Hawk for the situation you discribed,that would be the only way to fish it,
Like I said before I fish a fixed 95% of the time,this would be one of the 5% .

I fish my own design float,it's weighted , yet easily adjustable,just like a bobber stop,So I'm able to change depths as needed.

during summer times I fish as small a float as possible,and yet alot of times I've had summeruns,just tip the float over

My hook ratio is high,I can't remember the last time I lost a fish I hooked on my float rod,
I did notice that it helps to have more than 40 yards of line,when hooking into a big Native Steelie.......Os