Curious what other people use for trolling for stripers. I grew up doing hellbender and pet spoon for white bass. I've moved on to targeting stripers and have been effective using crankbaits but still trailing it with a pet spoon (I have caught stripers on both). I know all methods are effective as long as you get the right lure down in the strike zone but I'm just curious what other people are using for trolling rigs out there.

We use umbrella rigs a lot to troll. Not in most of pk. Only a select area or two. I imagine granbury trees are about the same. Hellpets are the next most effective I've found.

Yep, PK is not a trollers paradise. I have trolled for stripers a lot at PK. My advise to PK trollers is to not do it. If they do, they better mark those fish and find a clear lane without trees. I see guys with downriggers and I bet those cables are a joy to get out of a petrified cedar.

When the lake was down 17 feet my wife and I would Kayak up in Neely Slough and I would return home most times with a handfull of crank baits. Saw a lot of throw nets in cedar tops as well.

Look into Fish Seeker planer boards. They are better, IMO, than Hellbenders for a couple of reasons. You can adjust the depth setting, making them more versatile, they don't put as much pressure on the rod as an HB or D22, and you can drag 4"-5" swimbaits on them without them rolling over like crankbaits are prone to do. You can even get them in different colors, but I use the clear ones. They come with a depth chart, but it's rated for, I think, 8lb line. So you'll have to play around with your particular setup and line length to find their running depth, but once you do it's easy. They also turn over if they bump something, or a fish misses, and come to the top.

umbrella rig is a good idea for timber. granbury has a lot of timber

I tried pk timber thinking I could control the depth. Two in the same tree convinced me I couldn't. Lol

Bare naked reef runner 800. Dives 20 plus feet. Great this time of year

I grew up trailing pet spoons behind hellbenders as well for whites. I still troll hellbenders, but now I trail with a speck rig, or I make my own tandem trailing rig using crappie jigs. For Stripers I trail with a striper jig.

By the way, you can adjust the depth on a hellbender as well. Slide the sleeve up where you tie your line. That will expose a break in the wire. Bend the bottom wire out a little bit and it will force the hellbender to troll deeper. I can bump bottom with a hellbender in 30 feet of water by adjusting the angle of the bottom portion of that wire.

Randy Wood gave me some good advise: You can't fight the trees at PK. I quit trolling crankbaits because of hangups. Better to catch shad and use balloons or just drop them down around 20 feet along side the boat.