So how does short floating work? The golden rule is the length from your float to your weight, (not to your hook, but from float to weight), should be less than the depth of the water you are fishing by at least a foot...in fact usually a shorter float than that is better as you want your hook floating above the fish's heads...not disturbing them or spooking them at all...enticing them to strike, not striking them.
You may have noticed how salmon swim near the bottom, and when you walk up to a pool they see you and swim a bit further away....well this would logically mean that the salmon can see things above them and around them and react to them right? So the theory behind the short floating technique is to present your attractant, be it bait or a spinner, or a peice of wool that looks like some salmon eggs floating in the water, in such a way that the fish sees it, reacts to it swims over, and bites it. Fish don't have hands to inspect items that they are curious about, they use their mouths to check things out. Therefore by presenting your wares to the fish in such a way that entices them to inspect what you are offering, you are trully participating in and honing the skills of river drift fishing...you have tricked the salmon or steelhead into striking your presentation because it wanted to, not because you hit it on the head with your weight and it accidentally swam into your hook...when you fish with a "short float" and the fish strikes your hook, you will have trully experienced the "sport" in sportfishing and will learn that there is a science and methodology to catching these beautiful fish on our rivers that requires much more skill than just dragging your hook along the bottom and hoping for the best.
You bring in factors like what depth the fish are precisely at, how much weight to use to present your offering at the right speed, and what angle you need to approach the fish from so as to slow or speed up your presentation in such a way as to entice them to bite. Suddenly what color jig or wool or spinner you use becomes a part of the challenge.