I fish a 10.5 ft Lami Cert Pro with a Shimano Sahara spinning reel. The rod is sweet, but perhaps a little on the light side, 6-10lb. I bought if as a summer rod and will have to see how it performs on some winter fish, I think it will be fine. The length is perfect. The reel is a pretty good deal for the $. It's not a Stradic, but works well and came with 2 aluminum spools. I tried float fishing with a Curado SF, it works but for me a spinning reel is the way to go.

If you are dead set on going with a bait caster I'd use a Curado SF sitting on a good 10ft rod, like Lami's Herzog rod. This setup will work well either drift fishing or floating jig and bobber.