I read in the posts that the Alewife population is strong and they ball up. I used to fish for them in a lake in PA and when that would happen we would cut the top off a discarded Christmas tree, wrap about a hundred small pieces of foil on it and push it through a hole. You'll have to weight it with about a 1lb weight. Drill holes in a radious about 6-8 ft from the hole where you will be jigging the psuedo school and set your tip ups or jig them.
It worked really well in PA. Try it and let me know.
