So far, I'm doing great on my New Year's Resolution.
It's the second day of the new year and it's my second day fishing. Just 363 days to go.
In my auger troubles yesterday, I forgot to mention that dad had gotten an underwater fishing camera for Christmas. After losing the bottom part of the auger, we used Dad's fish finder to find out the depth (which was 15 feet) and then used the underwater fish camera to locate the auger piece. We attempted to mark the hole as we had potentially planned to come back for it today. Just in case we didn't make it out today, I looked around and was confident I could come back after the snow had melted and find the same spot (with my canoe.)
After some discussion, Dad decided he was going back after it, so I tagged along to keep him out of trouble.
Dad picked me up around 6:45am at my house and we headed back to Scofield. My niece, Shawnee, and nephew, Landon came along too.
We took my hand auger, as well as a tool Dad created to help us attempt to retrieve the missing auger piece. The tool was in 2 pieces. It was made out of a metal pole, each piece about 10 feet long. They attached together to form a 18 foot pole, each end having a hook on it.
Once we got back to our spot, I started drilling a hole by hand right next to the hole where I dropped the auger piece. About 5 minutes later, we made it through the foot of ice. Dad then used a shovel to break the ice between these two holes, to form one large ob-longed hole. We dropped the camera in the hole and immediately saw the auger. Next Dad put the pole down in and hooked the auger on his first try. He pulled it up slowly, I immediately threw off my gloves and jacket and pushed my selves up as far as they would go. I waited until I could see the auger and then reached down about 18 inches or so into the water and gabbed hold of the auger. The water was cold (34 degrees to be exact). I pulled the auger up to the bottom of the ice and start to bring it out through the same hole that it had been dropped through but it got stuck. So I'm kneeling by the hole, both hands in the cold water. Dad, Landon and Shawnee were looking for something to tie onto it, so I could get my hands out of the water and then I gave it a yank and up it came. I took off my wet shirt and got my jacket back on and stuck my hands down inside my snow pants in an attempt to get them warm. It only took about 5 minutes and my hands were warm again.
I didn't get a single bite today, however it was worth it to go back for the auger piece. Another highlight of the day was we set up Dad's underwater camera so we could see our fish hook about 12 feet down, but we never saw a fish. If the fish had been biting, it would have been extremely fun to watch them bite the hook.
I came home to an empty house.
When they got home, Ryan and I rocked out on Guitar Hero. We still play on easy, but we're getting better and have beat most of the songs on Easy mode. Ryan's much more confident than I am. He even decided to show his guitaring stills by putting the guitar behind his back and played the whole song with it behind him. He's a funny kid.
When I called Ryan up for dinner, he came to the table and said " Dad, I think I'm getting dehydrated from playing Guitar Hero." We had a little laugh, then ate dinner.
