live bait rig

[DTC]

I am fishing in the Missouri river just below Pickstown / Lake Francis Case about 1/2 mile or so. We often anchor just out of the current, still fishing on a drop off with 1/8 to 1/4 oz. egg sinker above a 24 in snelled #4 red octopus hook baited with a crawler. Generally, we do well, but catch a lot of other fish (catfish, small mouth bass, drum, even a northern or two - nothing wrong with a mixed bag...but I would like more walleye). I tie my own snells, so I can adjust the length as need be by re-rigging.

I am looking at adding a float on the snelled hook rig to get it up off the bottom more so as to be more visible to the walleye.

Anyone used a rig like this?
How does it work for you?
Would you make it longer?
Any prefered colors for the float you would suggest? (I have white organge, green, yellow) from Cabela's
Cabelas has suggested a hook that is oddly shaped that imparts more movement to the crawler, so I am going to try that...any input there?

Any advice would be welcome.....thanks!

[REW]

DTC,
Try everything you have suggested, and let the fish tell you the story of what they want.

REW

[Dabluz]

I would use a sliding egg sinker and a floating jig. Any colour of floating jig would do fine....as long as it is black. Or....get a hypodermic needle that diabetics use (super fine) and inflate your nightcrawler that is loosely hooked to a light wire hook.

Do not use fluorocarbon because it sinks.

[TinmanDon]

couple things I would try....when using your live bait set up, use a 3/4 oz egg sinker and snell between 3-4 ft. find bottom and lift about a ft and let the bait do what its gotta do, you always want to keep your main line as vertical as possible, keep bail open and when you feel the strike, feed line to count of 10 or so, close bail and reel in slack then slowly sweep the rod to set the hook.....other thing I would try is a 3-4ft snell behind a bottom bouncer with a spin n glow just ahead of a bead in front of the hook, works great up here for walleyes and you can even use this set up with a worm harness