Cable fishing sucks

I have plans for a gigabit ethernet network that is used for video distribution. So because I didn't have the foresight to have my builder run CAT5e along with coax I've recently been trying to fish some wires down some interior walls in my house. To be perfectly honest my friends did tell me to have the CAT5e run, but I was stubborn and stupid and didn't want to pay my builder's exorbitant fees for each extra run of cable. I figured I could run it myself later and that it would be easy since I had attic access to all of the areas I needed to run cable to.

So up to this point I've spent several hours in my attic, purchased a set of fish stix, spade drill bits, and several sheets of plywood (for a makeshift attic floor). I've also borrowed some high tech cable finding gadgets from a friend.

Even after all of this I still don't have a single wire run. I've managed to get the cable up into the attic -- turns out this is the easy part with the help of the fish stix. I've also found the location in my attic where I need to drop the CAT5e wire down and drilled a hole through the header for the wire. This is where the real problems began -- I've used the fish stix in the hole I drilled, but for some reason there's a mystery blockage somewhere in the wall. Using a cable tester I can verify that the cable is in the right spot in the wall and about 6-12" above the location I need it to come out at. Unfortunately at this point it seems like it's blocked and I have no idea what it's blocked on. The stud finder doesn't see anything, and the AC line finder doesn't see anything either. To add to the mystery if I use a fish wire and push it up from the box with coax in it I can get about 3-4' into the wall, well above where the blockage seems to be on the way down. What's up with that?!?!

So I'm running out of ideas at this point. One friend suggested a fiberscope, but they're a bit too expensive. So I'm stuck.