I'm looking foward to some ice fishing soon, I like to go for the big pike most of the time, but I have some good spots well known for big brown trout and can't land them.Any good words on that???

In the winter under the ice, most fish will eat smaller stuff, so try a much smaller bait, like maybe a 1/32 or 1/64 jig and a little trailer, maybe even a trout or salmon egg if it's legal in your state. Also, switch up your presentation, if you're just letting your bait sit for long periods of time, try more aggressive jigging, and vice versa. Also, try the Ice Fishing section of the forums for some more specific info, I'm no expert on ice fishing but there are some guys there that really are.

It's just harder to land big fish through the ice, so keep trying. I've found that gettign a 10 inch hole is very helpful.

Fish are usually eating bigger food in the winter because the baitfish have all had a summer to grow and it takes less energy to eat a big thing that a bunch of little things. We catch a lot of lakers on smelts but i dont really know if a brown would take a smelt. I know guys on Piprell catch browns on shrimp pretty often. Roe is always a good choice because even a negative fish will hit it because its instinctive for them to destroy eggs.