a little extreme...even for Alaska

It's been a little bit on the cold side lately. As I'm writing this, the temperature outside is -10.1 degrees at 8:45pm. This morning, we broke our record for the 4 years that we've been here. We reached -20.5 degrees!!! That is COLD!! We are currently at 6 straight days below 0 and counting!

So with all this bitter cold weather, what did I decide to do today? Go ICE FISHING!!!! What else would I do but go stand out on a frozen lake with no shelter! It actually ended up being a great time. Nate and his dad (who is visiting Alaska for the first time from North Carolina) joined me for several hours of standing and staring at a line in a semi-frozen hole.

Nate and his dad were troopers and showed up early and drilled the hole for us with an auger. Some Alaskans might laugh at us but we got an auger for free. We weren't complaining but from the sound of it, a gas powered one would have been nice. Nonetheless, they got the hole open (about 2 feet of ice) and started pulling in the fish.

By the time I arrived, they already had a good thing going so I threw in my line and pulled in a little 5 inch fish within the first couple of minutes. What was a very pleasant surprise was the couple that was standing by watching us...a pair of bald eagles!! The lighting was just right for some fantastic pictures.

Nate...master baiter. And a master fisherman.

Nate and his dad. Doesn't look too cold, does it?So leagle (misspelling intended) or not, we "accidentally" dropped a couple of the fish we caught off to the side and guess who swooped down to pick them up? It was AMAZING!! At one point, I think I was only 10 yards or so away when they picked up the fish. It was so cool to be that close to a bird of that size.

and a video from my D90. First time I've downloaded a video from the new camera...it's a bit of a pain but we'll see how good it looks.

All in all, I caught maybe 8 fish and Nate caught a dozen or so...but none were keepers. They ranged from a tiny 3 inches (Nate) to the catch of the day which must have been a good 6 inches (also Nate). I think I caught the same 5-inch fish 8 times.How cold was it??? This cold. If you can't tell, that's ice on my eyebrows! Part of me wishes I wouldn't have worn my balaclava so I could see how much ice would have formed on my beard. The other part of me is glad my face didn't freeze and fall off my head. I think it was between -5 and -10 while we were fishing.