This is a question a ton of people debate.  The reason we keep Monofilament on all of our spinning rods, is that Braid tends to lead to “bird’s nests” or knots that can be unrepairable.  On the water, you are stuck with the equipment you have and there is not much worse than losing a reel or even two or three to tangles.

That being said though, braid can add 20-30% on casting distance and accuracy because of the lack of friction and the narrowness of the line. Another negative of braid is that it has no give, so extra presure goes on rods and reels.

So our rule of thumb is if fishing from the boat and distance isn’t an issue, which it typically isn’t, we fish mono.  If we are fishing from the beach, when distance is an issue, we put on braid. And finally when fishing the bottom, because of the feel we tend to fish braid.