Fresh Braid Story

[Hobi-Wan Kenobi]

Hi Guys,
Looking for some information and share a sad story. I've got braid on my conventional ocean reel for party boats. It doesn't have a level wind but I'm able to overhand pitch a bait maybe 40 feet. Throwing a jig is another story. So I wanted to get a levelwind baitcaster - the new Picsifun Torrent.
I loaded it up with the recommended 30lb braid Power Pro and had a blast. Throwing my $45 SWaver for Stripers and eventually got one. As I gained more confidence, I kept trying to throw farther and farther. Keep in mind I'm standing on my kayak, so there was really no need to throw so far, but I wanted to change it up a bit and throw like all the bass boats all around me. Then it happened - SNAP! Oh shit there goes my $45 dollar lure - DAMN. Luckily since it was quite a ways out, the braid was still floating on the water and was able to retrieve my lure - my prayer was answered!
Getting home I faced a different dilemma. The end of the line was buried deep in the spool. I tediously tried pulling each line trying to pull the end of the line out, no luck - it was buried deep. You could see the fissure of the line buried, but I could'nt seem to get at it. Then I had a not so bright idea. I removed the spool and thought if I could pull the line off the side of the spool I could get at it. This worked for a moment then it just got jammed up -F!
Long story short - I had to use a razor blade to cut away the tangle trying to get to the end of the line - what a mess, but I finally did it - but loss maybe 30% of my freshly spooled Power Pro - I'm going to mess around with what remains - Stripers don't pull that hard. But if I go after YT, I'll probably have to respool my entire line.
Question - was there a better way to dig this mess out? I've seen some of my other friends cut away their lines in the same manner. Thought I'd ask for future reference and help others out who may face a similar situation in the future.