Lightest line you use for bass? Not braid

10 lbs fluoro on a deep diving crankbait rod. And I pretty much never use it because I don’t fish a lot of deep water.

12 lb mono for crankbaits
14 lb for spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, and topwaters

Everything else is either flouro or braid

Fluro could go down to 10lbs but anything that light you can't set the hook like a Texas Rig/jig, gotta do a sweeping hookset for a jerkbait/crankbait kinda bite. Light line will hold a fish fine, but forceful pulls and hooksets is where it'll fail and snap on you. Most my set-ups for moving baits are 12lb Invizx

14lb Suffix Siege is the lightest I use.

I use 6# stren clear for all my ultralight application. Small swim baits. Drop shot .small jerks. Must have exposed hooks for my liking. Have caught fish up to 6# Good smooth drag and back reeling is a must for bigguns

10 is plenty fine. I caught a pretty big girl in one of the BREC ponds (maybe it was another public pond) fishing for bluegill to use as bait on some 4lb line, a TINY brass hook and a cricket and it held fine. A catfish broke me off later though.

What're you casting it on? Spinning gear? BFS gear? Conventional baitcaster?

I'd go with 6lb fluoro on a spinning setup if you are adamant about no braid. Sunline assassin is the best I've used.

For BFS I'd have the same suggestions.

For conventional baitcaster, 8lb would be my recommendation. With a nice rod/reel setup, a 40 yard cast is very achievable.

ETA: I have a 6'10" ML/XFast Abu Garcia Veracity rod that will absolutely launch small hardbaits a country mile. 1/4oz poppers and smaller are a blast on it. Just need the right reel and have it dialed in.

14 - I jerk hard

8 pounds but I am a badass. (lol) Plus I sometimes use 12-16 pound flouracarbon for snapper.

8lb Berkeley Big Game for everything except my crank bait rod because I’m more worried about having to muscle it out of a snag more so than a fish breaking the line. Sharp hooks and frequent re-ties keep me out of trouble mostly. I fish out of a kayak so I don’t have the room to bring too many rigs, such as a heavier set up for punching mats or flipping into heavy cover.