Hi solus.
I was like you ... I knew what the modes were but had no idea how to use them. It always sounded awful when I consciously tried to apply this knowledge to real playing. So I decided to drop that approach to soloing (which is what I presume you're asking about) and started looking at music in a different way. I take it one chord at a time now, keeping track of chord tones as the progression progesses, and build my melody primarily around them. I never looked back. Thinking along those lines builds strong relevant melody ... all the while using modes and scales without needing to identify them or think of them in any way.
An example of this mindset would be: I'm playing over a 7th chord; The chord tones are 1-3-5-b7; these are my main melody notes, the notes that fall on the strong beats; I build melody lines that might use a couple of other scale notes as passing tones between the chord tones ... end result? I've been using the Mixolydian mode. The big difference is that I wasn't thinking 7 notes in a line, I was thinking 4 notes in an array and allowing them to be connected from time to time. Melody, to me anyway, is much more accessible when I see the fretboard that way, rather than scale patterns.
I guess what I'm saying is: Sorry, can't help you! I've been there, tried that, failed
