trout fishing through the ice

Hi Folks, Been on the hard water chasing trout, perch, and smelt.  There was 11" of black ice where was yesterday covered by a foot of snow and water.  Pretty sloppy walking around.  I caught my own bait by jigging for smelt.  I found the smelt suspended between 15' and 18' in a total of 32' of water.  Pretty handy using my vexhilar to locate the bait.  Also, jigged some very nice perch right under the ice.  On several occasions I could see the perch at the hole and they were easy pickings.  Set tip ups for trout using the captured smelt and landed one decent brown trout and had several other flags that ended up being large perch attacking my bait.  I used Hali jigs in chartruse and silver as both colors worked equally well.  Will be guiding today and should be fun.  Remember to obey the bait laws keep VHS at home.  Have Fun, Willy