great ideas guys. one last question, when rigging your worm do you leave a good amount hanging off?

Casting distance is why I use the Gapen rather than the Thill for fixed floats - the shy bite is very sensitive but as noted above does not cast well, whereas the Gapen casts awesomely. But I do use the Thill Center Slider as my only slip float.

Hook the worm just once through the nose - better action, which leads to more and bigger fish.

A Canadian Crawler is say, 6", I cut off about 1" and thread it onto the jighead.

I use a bunch of different floats on a bunch of different rigs with bait sometimes and artificials most of the time. I use small slip floats mostly for bait. Pencil type slip floats for still water and round ones for moving water. Weighted some times for still water; unweighted for moving water. I really like small round cork or foam ones for quick current, especially for rocky riffles and the like. I use fixed floats almost exclusively when fishing lures and artificials. I mostly fish jigs and plastics below them and mostly unweighted ones. I still use pencil type floats, but my favorite is a Bett's Rattlin' Pear. A-just-a-bubbles are also a great choice, especially when you need to make longer casts.

I tend to use 6lb test when fishing with bobbers and only go down to 4lb when I absolutely must. 6lb tends to hold up better to the added terminal tackle of the float itself and the added split shot when needed. I also tend to go with a longer rod with more backbone when fishing more floats. On short casts, on small streams or any time fish are really taking down the float, you can get away with shorter rods. But when you're making longer casts, if current is sweeping your rig down stream fairly quickly or if fish are not fully commiting to taking down the float. I also like a longer, stiffer rod when wading or fishing from a kayak, canoe or tube. The rod I use most when fishing a float, especially with lures, is a 7'6" ML. It has enough length and backbone to get a good hookset even with floats and even with floats at a great distance. In closer quarters a 6'6" L is normally enough to get the job done. Hope this helps!

you use a jighead??