People ask about clamming crabbing Neskowin like it's one activity. It's two, on different tides, in different places, with different rules. The good news is the beach and the bays around here can feed you if you plan it right. Here's the honest, local version.
First, the paperwork
Anyone 12 or older needs an Oregon shellfish license from ODFW, available online or at any tackle shop. It covers both clams and crabs. Before you dig anything, call the Oregon Department of Agriculture shellfish safety hotline at 1-800-448-2474 or check their website. Biotoxin closures for razor clams, mussels, and sometimes bay clams are common and change without much warning. This isn't optional; the toxins don't cook out.
Clamming: where the bays are
Neskowin itself is beach, not bay, so you'll drive a bit. Nestucca Bay, ten minutes north at Pacific City, has softshell clams and purple varnish clams in the mud and sand flats near the boat ramps. It's a small bay and not the most productive, but it's close and quiet. Siletz Bay at Lincoln City, twenty minutes south, has good purple varnish and softshell digging along the flats near Cutler City and the Schooner Creek area on a minus tide.
The serious bay-clam destination is Netarts Bay, about 45 minutes north past Pacific City. Cockles, gapers, butter clams, and littlenecks on the big flats at low tide. If you want a bucket of chowder clams and don't mind the drive, that's the trip.
Razor clams are mostly a north coast thing (the Clatsop beaches), and that season closes each summer. Around here you'll occasionally find them at Pacific City and Neskowin, but don't plan a trip around it.
How to dig
- Go on a minus tide, arriving an hour before the low. Tide tables at the Neskowin general store or NOAA online.
- Look for small holes or "shows" in the sand and mud. Dig beside them, not on top.
- A clam shovel or rake and a bucket. Gloves; the shells are sharp.
- Bag limits: 20 bay clams total, only 12 of which can be gapers. Purple varnish limit is separate and generous (72). Check the ODFW regulations for current numbers.
- Fill your holes. Kids and dogs step in them, and it's the rule.
Crabbing: rings, docks, and boats
Dungeness is the prize. The rules: males only, at least 5.75 inches across the back, 12 per person per day. Red rock crab are 24 per day, any size or sex, and they're delicious and underrated. Bay crabbing is open year-round; the ocean closes each fall but that's a boat thing.
The easiest close-by crabbing is Siletz Bay from the public dock in Taft (Lincoln City), where you can drop rings off the pier with bait from the shops on 51st Street. Nestucca Bay at Pacific City is fishable from a kayak or small boat, and kayak rentals are available in town; we paddled it in kayaking the Nestucca and Little Nestucca. The crab are there but the bay is small and tidal, so pick slack water and be back before the current runs.
For a sure thing, Netarts Bay again, or a chartered crab-and-fish trip out of Pacific City's dory fleet or Depoe Bay.
Bait, gear, and timing
Chicken or turkey legs in a bait cage, or fish carcasses if you can get them. Rings work fine from a dock; traps need a boat. Slack tide, especially the hour around high slack, is best; crabs don't like fighting current either. Drop rings, wait 15 minutes, pull fast and steady. Measure everything, toss the females and the smalls gently back.
Cooking it at the cabin
Keep crab alive and cool in a bucket with a wet towel over it, not in fresh water. Boil in heavily salted water, 15 to 18 minutes for a big Dungeness, then ice bath. Clams: purge in clean salt water for a few hours to lose the sand, then steam with butter, garlic, and whatever beer is open. The Weekender has a proper kitchen and an outdoor deck, which is where crab should be eaten, with newspaper down and the dog watching hopefully.
Neskowin is a good base for shellfish trips because everything is within 45 minutes and the beach is right there for the hours in between. For tide pools, whale watching, and everything else nearby, our Neskowin things-to-do page has the list. Start with the hotline, then the tide table, then the bucket.