Tip-ups are probably your best bet for finding toothy critters on any body of water (pike, musky, pickerel). They allow you to cover a lot of water at the same time, but you'll need to be patient. Bring along a jigging rod for perch, panfish or some other abundant species to keep you awake while you are waiting.
When fishing for those toothy critters, put your bait well up off the bottom to make it visible from a long distance. For example, if I am fishing in 10 feet of water, I'll set the bait bout 4-5 feet below the ice. Your bait will be more visible and will draw fish from a distance.
For bait, suckers, chub, trout, perch and large shiners are a good bet (at least 6") If you are fishing for pike exclusively, you can go with dead bait. Pike do like to scavenge. Make sure you are using a quick strike rig - one that has two treble hooks in tandem on a leader. For pike and pickerel, I'd use a good stiff 20+ lb mono line. For muskies, go heavier or even to steel. You can make thse rigs yourself or you can buy them. I usually tie my own. Put one treble hook through the nose of the bait and the second hook behind the dorsal fin. When a fish strikes, you will not need to wait for it to inhale the bait - this could gut hook it. Rather, give the fish one or two seconds and then set the hook. Just make sure you have a lot of line on your tip-ups. Those fish can run a long way.
Good Luck!
Butcher
