Fishing milfoil, heavier finesse rod and line help trouble shooting

[GORDO]

I have recently started to venture into the grass. The lakes up here have a ton of milfoil and other miscellaneous grass so I have to adapt. Hardly any wood at all. I have been caching fish flipping t-rigged structure bugs and 1/2 oz jigs. I have been wanting to dedicated some time into weightless senkos, weightless flukes, and weightless finesse worms. 

I feel my set up isn't optimal. I have the casting St. Croix Mojo 7' MH that i have been using. Its paired with p-line cxxx in 15lb. The light lure makes the line stay super coiled and hard to really feel confident that I am seeing/feeling bites. What would be a better line/rod in this situation? Should I drop to a M and lighter line or is it the line itself? I would like to explore a different brand of line for sure. Any advice or experience is appreciated. 

[Fish4bigfish]

I love the grass like a fat kid loves cake lol! First off the only line I use in grass is braid. Submerged or emergent doesn't matter much I fish em the same. After quite a bit of experimentation I have dialed my grass/weed fishing to only 3 rods. 1 a medium power fast action spinning for throwing weightless senkos and trick worms. I target holes and pockets in the weeds as well as toss em on top of the plants. Being weightless the bait just rest on top of the submerged plants. 2 a 7-3 mh or h casting rod that will throw a 1/2 to 3/4 tungsten weight (always pegged) and a streamlined plastic. I use this for lighte to medium cover. This setup lets me get some penetration down into the weeds. To light of weight and you can't get down there. Bass live down under the canopy that these plants create. 3 my absolute favorite! A 7-6 heavy to mag heavy that I use do 1 to 1.5 tungsten. I use this rod to punch everything. The thicker the better. Deep weeds under 5 or 10 feet of water offshore or tangled pennywort along the banks! Hope this helps. Braid is the way to go because it helps snap through the garbage. I use a tungsten weight because I can use the same weight but have a smaller profile.

[GORDO]

Do you have a problem with setting hook on the spinning rod? What lb braid do you use for that set up, 20-30? 

[fishnkamp]

I agree with the suggestions fish4bigfish gave you. My spinning rod for throwing sencos and weightless worms would usually be a 7 foot ML with a fast or extra fast tip, but not in heavy weeds.  His choice of a medium action rod with a fast tip is a good one. Match that with a braid like Power Pro Spectra in 20 pound or thirty pound test. these lines are really thin in diameter so 20# is the same size as 6 pound mono, 30# is the same as 8 pound mono. As with all my reels I put 1/2 a spool of inexpensive but quality mono  on first. Lines like BPS Excel or Stren Clear Blue in like 14# diameter are fine.  I really like P line CXX but I use it differently.  CXX in 10 pound is the perfect leader material as it is thin and strong as heck.  15 pound cxx is used on a baitcaster but still requires some attention to fish it. Ten pound cxx usually breaks around 20 pound so you can see why your 15 pound line is to tough to tame on spinning gear. For a really nice reasonably priced spinning rod look at the Powell Inferno 610MEF.  It is a great all around rod for $99 retail, but can be found a little cheaper with some research on line. I am assuming your other rod is a spinning rod as well.  If I am correct I would spool the St Croix rod the same way only you could tie your cxx to a fence, car bumper etc and walk of the line. When you get to an empty spool check to see your arbor knot is tight and not able to slip (this is very important). Now wind up the line tight as possible as you walk forward. Stop when the reel is almost 1/2 filled up. Now tie on the left over spool of Power Pro.  Spool it up till you have an 1/8 of an inch of spool exposed. Learn to use the uni to uni knot. This is the knot to attach the braid to backing or braid and a leader which is a terrific way to fish your rod setups when you go fish some deep clear water.  If you do this you will have a great new finesse rig and your old rig will work fine for the baits you have been using, as well as some spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, even to a degree some rattle trap baits. This rod is not ideal but will work with these baits also.

[rippin-lips]

Where there is grass... there is bass!

#15 cxx I can't imagine trying to use it for a trick worm. I tried #12 and it acted like a slinky to me. I went down to #10 and it did decent. However, I went back to braid and use it as a leader now. Braid size depends on how thick of vegetation you're fishing. My heavy cover may be your medium cover, and vice versa. I run #15 on spinning and #30 on casting. #50 on my frog rod since I'm dealing with lilly pads.  

[GORDO]

The line acting like a slinky is the best analogy for what was happening!  Im gonna give the 20lb braid and a leader on my spinning rod a go. Using backing for a cheaper way to spool it is genius! Ill let you guys know how it works out for me. Thank you for the advice!