I catch more pickerel than anything through the ice, even when I'm not trying to catch them. I catch most of them close to shore, in water as shallow as 6'. They love hanging out in weeds so they can jump out and nab baitfish. So put your shiners above weeds, you don't have to put your bait too low beneath the ice- one joke I heard was that pickerel have teeth so they can pluck the bait from the spool. When I run out of shiners I've caught pickerel on worms and nightcrawlers but they tend to be smaller fish.
Circle hooks are awesome. Medium to large shiners can catch them, though I've caught decent sized pickerel on tiny fatheads. I use pre-tied circle hooks snelled on fluro, so far I haven't had any pickerel biting off and the hook gets them in the corner of the mouth. I put one or two small split shot 12"+ above the hook, with stronger currents you might need more but there usually isn't much where I fish.
Most pickerel I've caught on tipups, but when they spit the hook I've caught them jigging with a perch colored hali tipped with waxies or mousies. There are probably better lures for pickerel than halis but that's what worked then. Another I jigged on a roadrunner, I think it was pink and white tipped with a worm. I always take a jigging rod with me when I chase flags, when I can. Even after nearly getting caught pickerel are so hungry they'll still go after jigs.
Pickerel taste great, the only reason I release more than I eat are those Y-bones I can never seem to completely remove. In my state 15" is a legal fish but they're hardly worth cleaning under 20".
