The weather factor
I often talk about the weather factor when I return from kayak outings. In fact, it's essential to take it into account, especially in winter and, what's more, when the means of locomotion is the kayak. Last weekend, it started with a 103 coefficient on Saturday, but with winds at 100 km/h, the kayak stayed in the garage. On Sunday, the winds dropped to the west, gusting to 50 km/h, and the coefficient was 107.
It's ideal for sailing to our spots, which are sheltered from westerly winds. So we made an appointment with one of my regular colleagues from the high tides.
Clam digging
Our equipment is minimal: kayak, paddle, lifejacket, a pair of waders in the back tank, a pair of gloves, a scraper and the main instrument, the tide ruler. It takes us half an hour of sailing to get to our spots. As usual, we start with our clam digging spot. At this time of year, the clams are beautiful, and we pick up a good thirty each, more than enough for a meal.
As a reminder, the regulations authorize 150 clams per fisherman per day, for a mesh size of 4 cm, so we'll only be fishing large individuals.
Treat yourself to some abalone
This clam interlude allowed us to wait for the foreshore to open up a little more. As the winds are westerly, the spots aren't going to open up in line with a 107 coefficient. Never mind, we've got several spots where we know there are things to pick up. We go to our abalone spots, of which there are a few. Unfortunately for us, many of them don't fit, they're in the 80/90 mm range, the mesh being 90+, so we leave them in place. It's important to leave them on their pebble if they don't make the mesh.
The abalone is hemophilic, so if it's wounded, it won't survive. We'll still do half a dozen meshes each, which is enough to enjoy ourselves.
A beautiful harvest on the foreshore
We continue our foreshore picking with some beautiful and plump étrilles. They're a bit tedious to shell, but what a treat on the plate... To complete the seafood platter, we found some pretty clams and a few scallops. But as mentioned above, the foreshore wasn't uncovered enough to find more. We are allowed a maximum of 30 scallops per angler per day, with a minimum size of 11 cm.
We end this picking session with a picnic on the shore before heading back into the headwind.
Spring weather
The next day, the weather was spring-like, with a coefficient of 110, and I went out alone. It's 15°C by 2:00 pm for the snack. The picking pattern is the same as the day before: clams, prawns, varnishes, clams and crabs. Once again, the foreshore wasn't completely clear. Still, I was able to dig a little deeper and the clams were really nice-sized.
I could have made the most of two of the four possible days on the foreshore, but the wind and rain soon returned on the last day of high coefficients. Still, it's good to have made the most of it, as the next ones are in a month's time.
