To answer the first part of your question its more a matter of personal opinion, personally i would use a good quality brand of co-polymer line, like that of suffix, also worth a try is Berkley big game. Both available here

If you want you could use braid such as power pro, or trilene.=&indexId=cat600395&navAction=push&masterpathid=&navCount=2&parentType=index&parentId=cat600395&id=0041307

To answer the second part of your question then yes it should be a better rod, st.croix make smooth rods that are pretty powerul.

USE A FLOUROCARBON LINE!!!! you wont regret it.

Superline is very thin and can give you deep cuts, they sting ten times worse than paper cuts. I like mono, a classic, cheap, and can be found even at a gas station.

the guy who said power pro is right in most cases but your rod seems like it would be a perfect crankbait/spinnerbait rod. this being said I think you should use mono for most of your cranking it is more forgiving and you will land more fish because of it. your rod will also finesse for bass very well like when drop shotting or using a shakey head jig. (but I prefer a spinning rod for those usually) also usually fished with mono or florocarbon. The only presentation I would recomend braid with your combo is deep water tube jig or carolina rigging for bass or deepwater jigging for waleye but all braided line should have a florocarbon leader tied to the end (I like seaguar) hope this helps

I only use pound tests of 12 and up on my baitcasters, but if you fare well using smaller you can go with a good fluorocarbon (Trilene 100% or BPS100% fluoro). The fish don’t see it as well in the water and offers good abrasion resistance and low stretch. Fluoro makes for good leaders if you want to use mono. For mono I would go with 12 lb. Trilene XT, 8 lb. on a spinning reel.

If your asking wat brand I would say cajun line virtually invisable in water smallmouth and walleye fight hard so about 12lb test

7 lb….but buy good line. It might cost 15 bucks for 150 yards but its well worth it cause the action works sooo much better

I like using Power Pro (just like I do for Muskie) with a fluorocarbon leader as it casts better than mono or straight fluorocarbon.