[WayneChristie]

Ive been out 4 times so far only had bites on 1 of them, not really the right person to ask
thats how fishing goes, get a little cocky and they remind us how wrong we can be! all part of the fun for me anyways.
I usually fish a bay thats pretty much 7 to 8 feet deep. although I do fish shallower than that quite often too. you can have great days where you cant even sink a bait without someone grabbing it and days where you wonder why you dragged your tail out of the nice warm bed and out into Siberia!!
I like to put my bait right on bottom for pike, single J jook either in the back just in front of the dorsal so you can rip it out of the bait when they pick it up, or in the back of the head so I can just barely lift the head off bottom when they are being really picky, makes it easier for the pike to suck in your bait head first. The single hook gives I think even more hookups than trebles, at least for me if not at least cause a lot less damage to the fish.
I like to sit in a nice insulated tent on foam mats with a big heater, Im old and you young pups can freeze whatever you like mines a bit more worn A camera is the biggest advantage you can have especially when the fish are picky or turned off feeding, you can sometimes convince them to take your bait by slow jigging it and I like to bring it right to the ice once in a while doing that. a herring shines very bright when its jigged and fish can see it for a long way, they may not take it but they can also draw in more pike to see what they are after. Ive learned so much watching them on camera and it doesnt take long to realize how much you miss while looking through your windshield or waiting for a flag to chase.
I hate tipups, even though I caught my PB on one, take the victories while you can I guess!!! If you see me runniing on the ice you may want to start running too!