Why do people fish such heavy breaking strain lines when targeting bass?

[Dalleinf]

For ~4-7 oz pike baits, I use 50-80 lb braid (and a suitable FC or titanium leader).
I hardly loose any lures during casting or due to snags.
The pike dont seem to care.

[dennis_rf]

For ~4-7 oz pike baits, I use 50-80 lb braid (and a suitable FC or titanium leader).
I hardly loose any lures during casting or due to snags.
The pike dont seem to care.

Same application but 40lb. Never lost a lure or a fish, extremely dense vegetation (hydrilla) but only few stumps/trees around. Expected size of fish is usually 11lbs with exceptions up to 25lbs.

I have the impression it’s a mindset thing - the Americas seem to think „better safe than sorry, always equipped for double the size to be actually expected“ whereas in the EU we were indoctrinated (ok maybe at least where I grew up) with the „as light as possible to get the bite, thick line spooks big old wary fish“ way of approaching things. We do have sharp mussels here and there but we don’t have fish that are actually IN heavy cover as bass are. They’re rather around and don’t immediately try to get in there when hooked. So when targeting 31“ / 9lbs Pike in or around Lilly’s, 20lb braid is plenty enough. I need the backbone of a 4 power loomis tho to pull em out when stuck.

Is the mouth of bass significantly harder than pikes ones? Do they require harder hooksets? I know they do fight harder for their weight. But I have also not seen anyone in Europe yet that leans into a hookset as the bass guys in the movies do.

[BARRAMANIAC]

its an eye opener the way we use lines differently for different fish. Over here in the land downunder when chasing Barra 30lb braid is the norm with 40 to 80lb shock leader of mono or fluro . A rod length of mono leader will give a surprising amount of stretch to eliminate the no stretch braid issues and the thicker leader for the abrasion resistance of the fishes jaws and sharp gill covers plus the structure they may be around. I believe Barra feed in a similar fashion to Bass with that sucking implosion and expelling water out the gills.