In the Dark House

"When was the last time you sat in a dark house?"

Aaron asked me this afternoon.

He stumped me for a moment until I realized more than a decade had passed since I'd last sat out on a lake looking down a hole to watch the underwater wonders. It was with his Grandpa Curt. Grandma Sue had offered to watch the boys so I could have an afternoon with my dad. At the time, I had an SLR 35mm camera. Capturing images was challenging in the low light; and results certainly weren't instant.

So when Aaron asked if I'd sit with him in the dark house, I agreed. Shooting digital images would be my adventure while he waited to spear pike.

Patterns in the melting ice
were the first thing
to catch my attention.

Meanwhile

Aaron broke open

the new ice cover

and scooped

out the chunks.

More than an inch thickness
had formed overnight
since Aaron and Dan's
Saturday afternoon outing.

Aaron emptied 

a five-gallon bucket

full of ice outside

the house

brought in
his spear,

 custom-made
by Grandpa Curt,

and

prepared it

for action.

During this outing,
Aaron lowered three
different decoys
down the hole
to lure in pike
in a water depth
of 12 feet.

When no pike

 showed up,

Aaron began

jigging for perch.

I started shooting
video to capture
the action
my fingers were
too slow to catch
with the shutter release.

Here's a perch nibbling
at a wax worm
under the decoy.

It got away.

But this one

wiggled

to the top

on Aaron's line,

came
up,

had a

quick

portrait,

and was
released.




Two hours passed
with more
of the same.

At 5 p.m.,

Aaron

wound up

activities

and drove us
into the sunset

and back home

to another
Dark House.