I have an array (nodes[][]) that contains values of effective distances that looks something like this:

__                 __
|1    0.4  3         |
|0.4  1    0         |
|3    3.2  1   ...   |
|0.8  4    5         |
|0    0    1         |
--                  --

Where the first value, node[0][0] is the distance from node 0 to node 0 which is 1.
So the distance from node 2 to node 1 is 3.2 (node[2][1]=3.2)
I need, given a node column, to search through the rows to find the farthest distance, while not picking itself (node[1][1])
The method I was thinking to do something like this:

int n=0;
currentnode=0;  //this is the column I am searching now
if(currentnode==n)
   n++;
best=node[n][currentnode];
nextbest=node[n++][currentnode];
if(nextbest>best)
   best=nextbest;
else
  for(int x=n;x<max;x++)    //max is the last column
  {
   if(currentnode==n)
      continue;
   nextbest=node[x][currentnode];
   if(nextbest>best)
      best=nextbest;
  }

I can't think of a better method to do this. I could use functions to make it shorter but this is GENERALLY what I am thinking about using. After this I have to loops this to go to the next column that the best distance returns and do this routine again.

You can simplify it quite a bit. A lot of your checks and temporary variables are redundant. Here's a small function that performs your search. I've renamed most of the variables to be a little more precise what their roles are.

int maxDistance(int fromNode) {
    int max = -1;

    for (int toNode = 0; toNode < nodeCount; ++toNode)
    {
        if (fromNode != toNode && nodes[toNode][fromNode] > max) {
            max = node[toNode][fromNode];
        }
    }

    return max;
}