Author Lance Sawa’s son Nico enjoys digging for muddy bounty at a beach in Tokyo during a father-son clamming trip. The adventure conjured up memories of the author’s childhood of clam digging along the Southern California coast. (LANCE SAWA)
CAN YOU DIG THIS? CLAMMING IN TOKYO By Lance Sawa
D
ad would be in our garage, cutting half-inch rings from a PVC pipe in the vice, which could only mean one thing: Clam digging! He cut out at least one ring for each person who planned to come along. When I was little, a string would get attached as well for my wrist so that I wouldn’t lose it during the day. Our normal Southern and Central California clam digging location was San Pedro Beach, but we also went to Pismo Beach and Ventura Beach
occasionally. We would drive over a bridge after skirting a beach, and after parking we’d dig almost directly under the bridge we had driven over. Everyone had their own buckets and PVC rings in hand while walking down to the beach. Dad would carry a shovel to use during the day. Sometimes it was a big party, with other friends or families waiting for us to join in. This was a summer event and all the adults would chat as they dug for littleneck clams. There was a familiar thump sound from the buckets every time a legal one was found. Most of the children
didn’t care too much about the clams themselves, but it was fun to dig in the sand and find little treasures. On days that it was only us there, I think getting limits was faster. There was no need for chatting and catching up; just digging. Normally, winter days were like this, even though the tide was lower in that season. I loved that checking the size of clams was so easy; if the widest part of the shell fit through the ring, it wasn’t legal and went back into the hole. Every once in a while a ghost shrimp would swim through the hole we were digging, which would catch me off guard.
calsportsmanmag.com | JULY 2022 California Sportsman
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