As for ther breakage, I'm calling toothy fish. There are a lot of Pike in my favorite bass spot and I have seen it happen exactly as you described several times.
I use braided on all of my lines, but not without a leader. I make the leader as long as possible without having the knot on the spool while casting. I end up replacing leaders because of knots before they get too short. I currently use Stren super braid 14# but think that I may have to try the Power Pro after all of the mentions.
For those that use leaders, any recomendations? Tying mono to braid isn't easy and I'm looking to try new knots/line combos. I use a blood knot most of the time.