I Caught A Clam

[schplurg]

Was fishing the Delta for stripers. Had a frozen anchovy chunk tied onto the hook with some Magic Thread.

 

 

Is this a clam? The Magic Thread is inside the clam. Do you think the clam closed on the string, and maybe my bait, or did the string just get worked into the shell somehow? I don't see how the latter could have happened.

 

So did I catch this clam thingy or snag him? And I don't know why I was using that hook.

 

Here's my only other catch that day...

 

 

[MN Fisher]

Snagged - clams have 'hair' on the edges of their shells that are sensitive to touch. Most times when they're brushed, the clam 'clams up' - shutting itself off from the world. The way I see it, the line brushed up against the edge of the open shell, the 'trigger' activated, and the clam shut itself up trapping the line.

[schplurg]

So I did skunk that day haha. Or maybe I can call it a reaction strike.  

[OCdockskipper]

When I was a kid, we vacationed at the Delta at New Hope Landing.  Someone told me that the freshwater clams were good to catch catfish with.  So I dug a few up, put it on my hook and ended up catching a larger clam.

 

I catch clams a lot when using a SK Redeye shad & bouncing it along the bottom.  The lure falls quickly and the hooks are exposed, so the small clams end up closing on the shank of the trebles.

[Will Wetline]

2 hours ago, OCdockskipper said:

 

I catch clams a lot when using a SK Redeye shad & bouncing it along the bottom.  The lure falls quickly and the hooks are exposed, so the small clams end up closing on the shank of the trebles.

 

Yup.

 

[Bluebasser86]

I had a client catch a freshwater mussel when it clamped on his dropshot weight on a guide trip last year. 

[Bluegillslayer]

I have yet to hook a clam, but I have hooked crabs and starfish accidently ?

[billmac]

I've hooked mussels several times.  They feel the line or hook passing between the edges of the shells and simply clamp shut.

[desmobob]

I've caught a couple of big clams in a similar manner.  

 

Worse was one of those almost baseball-sized saltwater snails.  It pulled its door closed over my fly's hook and I was barely able to wrench it out with a pair of fishing pliers!

 

I caught a good-sized rock once when the hook point caught a barnacle just right.  Caught a crab on a crab fly, too... but that was a legitimate take, not a snag!  He wasn't hooked in the mouth, but he had grabbed the fly in his pincer and wouldn't let go.

[schplurg]

On 5/5/2021 at 3:10 PM, Bluegillslayer said:

I have yet to hook a clam, but I have hooked crabs and starfish accidently ?

 

I hooked a sand crab about the size of my thumbnail once while surf fishing. I have almost all of my catches on video, including that one  

[Bass Junke]

Norton Reservoir has a lot of mussel beds. Last year I caught 2 mussels in 2 consecutive casts. Both were latched onto the shank of the hook and neither had the hook point inside their shell. Sorry no pics.