I do use a spinning rod and braid. I fish mostly medium sized or smaller rivers and creeks. Braid is superior for topwater where the no stretch and long casts mean more fish.
Also, the line doesn't ever break. I keep drag loose and almost never lose a Smallmouth once they are hooked. No knot failures, no fish getting tangled in wood and lost.
Just last Saturday I threw a tube into a log jam surrounded by 5' of moving water on 3 sides. An almost instant thump and almost instantly the good 18" Smallie was hung on some wood. I was able to keep the pressure on the fish in current, backreel to shore de-vest, throw my waders up chest high and wade across and up onto the log jam while keeping that bass in place. I landed the fish. No way I land that fish on 8lbs test mono or fluro. Let alone all the pigs I've yanked out of wood with Sammies in their mouths.
Now the creek fish in crystal clear water that I have caught on paused hard jerk baits, tubes, and flukes didn't have the problem with seeing braid. Caught close to 2000 Smallies last year all on braid.
If Smallmouth and Largemouth in moving water are line shy, I've made up for it by losing less fish and hooking more.
If you are fishing on a clear lake- that's beyond my experience. Fish with that much time may be line shy.
Spartacus- yeah, I have been tying the double. Don't think your line was breaking as much as the standard mono knots slip free when snapped.
Check those hook eyes. any opening is heartbreak time!
