One of the unsaid things in the braide loop vs. nail knot discussion is the worst case scenerio. No one per se is worried about the braided loop failing on the 1st, 5th or 10th schoolie; their worried that if a big cow comes along and a half hour long slugfest in current ensues; that the loop will wear thru or snap.
Which brings up the often ignored point of tackle for the worst case.
How often do you change or trim your line? Whats the shape of your leader? Are your hooks sharp? Is your reel and drag up to a 40 pound bass?
I'm thinking of a post from one of the canal regulars last fall (Mike, Scott or John?) who hooked into a big fish in the canal and lost it in current when it broke some serious line where the line had been knotted and was weakened.
I'm guilty as hell of ignoring my boat spinning tackle except for bonito season and only changing line when it breaks on me. So what if I break off a bluefish, right? On the other hand my night eeling outfits get the top 10-20 yards snipped back each trip and the rest of the line monitored for frays. I replace leader and hooks each trip these days rather than using the same old one till I loose it.
10 or 12 pound test is fine for boat fishing; eel slinging the jetties requires at least 20#. One of the things I've learned is that those intersections with big fish are rare occurances; its easy to catch a thousand schoolies a season, and a few dozen new-style keepers among those schoolies. But true trophy bass; a 40 pound plus fish might come along once a year.
And thats why you should be designing your tackle and gear for the worst case!