Tim,
I also fish the light line rods and wait unil you tag one of those 16" or so bass on your sunny popper! *grins*
I really like my 1-3wts and fish them often for trout. The 2/3 wts are wonderful for sunnies and crappies though. Especially in the calm of an evening, in a boat, just outside of the weeds! Makes a boy grin...
And yes, use a lot of mono weed guards on your flies. I like around a 15 lb single mono loop. Works great but keep it smallish and fish it slowly so you don't hang up much.
Have ball.
Jeremy.