I know what you mean about stateside
@Josh Roelofsen. We were fishing the Big Manistee river in the late 80's with Float Rods and reels. Dick Swan would just watch in amazement. (Dick was the "founder" of noodle rods) Dick moved quickly to the center pin after seeing the Canadians use them. As for up here we did get some looks as there were only about 5 of use that were using them at the beginning. Most people were bouncing bottom. I still love to bottom bounce and do that when we head to the Big Manistee every fall, but bring out the float rod every now and then for some big water trout.
I would have to say that while float fishing is fun it has truly made a lot of marginal fisher people into what they deem as experts, just about anyone can tell if they have a fish on when the float goes down. Now not everyone can bottom bounce and feel fish vs bottom, still nothing like the feel of a Steelhead trying to rip the rod from your hands on a drift