On our southern California beaches, for most situations, use of a floating line will be more trouble than it is worth and less effective. A floating line is much more likely to be caught up in floating segments of eel grass or kelp and a sinking line gets beneath that stuff. It is much easier to keep the offering on the bottom where it needs to be with a sinking line.

There are some applications for floating lines in the surf here but these are the exception rather than the rule.