I fish using spinning gear with smaller lures that are a pain to cast on a baitcaster. Fluke jrs, and senkos primarily, then also some spoons, and smaller trout/panfish type stuff too...
Spinning gear is great to learn on. like others have mentioned get good at skipping your baits across the top of the water so that you can sneak them under docks, or under trees hanging down into the water. Skipping is about a million times easier with spinning gear. The key is to get good at low angled side arm casting, then work to get good at skipping your bait just like a rock on the top of the water.
I personally have two different lines I use for spinning gear -- on my finesse type rod setups, I just use 8lb mono (stren easy cast to be precise). On my larger dropshot / finesse setup, I use 30lb braid with about a 3.5 foot fluoro leader. I suppose I could ditch the leader and throw a top water on that rod, but it wouldn't be my first choice...lol
anyway, good luck to ya, and my advice about bait casters -- get started on learning to fish with one. It is way easier than you might think (the key is having your break setup correctly)