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Wait until you see your first muskie! There are a high percentage of muskies quite capable of eating just about the largest chain pickerel you tend to catch down south. And they would do it, too, since that entire Esox genus are preferential cannibals.
There are a few of them in the river that runs right past your door, in fact. You wont see em very often but they are there. Both pike and muskies are active all winter. I have had muskies come right into the ice hole and attack transducers on both of my flashers. I would say its not a waste of time to throw the top waters you might under similar conditions back in Georgia. There may or may not be better offerings for this time of year, but the big eaters may be anywhere once their lake mixes good and the river stays more uniform all year around. Both Esox species work shallow water pretty heavily in the fall after turn over for panfish and other bait fish that are exposed when the surface weeds sink. So do largemouths at least in the lakes. Same in the spring for all three species. They can be and often are taken through the ice all winter, although there are some famous patterns in some places. Before they moved the end of muskie season up to Dec 1, there was a pretty active early ice fishery for them, generally on tip ups baited with suckers.
Northern and southern tactics translate surprisingly well back and forth when the species is the same and conditions allow, although as water cools most of us down size a bit, although not everybody.
