24 NEBRASKALand • DECEMBER 2016
and left us once again searching for something to
escape our cabin fever.
Because of this fever, shortly after Thanksgiving I
bought a gas-powered auger ($300) to give ice fi shing a
real go. It wasn't a top-of-the-line auger, which could go
for several hundred dollars more, but I thought it might
provide me the ability to cut a few more holes than I
was currently doing.
With this power, and a couple of ice fi shing rod-and-
reel combos ($30 apiece), we started fi shing together.
On one of these days, Kevin and I went with a group of
people, including NEBRASKAland's Jenny Nguyen, to
a private lake in west Omaha. We cut a series of holes
across a three-acre cove about 20 feet from each other,
a perimeter of sorts, and then drilled an X across it. This
pattern not only gave us several holes to fi sh, but also
gave my kids, now at ages 3 and 6, a place to play.
And play they did. They pulled each other on the
sled, loaded fi sh on and off the sled, giving them a
ride as they did, and delivered supplies to each angler
on the ice. It was in the upper 20s with no wind and
the perfect winter day to be outside. It also became a
