i have had issues with fish pulling off in the past as well, the thing i have done to change this is use a moderate rod. i personally use 2 rods for this my 7' MH/M daiwa ballistic and my 7'3" M/M abu garcia Ike rod. i feel these rods do a couple things for me.
1) it allows you to better feel the vibration of the bait, which helps with feeling for bites and grass
2) it helps with not ripping a huge hole in the fishes mouth (this in itself keeps more fish on)
3) it helps with something bluebasser just mentioned, when a fish surges at the side of the boat it allows more flex in the rod, this means the hook is less likely to tear out and cause a fish to be lost.
to me the general idea that its a jig and needs a fast action rod is wrong, the bait has an exposed hook, you are already reeling when the fish eats it so the bait and fish are already moving so stopping to make a big hookset like you would on a jig makes no sense. think about an a-rig, most of the time they are fished on a rod that has a decent amount of "tip" to it, meaning more moderate because you can almost just reel into the fish and sweep the rod. a bladed jig has the same exposed hook as the head you would put on an a-rig so why would you change rods.