live bait on or off bottom?

[PFUNK]

I got a quick question about fishing flatheads with live bait. I've been fishing channels now on the crow river for a couple years but have never been able to try for flatheads. I'm planning on giving it a whirl this summer and was just hoping I could find out what kind of a rig you use to fish live bait for flatheads. I figured you must do something to keep the bait off the bottom or else it would get all banged up and die. Is this the case or am I way off here? Do you use a leader with a float on the end or do you just use a long leader and let the bait swim up off the bottom? I'm sure this was brought up in other threads so if it was I apologize. Thanks for the help guys. Much appreciated.

[DTro]

No different than cut bait, except use a bigger hook

[ec30_06]

You may want to use a bigger sinker to keep the bait from swimming into snags.

[slipperybob]

Depends, on if I can put something on bottom without snaffu!