Thanks all for the help. We had a good time exploring the james lake chain and "boated" (or the equivalent of) a enough bluegill for a meal or two. Re-reading the above two posts perfectly describe the finicky and light bite, but I didn't read that good enough before seeing it first hand. "Invest" the couple dollars in a good spring bobber to help see what's going on. The Schooley's worked fine, although I liked winding fish up with open face spinning reel. The spooler type reel sure looked appealing but most just had UL spinning. My closed face spincast didn't behave so well in the cold with the tighter wound 4# line, but never had ice up issues. We we're sitting over 16-20' of water catching them 1-2' off the bottom. Yup spikes out-performed the waxies, and what I thought was plenty small 1/16 oz jig maybe size 8 hook was WAY too big, ended up with small split shot and smallest ice jig in the box, probably size 12 hook or something. Nearly everyone was happy to offer tips and show their rigs once they saw how un-threatening we were!!! Most had vexilar's or other flashers and the bait store owner salesman put it best....kinda is like a video game getting your jig to line up with the fish and "nibble-nibble" - time to set the hook. Peace to all, stay safe. John