Hi Mark,
It all depends on the lake your fishing, try different hooklength materials and different rigs for yourself but keep it simple, if there are regular anglers on the water go round and speak to them to see if you can get any info off them.
If your going to try a coated braid, try the Kryston range, their very good especially the mantis and the snake bite or the new Sufix range, the Fox mask is a good one too (I have taken fish to 16lb this winter with it).
If you want to try a mono try the korda IQ or even try line straight from your reel!
The advantages of coated braid is that you can use it as a stiff link, you can use it as a combi-rig(by stripping back the last X amount of inches) or you can just strip the lot off and use it as just a braided hooklength.