in our natural lakes we get them back in bays, at the mouths of bays, by inlets, necked down areas between basins, off steep main lake drops around points inside bends and humps. in deep clear lakes we have set 15ft down over 30feet of water. some real bruisers come from the deep. remember pike are migraters at ice-out. if you have a lake fed by a river/creek they can push way up it!