As some of you know my auger came loose from my power head just as it was going through the ice a week ago Sat. Here’s the story on it’s retrieval.
This morning Icejohn and myself left at 5:00 AM and headed south to a pond known for it’s elusive “auger fish”. They are very rare and from first hand experience, know they must be stocked by some one. Yesterday I had to make a special pole just to try to get one. We arrived at the pond location at approx. 9:00 AM, after getting permission to fish there we drove down to the pond. It was 45 degrees and getting a little greasy on the lane down.
When we got next to the pond, I started rigging the pole while Icejohn looked for the spot know to hold the auger fish. Icejohn was able to find the spot easy with his built in GPS. I joined him with my brother in-laws power auger, my Aquq-Vu, and the special pole. After drilling 2 holes I dropped the camera down and there it was, the auger fish, I then prepared the loop on the pole and dropped it in the other hole. I could see I was close with the camera but when I would move the pole it would move the opposite of what the camera showed.
I brought the pole back up and Icejohn made the loop bigger, I dropped ot back down the hole and figuring out which way to move the pole to match the camera I was able to snare it. I tightened the loop and started to pull it in, suddenly it stopped and was fighting after a little tussle I was able to subdue this elusive creature. After Icejohn lipped it coming out the hole he said we should release it and try again, I put a stop to that and told him that we reached our limit and we were not going to do it again.
We had planned on fishing this pond for gills and crappies also but with the melting and thawing going on we decided to leave while it was still good with out tearing up the lane. We headed for another pond and fished for about 3 hours. I lost one at the bottom of the hole and Icejohn iced 2 gills which went back. Here are some pictures of the pole I made.
Ed
