Rob...

Shame on you. 40 pound? Nothing shy of 60 pound. You basically answered the question though, we use wire for the exact spacing issue. We use coated simply for that...it's coated. If for chance your main line touches the coated wire, you should be safe. If it touches the uncoated, there's a better chance of it breaking you off. One other thing that wasn't mentioned are the crimps that should be used. If you are using A5 sleeves (designed for wire), it crushes the wire. If you use mono sleeves (AM9's), you swedge the wire and don't crush the wire. Since I switched the the AM9 sleeves, I hae not broken off a fish on the stinger (Knock on wood).

For the hooks... I will not drop below a 1/0 stinger because you will straighten out smaller, lighter hooks if you are fishing swimbaits correctly. When I say correctly I mean basically a locked drag. I hope I added to Rob's explaination and helped.