I fish either 1/4" in the heavy flows of late fall, winter and spring. And in the summer I fish 3/16". The 1/4" gets down much faster then the 3/16" but hangs up more and thus becomes a pain in the ass during the low flows of summer.

All my rigs are with solid lead slid into a small piece of ruber tubing.

In the summer I rig sliding unless I am fishing with eggs and then I run fixed. All other times I run fixed.

I have never liked the soft spongy feel of slinkies as the hard taps of lead transmit the the contour and structure of the bottom much better. Plus whenever you hang up with slinkies, you are pretty much screwed where as lead will pop loose from your rubber tubing and you can geat your gear back. Plus lead gets down so much faster then slinkies do and you dont have to spend hours upon hours making them.