Hey Brett,
Here is my take on PP vs. Mono. I truly believe on most instances 2lb mono will outproduce PP on bites if even the slightest nuetral bite is in place. For many years I would finesse SUMO Gils and Slabs with light light line. 99% of the time I was able to get those fish to the hole with proper back reeling and drag set to keep the horse hair from breaking. 1% of the time those oversized Pannies would break my line and my heart. Of course usually it was just the wall mounters that would do so. 
With knowing that I decided I couldn’t take the heartache of knowing I just lost a potential 16 inch plus slab or 11 inch gil, so made the move to PP in the smallest diameter available. Now if I luck out and pop a big eye or pike I know I’ve got a fighting chance to ice it, and also am not worried about 16.5 inch 2lb 9 oz. slabs giving ME the beatdown. Trust me nearly 3lb crappies put up a little bit of a struggle. With all this being said you can bet that I ABSOLUTELY will rig a reel up with the prototypical 2lb mono for days those fish are terribly negative. After years of staring big pannies down I have found there is not ONE answer or set up to effectively ice fish day in and day out. A guy has to play his/her cards right each day on the ice to stack up the chips!!
Lastly all panfish guys know the importance of line watching for finicky fish. In my mind there are two ways to detect the subtle suck in of a slab. One is rod watching and the other is line watching. If you noticed in the show my rod is an absolute noodle rod. I’ve iced 20lb pike on that rod with 2lb test when the stars aligned for me before, but typically you cannot afford any stretch in the line which mono will give over deep water. When I work fish the diamond jig will provide me with the slightest bend or resistance in the tip of that rod. When that bend/resistance is relieved by presumably a SUPER DONK a guy has to be on the top of his game. As we all know slabs can inhale a bait and blow it out in a second. If your one hand on the sandy, absorbing the sunshine of the day you can bet you’ll never even know what happened. By the way I use PP all year, and yes at times it is more difficult to work with than mono, but after a second in the water the line thaws. There are many ways to do it, but thats what I’m doing. 
BELIEVE IT OR NOT…..We’ve got nice weather too, and my prediction is we’ll have some more NEXT YEAR!! I do try avoid those days though 
I’m not sure if anybody knows, but it is expected to be brilliant the next couple days up here!! Very VERY bad news for Rainy Lake Footballs!! 
