Just bought a center console and really interested in striper fishing after a few guided trips in the past. I have tried looking up info, but all I find is articles from up north or from salt water areas.. Hopefully I can get some help here. I plan on fishing Texoma this spring and summer. I don’t have a bait tank so I will probably be trolling lures, using slab/spoons, and maybe at times live bait. With that being said, I have a few questions as I gear up. Am I able to use my bait cast reels or will I need to purchase trolling reels? What is the ideal reel? What action and length rods is recommended? Im sure there will be more questions to come, but for now this will get me rolling. Thanks in advance for any help/info.

If you are going to be using artificials then quick gear list:
7’ MH rod
Spinning or bait caster reel. I use 17lb test berkley Trilene XL on mine. I buy the Shakespeare GX2 MH spinning combo and replace the reel in about 2 years. I throw Cotton Cordell pencil poppers, whopper poppers or striker tackle poppers with those. Some 1oz jig heads and sassy shad work too.

I use an Abu Garcia black max bait caster for slabbing but prefer indicator braid and a fluorocarbon leader for exact depth control.

For trolling I use a Cabelas depthmaster 3 with 50lb mono on a 7’ Shakespeare tiger lite MH conventional rod. You need backbone because you will catch multiple fish. I troll Captain Mack’s umbrella rigs 200’ and 180’ behind the boat. Grab the rig and lift the fish into the boat!

Any other questions call me 972 689-4245. I definitely recommend a thumper!

Thanks Scubaarchery....That is some great information. Rods, reels, and line first then Thumper. I have most of the lures you listed other than the umbrella rigs. I appreciate the help and sure I'll be calling you with questions about the Thumper. Thanks again.

sent you a pm

Heavy rods work but if you want to have some fun get an 8 foot pro angler crappie rod. Fish are a lot more fun to catch with that. I've had no trouble catching PK stripers with that. I have some 7 ' ugly sticks and they are great for manhandling fish when I'm close to cables or trees.

I use the extendable old Cabela's Depthmaster trolling rods, I think they're 9 foot when extended, One has an Abu 6500 C3, the other has a Kast King Rover. I have them strung up with 17lb Berkley big game mono, and use them for Umbrella rigs. I like the Flash Mob Jr's myself in a natural color 4 inch swim bait. I also have a few live bait rigs, with inexpensive Academy Angler series rods, with some mid range Abu Revo baitcasters on them. Sometimes I will switch one of these over to a high/Low Bucktail jig with a white curlytail combo.

The ones we use are heavy duty!