Thanks for the thorough response. I feel it might be hard to convey how exactly I hold as not only am I a lefty, but I also have Randy Rhoads size hands, but let me take a try.
I find it most comfortable to have the pick towards the middle of the thumbs pad, and also the middle of the last bone of my finger, exactly where a pencil would rest on my hand. Angle-wise I pick at an 11 o'clock (using clock theory, haha) angle, which would be 1 o'clock if I was a right handed person. My hand is also floating but not too high I try to keep it as close as possible while still floating.
String noise hasn't been so much of a problem on the thicker strings. Its the 1st (E) and 2nd (B) that I notice unwanted string noise, but I ask people how it sounds and they say it doesn't sound much different than normal picking noise. To me it's annoying as hell, but it's getting better everyday. It's not to the extent of the string noise youd get holding it at a 3 to 4 o'clock (or for a lefty 9 to 10 o' clock) but it still is something that can bother me quite a bit.
Well, back to practicing!