Can you find my needle? It's in that haystack.

I hate that expression. It's like finding a needle in a haystack.
You might as well say "Hey! There is no way you can do this. You will fail if you try and you are a loser!"
Well I'm not a loser. Unless it's basketball. I'm about as good at basketball as a blind man is at charades.

It's said that the idiom goes back to the 1600's. Obviously they did not have proper training in search and recovery methods back then or else the saying would have never caught on.

When people lose something in a big body of water, they are surprised when I'm willing to take up the challenge. It always makes me laugh when they are surprised, because I think to myself why did they ask me if they thought it was impossible.

Several months ago I had a friend come up to me with one such challenge. He lives on a lake and was on a jet ski when he turned to sharply and fell off the jet ski. In what I'm sure was, a gloriously graceful dismount; my friends watch fell off. A very nice Invicta his family had gotten him one year for Christmas.

He was pretty bummed about losing it because of the sentimental value. 

The lake is 1 square mile and 50 feet deep. He thought it was gone and would forever haunt the fish on the bottom of that lake.
While he was telling me about all the events leading up to the heart wrenching separation, you could almost hear the doubt intensify in his voice. "No problem" I told him. "I'll come by later this week and find that thing."

When I got there I asked the same questions I always ask. I was able to narrow this haystack down to a hay bail! Once I got in the water, the bottom composition informed me that the "needle" might as well have been painted bright pink.
After an hour of searching I located the watch and recovered it to the disbelief of my friend.

Don't be so quick to see large body's of water as haystacks. Learn to ask the right questions that will minimize the area you have to search. Work from a known to an unknown. 

Search negatively my friends!