Don't spud me in.

[TogueHunter]

I usually venture away from the crowds....

I do the same thing, especially when you get guys who drive to their holes instead of walking. I feel they are driving more fish away then they catch.   I try to be as quiet as possible on the ice and I think it pays off.  It's very similar to deer hunting during the gun season.  I try to get back in away from where I know other hunters are likely to be and let them push the deer to me!  The same holds true with ice fishing... besides I like my peace and quiet. 
I learned a lesson the hard way also about leaving your catch on the ice for others to see.  Yeah it's nice to show off that lunker that you caught, but I had one guy on a snowmobile pull up to see what was going on and when he saw my fish he drove about 50ft away and started drilling holes!     So now my fish get buried in the snow right next to my shack, or go in a box on my sled.

[ice dawg]

Several years ago my son and I were fishing an a small river and I drilled two lines of holes from shore to shore. We each put a dead stick in a hole and were hole hopping the rest with jigging spoons. A guy tried to start his auger for about a half hour and it wouldn't start. When it finally did start it wouldn't drill and he started banging it on the ice. I'm sure that helped. Then he just walked over and started jigging in our holes. This didn't bother me a lot since he was having problems. A buddy of his showed up and let him use his drill and he drilled about six holes behind my son and I. I took my ice scoop over and cleaned his holes out for him. Then I took a rod and started jigging in one of his holes and he went ballistic on me. He was fishing by laying a regular open water rods on the ice so everyone had to step over them. Anyway, when my son and I left we ACCIDENTALLY pulled our sleds over two of his rods. How careless of us.