K
Kage
Even with floating line, the important thing to remember is that you must get the slack out before trying to sink in that hook. The key it the real as fast as you can to take out the bend and as soon as you feel the resistance, set it.
When it's windy, I leave my line on the water as tight between the tip of my rod and the float without creating any drag or push if possible. To mend, just lift the line of fthe water and reset.
30# braid is OK. Though Nanofil is really sweet for float fishing when I dabbled with someone's setup running that line, I personally still use 30# braid myself because I just buy some spools and use it on a various rigs as interchangeable. If you care to, definitely pick some up for float fishing at some point. But I don't see much issue with using what you have in the meantime.
I agree with Chez, 30# will work, I use it on my salmon float rod set-up. However, I use an entirely different set-up for steelhead. I even have different set-ups for winter steelhead and summer steelhead depending on the water conditions. I like to lighten things up for steelhead, especially summer fish. It's more finesse fishing most of the time...................