Gary's approach works very well for him, particularly on his home turf, but doesn't pay off everywhere. I remember a few years back fishing our club's Open next to him at Newbiggin. After 2 hours he hadn't got a single piece of gear back while anglers around him had up to 4 fish in their bags - the one fish he managed to hook, he snapped off in the kelp, so he packed in & went home! However, if you're fishing over rough onto cleaner ground (somewhere like the Beacons) it can pay off because, as you say, a thinner line will give you more distance. That's the approach I take when fishing places like the Doctor's House at Howick, where you're chucking over 60 or 70 yds of kelp onto cleaner ground, and more tide, beyond.
Bear in mind though that Sensor is very thick (probably why people think it's so strong!) - 18lb Sensor at 0.43mm is very nearly as thick as 30lb F1 (0.45mm). Personally, I stick with lines around 0.5mm on a 30 size reel for the heavy stuff, with a couple loaded with 0.6mm if I want to fish shorter range without a leader. For mixed or over rough onto cleaner ground I stick to 0.4mm on 20 size reels. I tried the 18lb Sensor once but personally found that being so thick, there was no line left after chucking out meaning that you had no speed of retrieve when starting to wind in. Brimming my reels with 0.4, at least I'll have a quarter to a third of a spool of line left which will give me a chance to get my gear up & moving over any snags - if it's not enough then I rely on my rotten bottom to snap!
So for most of my local heavy marks (Sharpness, Cullercoats, St Mary's, Colleywell, Cambois etc) I stick with the heavier line approach.
Gary
