Winter on the Oregon Coast means shellfish season. Clamming and other shellfish harvesting can be a fun, if chilly, beach expedition.
It offers an invaluable experience, says Flying Fish Company owner Lyf Gildersleeve: “When I bring my kids out there to the bay, sometimes it's not even the clams that they care about but it's the value of [knowing] where food comes from.”
Here are the best spots for Oregon Coast shellfish from the second-generation fishmonger:
Clamming 🪣
Get yourself some rubber boots, a bucket, along with maybe a rake, and check out these spots:
- Garibaldi. “The closest area where we can go and harvest and forage things from the ocean I would say would be Garibaldi.”
- Netarts Bay. “That's another wonderful, beautiful bay that's all protected. There's no boat docks on it. It's just pure ocean that floods and drains twice a day with the tide. And so it's really clean, crisp, briny. There's clam digging that you can do there for a couple of different types of clams.”
- Fort Stevens State Park. “There's razor clams out there. That's a different type, so that will require what's called a negative tide, when the tides are even lower than normal, so it's like once a month or every other month that you'll get a negative tide that's in the daytime and you can go out there.”
Crabbing 🦀
Oregon is home to the Dungeness crab, and there are some good spots to pull them in:
“There are smaller bays on the Oregon coast,” says Gildersleeve. “You go out there in a little stainless steel boat, with four people in the boat, and have an awesome day on the bay, pulling up crabs.”
It’s possible to rent a boat and traps as well as buy bait. Options include:
Where to Buy Oysters and Other Shellfish 🦪
For oysters, there are good places to buy them though not harvest them yourself:
- Local Ocean Seafoods (Newport) is a fish market that also has a restaurant.
- JAndy Oyster Co. (Tillamook) is an oyster bar but it’s also a market where you can buy some to take home instead if you prefer.
- The Spot (Garibaldi). “My friend Kelly’s… done a great job over the years, and you can buy some shellfish or fin fish from him,” says Gildersleeve.
Note: Before you go check for closures on the Department of Agriculture site — or call the Shellfish Biotoxin Hotline.
Gildersleeve gave more options and tips on the City Cast Portland podcast.
