Personal choice rears its head again.
I always use braid I love the stuff, it's light and thin, the no stretch (almost) gives you immediate contact or feel of bites and this alone make it best for me, you can almost feel a fish swim bye . That aside I always use with a mono leader. If in deep water I will use a little over a rod length if in the shallows us around 4' or for you younguns 1.25 metresish. The reason I use a mono leader is not to add a stretchy buffer as your rod and a lighter set clutch should give you the buffer you need, its to counteract chaffing/abrasion damage. Braid is also a lot more expensive than mono so the reasoning is if I'm going to lose some gear in the rocky bits that the bream love it will be the cheaper mono. As to makes I used to use Gorrilla braid which was good but have now gone over to Whiplash which I find brill
At the end of the day you pays yer money and makes your choice, mine's made all my reels are loaded with braid cause braided lines make lighter fish feel bigger
Martin