Collecting cockles

[Big Ian 0]

After paying $15kg for local cockles the other day I started contemplating this cockle delemma I thought I would organise a quick trip to collect some myself, so a hastely organised trip was put together with a few mates and some kids, yes they got a day off school.We went Thursday arvo 8/5/08 straight to the beach to see how easy or hard this might be. I had read and been told that the cockles where going into winter mode early so they where in deeper ect ect. So had a dig around nothing, move-nothing, move and found a few a bit higher up the beach, I thought this a bit odd because if they where meant to be in deeper water why so high up the beach??( read out of the wash) anyway while we were getting some I was happy, and after couple of hours we only had about 300 cockles. I started thinking, if its this hard at the moment just pay the money.Back to the shack shower ect sit around talk, generally stuff about and then found out you cant get a pizza after 9pm in Goolwa. {SMILIES_PATH}/sad.gifUp bright and early next morning as the tide was very low 0.08 at 5.59am.Started to dig- nothing, move nothing did this about 30 times and didnt find one cockle in this extra low tide area. Moved up to the same sort of area as the day before and there they were , higher up the beach but still in wet sand but we had to use buckets to get any water to wash ect. refined our methods and someone dispatched to the local hardware store to get some stuff.I walked down to get some water and noticed fish in the gutter about 5-10m in front of me, out with the rods and my nephew soon had a salmon trout on so we had some fun for an hour or so until they returned from the shop and they had a winge we hadnt been digging while they were gone. Back to the hard slog and the bag limit was reached easy, (counting cockles sucks) {SMILIES_PATH}/grin.gif {SMILIES_PATH}/grin.gif {SMILIES_PATH}/grin.gif {SMILIES_PATH}/grin.gifVery few small cockles and so easy to get the big ones we put the just legal ones back yep its hard work, and we did dig, not the twist the feet idea.The money saved was worth it, and it helps to take kids so they can get there bag limit as well {SMILIES_PATH}/wink.gifCheers Ian {SMILIES_PATH}/grin.gifPS. Sorry about the size of this pic file, dont open it, its massive[/color:22k9vk62]. I will work on getting them smaller. http://www.fishyorkepeninsula.com/images/attachments/dTHfVW3k__DSC_0803.JPG[/img]

[Ranger 48]

Glad ya got it sussed out in the end bloke!Sometimes ya do have to move around a bit to find em. I generally start at the water line, and if I don't find em there, I go in a little deeper. If still none, I come out of the water and have a dig.No-one ever said this cockle hunting is easy though, and it can get damn cold in that water at times too!Next time ya go, I recon you should just send all the kids down collecting, while you sit back on the esky as quality control officer! {SMILIES_PATH}/wink.gif {SMILIES_PATH}/grin.gif

[Big Ian 0]

you have to joking my kids were more interested in playing silly buggers. http://www.fishyorkepeninsula.com/images/attachments/OpaVDVAa__09052008001.jpg[/img]

[finatic 1]

Good job Ian, happy that you got some, looks like the kids had a great day out & there should be more of that with todays kids. I only wish they were available in commercial quantity for us store owners to buy. It's as frustrating for us as it is our clients & every post like this will hopefully help people understand how hard it is & what goes into delivering a bag of these to local stores.I would guess you collected about $60 worth, maybe $80, at todays prices.Imagine the licensed diggers paying 4 staff to harvest that amount for a days work, then bag them, then deliver them to Adelaide with fuel at $1.52 to then have their business make a profit, CAN'T BE DONE.April/May issue of SA Angler mag has a beach shot of the harvesters at work, trust me this was not taken this year, trust me not, those bags have not been used for 2 years, gone are the good old days of collecting pallets of cockles per day.Finatic

[Big Ian 0]

I would guess you collected about $60 worth, maybe $80, at todays prices.

I hope not {SMILIES_PATH}/rolleyes.gifthat pic shows about 30kg of fresh cockles {SMILIES_PATH}/grin.gifCheers Ian