Welcome to a tough Lake!
as a relative newcomer to ice fishing and a newbie whos icefished with good ice anglers on the zoo (local name for kinzua).. Let me say that it is a tough lake.
honestly, I'm NOT sure I'd cut my teeth on this beast. Here are a few tips (mainly passed down from others), that nonetheless seemed (to me) to be real wise.
First pay extraordinary to being warm;
while any ice fishing is cold, kinzua is extraordinary because; the main arm creates a huge open path for North to south gusts and wind chill can be extreme. second because its huge and easy to walk quite a ways before you stumble into good depths etc, making for a really LONG walk to the car. Last, there are few ammenities on its ANF shore. If you get in trouble, and fall through there's not much help, espacially if you leave for more secluded spots.
Now the "legendary" cracks.
Does kinzua have huge cracks that open up leaving inches to feet of air beneath the ice??? I leave you to muse on these persistant stories. I honestly don't know and don't want judge any angler, from the very limited experiences I've had. I've heard good friends that nearly live on the lake in the winter say NO and some say YES... KINZUA is more dangerous. plain. Big water drawdowns can clearly create very visible shoreline cracks; it freezes slower than smaller waters.. and lots of time, the bays will be safe when the main lake is marginal. The long of it; DON'T FISH KINZUA ALONE, unless your are a risk taker, a hermit, or an ice expert.IMHO.
Prepare for Big and LITTLE fish.
I have seen both out of kinzua. What I dont' see in kinzua is consistancy. Sometimes the fishing is great, sometimes it is just dinks, most times it is just cold. The rumor is Kinzua means BIG fish. tell that to my friends that have gone lots of times and just been pestered with 8-12" walleye... and taken out of deep water like that- I wonder how many survived? BUT, on the same hand, don't go without an icepike (to urgently increase the size of your hole).
ok, thats it. My honest advice is to avoid kinzua for a while and try something easy. I'll tell you, Chapman dam is a nice little hotspot, that often holds a few huge trout in with the big crowds of stocked fish. The last few years produced some real nice fish... I had a friend pulll in a 22" brook trout. on a good day last year I had 3-4 near 12" and someone a little ways over, limited out have 3 fish over 15"...+ it freezes faster, is more sheltered and definitely safer than kinzua.
Right well thats all this icefishin' rookie better say. if you did want some company feel free to pm. I live in warren, so all these kinzua lake /upper alleghany river questions are in my backyard.