Bill Fetzer. 53. I’ve been clamming since 1984. I first started clamming with my dad and grandfather like most families with a scratch rake, wire basket, and a rubber inner tube tied to my waist at the age of five. Those were such great times; three generations of Fetzers. Sadly, I will never have that with my son. I was going to college working at a local florist doing deliveries and making arrangements. I was going to school for industrial arts, when I had to make a delivery on Center Island in the winter. Coming back out of Center Island, I saw men on old wood and fiberglass boats breaking circles in the frozen bay, close to the beach. They were clammers making a hole so they could shellfish. It was a bright, cold, and windy day. I remember them throwing their rakes in the hole they just made with their boat and having the sun reflected off their clam sections. Right then I was hooked. That spring I bought a 16 ft. aluminum Jonboat, a rake, a pole, a basket, and licences. I went out on a Thursday and tried clamming for the first time. A friend give me some pointers but he was very vague. He said you have to learn on your own and so I did. For the first three months all your muscles are shot. My hands had blisters and infections. I used my boat to duck hunt and clam at the same time, that is how I got my nickname “Duckman.” I bought a bigger boat and have been using it since 1985. Along with clamming I started eeling and pot fishing for blackfish, porgy, and seabass. I like the freedom that I have out on the water. My boss is a hard-ass on me but you get out of life what you put into it. I am married and have three beautiful kids with my best friend, my wife. I love the bay, I see so much life out here; seals, eagles, foxes, and more wildlife than you would think. I see deer swimming across the harbor, and many things you don’t see in an office. The change of seasons, the beautiful fall colors that nature gives us that most people do not get to enjoy because their lives are too busy. It’s a way of life and not an easy one at that. It becomes your soul. Some of my best memories are me with Mother Nature. Will she let me live or not? So far she has always given me an escape, but I’ve had to figure it out on my own. I love lightning storms; the water gets black and the white caps are whiter than white. Lightning is its own broadway show, for a one time showing, and I’ve got a front row seat living life at that moment.