I used to fish with a long leader in 4 ft water 7,8,9 feet because that was how i was taught. However i had the opportunity to fish with a more experienced fisherman and i happened to notice as we fished the same water his indi was set to a much shorter leader than mine. He said that he found you saw far more takes when you were just ticking the bottom or even just above than dragging. So i made the switch and i found that i hooked up far more than the other method however i did find it took alot more attention and work #1 the indicator has to be adjusted alot more often to maintain this "ticking depth" as variations of one to two feet can throw it off #2 you need to watch your indi like a hawk and set on what are usually very small movements and very fast dips of the indi #3 you need to be quick. I'm not saying any method is wrong or right because each has been proven i'm just sharing whats worked well for me. (that said i don't ever catch fish anyways.)