How much line capacity do you need

[gungho]

If you were to purchase on nice baitcasting reel, how much line capacity would you get? I use it for 99% bass fishing with an occasional trip down to Louisiana for speckled trout (saltwater)

[Hunt'nFish]

Braid or mono?
Most baitcasters have plenty of capacity for braid.
I like braid, mainly because I use the same rods & reels for bass, steelhead and walleye trolling.
Typical 20-30lb braid is about the same diameter as 6-8lb mono. So I like to see capacities approaching 150yrds of 8lb. (why so much? Nothing worse than getting hung up on a snag trolling for walleye and getting spooled before you can get the boat turned around!) Most basitcasters will hold that much. However there are some high performance "V spool" reels out there which hold less.

I think deep spools are better even if you plan to run 14-20lb mono for heavy cover, but that's just my opinion. You be the judge there.

Personally I prefer magnetic brakes, because they are easy to adj when changing from light baits to heavy baits. But the ACS system on the new Quantums has me intrigued. It's an externally adjustable syntrifical brake...the best of both worlds.

I'm a backlash master. And I find braid easier to pick the rat's nests out of as compared to mono. 4-6ft of mono leader uni-knotted or blood-knotted off to braid works well for me.
Hope this helps ya,
Hunt'nFish

[BuKuBass]

If you cast light lures then you want to have the minimun amount of mass (spool plus line). It's a physics thing; spool start up speed, inertia, etc.
Realistically, how far to you expect a fish to run? Why would you need any more than that distance? I use braid almost always and divide the line into 75 yard segments, using cheap mono as backing to fill the spool to capacity. ("I don' need no stinkin' eighth of an inch".) By using a fluoro tippet, the main line will last a couple of years and then I reverse it to expose the unused end.