Lot's of good advice already, but, here's how my float fishing rig is setup...
I like P-Line Hydrofloat for the mainline. It's bright yellow and it floats. I use the Blackbird 3-in-1 floats from Redwing Tackle because I can rig 'em up as slip floats or as fixed floats depending on how deep the river gets that I'll be fishing (90% of the time I go for the slip). I have about 4 sizes on hand. I use Bioline Biodegradable fishing line for a leader, 'cause that's how I roll. Sometimes if the chop is heavy or my float is otherwise riding too high I use Dr. Drop tungsten sinkers rather than split shot because they have a nice, low-profile (of course my opinion is biased in that regard). When I need even more weight than that, I'll use an inline swivel sinker in place of the barrel swivel.
I use a Shimano Symetre 2500 spinning real on 9.5 - 11' rod depending on how much bushwhacking I need to do (I use the smaller rod when bank fishing the Wilson River, larger rod on the bigger rivers like Lewis, Sandy, Cowlitz, etc.).
