On bright days with clear ice, northerns may hover just off the bottom at depths of 4 to 12 feet. At dawn or dusk when the day is overcast, they may be ghosting close under the ice. Pike generally stay in the shallows, foraging for small fish near weed beds. The use of two lines at different and varying depths is one very practical way to learn their habits as conditions change. Live minnows make good bait, especially if care is taken to bait the hook so that they are alive and able to swim.
Northerns often prefer smelt to minnows.
When fishing with dead smelt on a Swedish hook, set the hook on the northerns first run. Otherwise, when he turns the bait, he will feel the hook and spit it out. Hooking and landing game fish differs sharply from landing panfish. The northern is not a discreet nibbler like the panfish. Walleye Often state conservation or fisheries departments offer lake bottom maps, which show depth contours and the location of weed beds, sandbars, drop-offs, deep holes, and sometimes underwater springs.