Depends on how high the river is. Yourbweight is gonna be in contact with the bottom so your gonna want your leader to he up off the bottom righr in they're facenso they get pissed off the strike at it. I usually use 16 to 24 inches all the time. The guys fishing near you for the most part are more than happy to share their rig setup. Theres definitely a feel and technique to gettinnlegal fish. After gettin a few it gets a little familiar. You most of the time are not gonna get a slam as much as feeling dead weight. Theres no tap tap involved add the current its like hooking into a mattress at first then they will realize they're hooked and let you know. Its a blast evev though last year there were a lot of huge cats and big carp being brought in. HANG ON, them carp like to see how much line you got spooled up.