[saxmatt]

Try 60lb pink yo-zuri and retie if I get any nicks. The pink disappears better than clear floro. In open water you can get away with less because you can set the hook immediately and the flex of the rod takes a lot of the tension off of the leader. Through the ice the fish have time to get the bait down their throat by the time you get to the flag so your leader will be in their mouth for the fight. When you're using a hand line you don't have anything to absorb the shock like you have when using a rod. You have to be especially careful around the hole when they start going nuts. The leader can get cut on the ice or by their teeth when they start spinning. Always grab the mouth with some kind of gripper or grab it by the gill plate while the head is still in the hole. The pike weighs nothing in the water but if you pull a third of the fish out like you did in the video there is a lot more weight on the leader and it's much easier for the pike to break you off with that extra pressure.