Thousands of casts in the sun causes any mono line to break down. I change out my ice rods about every 2 weeks in the winter and change out the summer rods about once a month. I can tell how healthy the line is by looking at it first and see if it has taken a dull look. Then I run my hands down the line and you can feel the abrasion and lack of smoothness. One thing I have done, however, is to only change out enough line to deal with the longest casts plus about 25 yards extra to deal with retying and an occasional break off (rare). I wind the beginning of the spool with cheap mono line that I buy in bulk and wind until I see about 1/4 inches left to the lip. Then I use premium line joined with a blood knot to go to about 1/8 inch of the spool lip. If I damage some line or need to re-spool I only have to use about 1/6 of what I ordinarily did in the past. That way I can keep fresh line on my rods without breaking the bank. All that premium line on the spool is a waste since to work efficiently line needs to be close to the end of the spool and if someone puts 150 yards of line on a spool only the last 40- 50 yards are actually working line. The rest turns bad and is never actually used. I too like Trilene and my best find so far has been the Trilene vanish transition red/ clear for my ice rods. The sun turns the line on the spool to a Cajun red soit is easy to seebut everything under the water is clear and the fish can't detect it.