IT can be argued both ways in my opinion. The reason I picked depth first is, you may find good structure in a lake but it could be 40, 50, 60, 70 feet deep, and the pike probably won't be there, although some lakes they might. Or it could be the opposite really shallow structure and no pike. The key is to combine both of them, the right depth of structure for the particular lake. Like Gambell said its lake specific. A lake I fish for big pike, 8-12 feet is the most consistent depth producer. Along a drop off at this depth is the best, but even where there seems to be no structure this depth range still produces fish.