Berkley Boy, I don't use a sliding weight with my floats, at least not that often. Most of the time I just use a dink float with a bead between the float and the bobber stop and a bead below the float which rides above a snap swivel. I just use pencil lead or a slinky and attach it directly to the snap. Sometimes I will use a sliding weight and put a bead on each side of it to protect the knot and keep the swivel from damaging the float. Never had a problem with line damage because I use the River's Inlet knot and it's one tough ass knot!!! The tag end that runs along the mainline usually keeps the bead well above the knot which doesn't allow for line damage. I don't really get too fancy with my float setups anymore. I used to be, but I've learned that it's all about proper weighting of the float so that it doesn't ride too high or too low in the water and you need enough weight to feed line out downstream. Of course, presentation is important also. What exactly do these sinkers that you mentioned look like? How do they attach to the line? Might be interested in giving them a try if it's something new. Let me know how I can get a hold of some and thanks.

Superfly, who posts on this board is the best float fisherman I've ever met and I've fished with what most will refer to as "the best there is". He should be able to shed some insight on float fishing for us. Joe? He has shown me how to fish floats in fast water, slow water, medium current, pockets, and the list goes on. My catch rates with floats have increased so much since fishing with him that I rarely even driftfish anymore which used to be my preferred method when I'm not pulling plugs or divers in my boat.