the water, chest deep, at the lowest tide and rake in these areas to find the clams.
When you are walking out into the water digging for clams, you will find that just like fish, clams tend to congregate in one area. When you find one clam there are likely to be more. Feel the bottom and rake in areas of soft sand or mud. You usually don’t find many clams in the grassy bottom. You shouldn’t dig up the grass anyway.
What I do is drag the rake behind me and let it dig into the underwater sand on it’s own. When I hear a “clink” I go back and dig it up to see if it’s a clam. After you have clammed for a while, you will be able to “hear” the difference in the sound of hitting a clam verses hitting a shell or other piece of debris! Once you find one, dig around in that area. You are likely to catch more. Just like fish, where there’s one there’s more!
“I have a boat. Where can I go?”
If you have a boat and clam in Indian River Bay, there is an abundance of clams. Clamming on and next to the sandy bar near South Shore Marina is a great place to go. Just offshore of Holt’s Landing State Park is another good area.
In the Ocean City bay, clamming is very good on the sand bar just offshore of Brachia Marina at 22nd Street. Many vacationers rent a boat for a couple of hours and clam there.
The large sandbar just north of the Route 50 Bridge holds lots of clams as well. They aren’t on the north end of the island though. Most of the clams are on the southwest section of that bar. Stay just offshore of the bird sanctuary signs. Some anglers call this “Bird Island.” If you have a larger boat, it is best to come around to the island from the East Channel. It is 4 or 5 feet deep right next to the southernmost end of the green island. Come around the west side of it and head towards the sandbar. Anchor anywhere in there, hop overboard and walk towards the sandy bar. There are clams all in there if you want to start raking as soon as your feet hit the bottom!
There are clams on the sandbar just off Hooper’s Crab House, north of the Rt. 50 Bridge. There are not as many as on the other islands, but it is a quick hop, skip and jump for the boats docked at Hooper’s.
Clams are abundant in the bay behind Assateague as well. Anywhere around the big islands offshore, and west of buoy #10 and buoy #13, you will find clams. There aren’t many clams on the bar just east of #10 however. Anywhere south of the Verrazano Bridge, also known as the Assateague Bridge, where you can anchor up, jump out of the boat and start clamming will get you some clams. Many clammers go just south and west of the bridge and clam there. There are plenty of clams there in waist deep water. Offshore of the Old Ferry Landing Road (National Park of Assateague) is also good for clamming.
There are no sandbars to walk on in the bay behind Assateague, as everything seems to be a bird sanctuary. Just anchor up in around 3-feet of water and hop out of the boat and start digging. Some clammers actually feel for the clams with their feet if they are in soft sand or mud. I wouldn’t do it with bare feet though. I would wade in the water with an old pair of tennis shoes.
In Ocean City and the Indian River Bay you can actually get close to the sandbars at low tide and walk in the water where you can see the bottom.
Sometimes you can clam where there is no water at all. If you can see the bottom, you can do what people call “signing.” To “sign” a clam, you walk along and look for a “keyhole” in the sand. It’s hole in the sand resembles a keyhole in a doorknob. During the incoming tide the clams will sometimes spit up water when you walk near them. They are really easy to see!
On the outgoing tide, they are not as easy to see. Sometimes the keyholes aren’t very pronounced and look like a dent in the sand. Sometimes the clams can be found by digging over black spots where they dug in during the incoming tide, and the darker mud below came to the surface and is sitting there on top of the sand.
“What can I put my clams in while I’m clamming?”
A bucket, a mesh beach bag or chum bag works fine. Some people place a bushel basket inside an inner tube. Some tackle stores sell a really neat thing for holding clams. It is called a Flo-Well Live Well that is a nylon mesh bag with a drawstring and a Styrofoam ring sewn into it so it floats. It is also fashioned with a sturdy rope so you can tie it to your waist and tote it along behind you as you clam. I’ve had one of these for years! I love it for clamming!
“What kind of clam rake should I buy?”
There are many different kinds of clam rakes. My favorite is the Down East clam rake since it is made in the USA and forged instead of pinned for a longer life and has sharp tongs. The sharper the tongs, the easier it is to dig!
You can buy clam rakes with a basket for finding small clams. You can buy 3-piece clam rakes for traveling, which is quite convenient.
I always purge my clams for a few hours before cooking them. When you get home, just put them in a bucket of fresh seawater or freshwater with some salt added. This flushes the sand out of the meat if you caught them on a running incoming tide.
Good clamming….
Sue Foster is an outdoor writer and co-owner of Oyster Bay Tackle in Ocean City, MD and Fenwick Tackle in Fenwick, DE.
