I done trying for the night, but thought I'd get some advice about what to do next.

My Bayou 220 would not start. Got a new plug, still wouldn't start. Had spark. Cleaned the carb, still wouldn't start.

searched the forums and someone suggested flooding. turned off the gas valve and plugged the air intake and for the first time in two days it sputtered. removing my hand from the air intake, gas came back into the airbox.

with the gas off, cranked and started.

My problem now is that when it's running, it runs so high that the choke and the throttle have no effect to either speed up or slow down the engine. tried adjusting the throttle, but still runs fast until it runs out of gas. after I turn off the gas valve, it will run for what seems like a minute until it runs out of gas and stops.

I'm pretty sure the throttle cable is working, but my guess now is that it's just getting too much gas all the time. I'm assuming my next step is to check the float and the float valve.

Am I on the right track? Anything else to check?

 

Maybe not.
The Bayou is known to have choke related problems. It's not really a choke that blocks the air-flow. But it is actually a fuel enrichening system (plunger & bore) that supplies extra fuel to the carb. If the plunger is hanging open (even partially) even when the choke lever is at fully closed position, the carb gets too much fuel and there would be a problem like what you are seeing on your 220. Corrosion at the plunger/bore or incorrect choke cable routing can cause this.

 

So I woke up thinking I'd have to tear off the carb, but with one thought--when I put the carb back together, the needle jet wasn't going down into the hole very far.
So before taking it off, I decided to back out the idle screw all the way. started right up with the gas open and idled better than it has in the year I've owned it.
So it was mainly stupid me, although I can say this was the first carb I've ever taken apart and reassembled, so I'm allowed one stupid mistake...
Although it's also possible that sitting overnight caused something to loosen that was stuck, maybe the choke plunger as you pointed out, so I'll keep an eye on things.

 

floats get stuck on mine all the time and it bogs out pick the back of the quad up and drop it it makes the floats go down and has worked for me for the 2 times they have gotten stuck in the year i have had it. maybe time to put a fuel filter on it since i dont think it comes with one stock