Dave,seems your really liking "the Canadian crutch"as Bill calls it.I'm not sure if we even have brats up here,but for early winter steels ,I have taken a liking to fishing Colorado blades (home made) under a float .Very versataille,you can swing em ,cast up river and rapid retrieve them ,or just let em barely spin with a natural drift,even put a jensen egg on the hook shank occasionally.Am also starting to really like the float and jig,our fish do not see alot of this set up YET.