I love these lures for rivers. The river i fish is about 1-2 feet deep with a rock bottom. The way i like to fish them is cast them out and reel them in fast enough that im bouncing off of the rocks, i like the floating ones for this because if you get stuck under a rock just let the line go slack and the lure will usually get free. Small mouth hammer this bait when fished like this, it is my Go-To on shallow rivers.