A few hours at the South marina today

[wiperhunter2]

That's funny because that's exactly what I told Ira, too much noise. By the way have you ever seen a mussel that big at Willard or would you consider that a clam? Up until Ira pointed that one out to me the biggest I had seen, was the size of a quarter.

I'm guessing it is a fresh water mussel.  Most fresh water clams are much smaller.  I wasn't aware that there was a population of fresh water mussels in that river ecosystem, but it ain't like you find them just laying out on the ground a lot.  However, If you were to do some digging with a spade fork in shallow water you would probably be surprised at how many you could find. 

There are large freshwater mussels in many waterways around the country.  In the past there were commercial harvesting operations on some the big eastern state rivers.  They dredged up boatloads of the mussels and turned their shells into buttons.  

If you haven't already done so, you might send that pic to Chris Penne and ask for any additional input he might provide. 

PS...Those things make great bait in some places.  Used to catch some big (and rare) green sturgeon on the Klamath River in northern California...on mussels even bigger than the one you found.  Hooked the meat from two or three of them on a big hook and let it soak in the bottom of a big pool.  Those big pucker lipped fish just loved them.

Good idea, I'll send the pics to Chris. I think the only reason Ira noticed it was because the water level had dropped so much it exposed it and he thought there was another one just off shore because he was seeing some bubbles coming up from it. Maybe that's why wipers love mussels so much, because they are naturally in the lake.