I use the Loomis CBR845 for top water as well as jerkbaits. The rod tip is just soft enough to allow the bait to be taken properly by the fish then it has plenty of backbone when the rod is fully loaded. This is the rod Gary Dobyns throws all but his biggest jerkbaits on. I haven't tried the CBR843, but I guide I talked to had his topwaters rigged up on them and throws them in the Delta without any issues. If I could have two crankbait rods or if I fished clear open lakes I would definitely have a CBR843 as well, but since I'm going to be fishing the Delta mostly, the CBR845 was my choice. Another rod I know some very good Delta fisherman use for top water is the the Loomis Popping rod in a 4 or 5 power because of the rod's forgiveness. Its light and sensitive because of the graphite in the rod but has more of a parabolic action like a glass rod.

Also,
Don't worry about your reel. If you're going to throw jerkbaits with it, you need the high ratio reel for picking up the slack line between jerks. If you work a spook properly, the rod twitches control the baits retrieval speed and you will have slack line to pick up as well. You just have to be disciplined if you use the rod for buzzbaits to not work the bait too fast. I use a Curado 101B and love it. The 201B doesn't even compare (although the 201BSF probably would).