How much / what weight backing, for a wide-use 8 weight?

With regard to the gel-spun material, I think the general bias against it,
is due to much of the first production stuff being quite dangerous. The
newer surface fused material is a lot nicer to handle. Also, the diameters
of the backing are not so critical with gelspun. Indeed at anywhere near the
diameter of "normal" backing, the stuff is just about unbreakable.

Some of the new material is also very good shooting line. I have only tried
a couple up to now, but they are much better than nylon monofil or similar.

TL
MC