Does any know how where + when to collect cockles?

G'day GN,

I have a house down on the 90 mile beach and often collect cockles for the pot. I find the best time to collect cockles is as the tide is going out or shortly after low tide.

Shovel, bucket and strainer are all the tools you will require.

Happy shovelling.

Hi Gn,

http://troutchallenge.fishnet.com.au/Default.aspx?id=261&recipeID=46

Has some good info for you

Rgds
Nev

A few years back we went to various spots on Goolwa beach - always a km or two south of the ramp / entry track, toward the mouth, and at low tide - not hard to find some at least - at times, there was a bonanza - and not always close to the water - sometimes high on the beach - just have to dig around the intertidal zone until you hit on them - the pros can 'read' the beach and find them quite quickly I'm told - can be eaten raw, but if cooked, it needs only to be brief. We found that if we kept them for a few hours in cold sea water, preferably raised off the bottom of the esky with some wire mesh, they will purge any sand inside the shell - much better. There is a season and size limits etc - check with Fisheries first.

The only cockles you will find in Aus are located in Oxford St NSW.

Pippies on the other hand can be found at any surf beach.

Imports LOL

If cockles are the same as pippies .....I don't use a net , I just wiggle my feet in the sand as the wave recedes. You feel them with your feet. It is very easy. I have caught dozens at a time .

We get them to purge the sand in freshwater.

I did not know there was an open / closed season. Maybe there is not one here in NSW.

hi, i live at Goolwa and you don't even need the 4x4 to get the cockles just walk down to the beach and do the 'cockle shuffle' that's doing the twist with your feet, in water that's about 1/2 way from your ankles to your knee or less, as the wave goes out and there they are, our dog even gets them for us, she thinks it's great fun as long as she gets one to play with. anyway they aren't very deep and the season opens at the end of the month and they have been booking quite a few people lately for getting them out of season so it's best to wait. that's the best way to get your bait (we aren't one of those who eats them) we just bag them into smaller bags and freeze them for the next fishing trip, friends of ours pickles them then freezes them he recons they are better bait that way as they stay on the hook longer because the brine makes them tuffer. with a bit of leg workout some times it's amazing how many you can get.
good luck from chris and let me know if theres anything else i can help you with for around this area.

cockles are not nearly the same as pippies. I'd do anything to cook with cockles, or vongole for the purist, pippies? great bait.

Venus Bay, near Inverloch.

To collect you do The "Pippie Wiggle". You put your feet in the sand and pretend you're Chubby Checker doing The Twist. Your feet slowly sink into the sand and you will fell the Pippies.

Apparently cleaning them has something do with soaking them in a bucket of water with flour or something to leech out the sand. Don't know for sure, I've only collected them for bait.

Jim.