I mostly put my live bait under a slip float and tightline jigs. However, that's not necessary. If your fishing environment is more condusive to tightlining, tipping your jig with a small minnow sometimes gets the bite when the other presentation methods don't. You can even tightline a plain jighead hook with a minnow (lip hooked) instead of a tube jig. I love getting my thump on a jig, but like "they" say, 'they don't get fat on plastic'. One advantage of using floats is you can fish more than one rod at a time and you can vary your depths as needed. This is usually done in open water hovering over a brushpile. Another advantage to a float is you can pitch or cast your bait to a spot (like the buckbrush or cypress you mentioned) and the float will hold it there for you at the desired depth. Bottomline, you can use a jig or live bait with any of the presentation methods you choose. The only difference is you control your depth manually when tightlining and the stopper and float controls the depth for you.