Curiously no - it depends on how you fish. Normally with 'typical' sea tackle you cast out, probably with a rotten bottom, and you let your rigs settle after a little tightening up. Then when you get a bite (!!) or decide to rebait you lift up and reel in smartly dragging your rigs through the weed etc. Your line, snoods etc are fairly robust for this reason, not because your average fish is huge!! Also, of course, you're not casting huge distances (whatever that is!!) Having said that, when on a beach I can get some good distance particularly with a 3lb TC carp rod and 3 to 4oz. (If I can sell a couple of Beach casters which I no longer use, I'm after a 3 and half lb TC rod reputed to cast 5oz) I'll use a medium fixed spool on that with 30lb braid. It could be argued that I might as well use the 'sea' tackle i've got but the carp rod can cast stuff a lot lighter as well!!
With very light tackle you cast out and again let stuff settle (if 'bottom' fishing. If you sang then, yes, you lose hooks etc. Otherwise you dont. If you freeline you stand to lose a hook - taht's all because that's all you've chucked in! When I do it I let the line settle and watch the floating portion for signs of movement. You can tell if its crabs and when a fish picks up your bait it flies out along the surface. My original rod was 8' spinning rod (like a lure rod) and I rested it against my digging fork. Perfect in windless conditions, a little more challenging with a little wind!
When using a nice long float you fish just above the weed so tackle losses are less anyway. I've also got a 17' carp float rod (Malcom sold it me!!) which is great for float fishing in some of the Swellies pools just a swing out from the shore with wriggly ragworm on small hooks - Wrasse love them!
At the end of the day it's what you enjoy rather than horizon-hitting and Huss-hoping! Try it, non of my stuff was over £35 a rod, and in my state it's a lot lighter!
