Salmo --
In the mid 1980s when it became legal to use weighted flies on the North Fork Stillaguamish I played around with floating lines (heavily dressed) and weighted buggy nymphs (stonefly?). They worked very well, especially with an upstream approach in pocket water, as the riffles dumped into the sweet spot, or along logs etc. However I quickly tired of the game (and the hits to the head, neck etc) and returned to my skated dries. Using a float would make it easier to track the path of the fly/jig and detecting the take though that generally wasn't a problem. The float and jig is deadly for steelhead and other anadromous fish. Such a approach is most effective on "stacked" or holding fish. A more classic approach for me has proven to more effective in searching for fish or covering lots of water.

For steelhead I have used floats with bait, yarn or jigs (first jigs I used were small crappie jigs - dynamite) since the early 1970s with bait casting gear. I found that conventional gear much more user friendly and efficient the fly rod. For the last couple decades my use of weighted flies have largely been cofined to trout and then limited to bugs that a large dry fly can support.

Have fun experimenting!

Tight lines
Smalma