I guess I don't understand, why one would want a floating leader for high stick nymphing? Isn't the idea to get on the bottom and bounce? Fishing basically under the rod tip? The high held stick to keep any line off the water? It's been over thirty years since I had water where I felt this was an effective method and maybe my memory is faulty or maybe I misunderstand the term usage in today's jargon.
I do think a hand tied leader would be more versatile and you could make any or all of it from high visibility materials. I always went by touch and wanted my leaders invisible.

Another think I will do (more when I'm doing tenkara) is tie a nailknot of amesia around around my leader. It produces a florecent bead. I will tie a few of these and slide them up and down the leader.

I also like the indicator tubes that Harry Murry sells. I've always used them for traditional nymphing or swinging wets rather than high-sticking.

For years -- no decades -- for nymphing and deep fly work, I have used short -- 1-2" -- sections of fluorescent fly line threaded over a tapered leader as my indicators. They are easy to install; slide up and down the leader for different depths; are very visible and sensitive to fish takes; and pose no casting or reeling-in difficulties. i can't count the number of fish that have hit them so there is little to no 'spook' effect. I even use them for dry fly work -- just slide them up to the fly line joint.

Rigging them is simple, Insert a sharply bent section of fine guitar wire through the fly line hollow core; trap the leader tippet in the bend; and draw it up onto the leader.

Heddonist

Helpful friends,

In the last few days, I have spent some time nymphing with my 9' 4 wt long graphite Diamondback Western Series rod, my 12' Tenkara rod, and my 8'6" Shakespeare 9 wt fiberglass rod (because...well, fiberglass). The styles of nymphing I have been doing are long-leaders cast and drifted with an indicator, and high-stick nymphing (mostly using Tenkara).

What I have learned: Drift nymphing with an indicator, mostly upstream to keep the fly above the indicator is effective but the drag on the end of the line, the drift indicator, and butt section of the leader create more drag than the nymph (below the surface) and tend to bring the fly (which you want bouncing on the bottom) up into the water column. I found I had best control of the fly and could best keep it on the bottom with the tenkara rod. If I could reach the target water within the Tenkara's rod's length, the leader-line would allow the nymph to go to the bottom of the river, and keeping the rod tip and line slightly downstream of the fly would best indicate a take, without increasing drag that would pull it off the bottom. The near-zero drag on the line (since it entered the water close to vertically) would allow the fly to reach the bottom effectively and bounce along the bottom. The 8'6" 9wt, Shakeaspeare was too soft to stay in touch with the nymph that would produce best success, and the line weight was higher than I really needed. Despite my fiberglass DNA, I'll probably nymph with graphite since they are my longest rods.

I did find Bulldog's comment "the shortest length of submerged leader to the fish gets the most hookups" to be truth.

If I am doing something wrong, I remain open to suggestions. Thanks to your suggestions, I have several good leader options to allow me to best stay in touch visually with what is going on below the surface. Since I have not become the world's best nymphing fisherman, I am open to suggestions and will be happy to try your suggestions. Thanks for the suggestions all!

you're making progress Donny. No matter what anybody tells you here, your nymphing success is going to depend on you, and the techniques and skills you develop.

The drag at the end is essentially swinging wets, and can be very effective if you're imitating caddis and BWOs during a hatch - there are some gravel bars and tailouts I target to let my swing result there.
When I'm doing that, this size 14 tungsten head soft hackle is my attractor and weight,

and is this size 20 swimming BWO is my dropper

I am with you aurelio,...but the "looking up" fish I seek in small streams aren't there between the end of September and the 4th of July here. This is a skill I'd like to develop because that appears to be the only way to routinely catch fish in the San Juan River or the Animas River here during the winter months. Not my favorite to be sure...but I'd like to be reliably good at it.

Bulldog's comment here is truth: "the shortest length of submerged leader to the fish gets the most hookups".

A good day is any one that I do not end up falling in a river when there is snow on the banks...

You could knock them over the head with that thing. That must get down fast.

I might try something like that for high water, early season nymphing. Getting the fly to the bottom is key.

Donny,ran into a couple of euro guys on the Red yesterday and the were cleaning up.They were using a piece of Umqua indicator tippet comes on a tippet spool 3,4,or 5X.They were high sticking and had there line at 45 degrees instead of the typical straight down off the ti

Nice...........Aurelio

I fished with a Tenkara rod exclusively for 2-3 years and found that a short section of colored Amnesia (18" or so) at the end of a level flurocarbon line was enough of a sighter.

A key is to have just one diameter of tippet section under water. Multiple diameters of tipper/leader under the surface creates drag. Also bouncing a nymph on the bottom isn't as productive as fishing the water column. Meaning that fish hold in various levels at differnet times. Yea you find where the bottom is but fish above that using the sighter to determine the depth of the drift, make sense?

I also found that using a light weight yarn type indicator (like the New Zealand) worked great with a Tenkara rod. It allowed fishing a bit further out and with just the level line on the water it was much easier to mend than with a fly line.