thanks for all the replys.
I put the walmart shimano back on and found it to be only slightly better, perhaps the 6 inches? they are rated the same. Like I said though, I keep catching fish, I'm just afraid my memory is going to fail me soon. I'm really precise about how I want my rods to feel, and while the mojo felt good in the shop, i should have taken my brothers advice. :
My brother got me into bass fishing last year and told me to work up my collection slowly, and precisely. In the past year Ive aquired the setup mentioned (shimano 100d and mojo bass). Ironically he tried to talk me out of the mojo saying it was too top heavy (wasnt sure what he meant at the time) and I should wait and just keep feeling everything until i find the one I really connected with. I thought it would be a little stiff, but I assumed while it lacked in action it would make up in other places. also I'm not going to lie, its by far the lightest rod I've ever owned (half the reason I bought it). I was lucky to have the fenwick and shimano combo, as that was my trout and red stick but doubles perfect for jigging.
Regardless, I'm going to play with some other st. croix and see what I think of them. I'm seriously thinking xfast or ML is what I'm looking for.
Also about line. I really like the feel of flouro but I have really bad luck with the line snapping, and I have phobia of lines larger in diameter then 10lb mono for freshwater. I cant stand mono, I grew up using it and swear when I made the jump to braid that I would never go back. I've doubled my fish count since, no lie.