Floating ‘sinking’ leader

[Merseamudboy]

I’m after some advice. I’m new to both fishing and using the fly despite being retired. 
Yesterday I was fishing a Stillwater locally (Bessie Beck). My 2nd fly session.  I had a fee hours casting tuition and fishing at Helwith Bridge last week. I drew a blank with one bite when I was faffing with my line and not prepared for it. I was using a floating line and an Airflo copolymer 5’ 2iS leader with about 7’ of flouro tippet. The surface tension of the water was making the sinking leader float??

I have some Xink (that I’ve not used before) and I tried drying the leader off and applying. It didn’t really help and left an oily film on the water. Any ideas?

I had a blank 4 hours. One friendly chap with cheaper well worn gear got a couple near to me and later got a 12lb rainbow. 
I noticed that the weed and overhanging  stuff that limited back casts were on the prevailing wind downwind side of the lakes. I guess that is normal if you think about it. The said friendly chap (not all were so pleasant) was double hauling right across and hitting the downwind side without looming over the fish. I struggled standing on the downwind side, lots of tangles with fly on weeds, trees, bushes, fly vest, rod and jacket etc. 

The guy casting right across was self taught by instinct and trial and error. He didn’t even know it was ‘double hauling’. 
A good day in terms of practice and experience but I feel like I need a fish on the hook to keep enthusiasm up. 
Im still enjoying myself.