Halibut/Striper Rod and Reel

Just getting started with the Hobby and do not have very much fishing gear.  What is a solid rod and reel to buy for targeting striper and halibut.  I am look for something that is nice and will last a long time.  Do you use the same gear for striper in freshwater reservoirs as the ocean or bay?

I don't think you can go wrong with a Shimano Trevala or even an Ugly Stick for the salt. I'm not much of a freshwater guy but I'd imagine you may want a lighter setup for fresh. As for reel, get something that can handle occasional dunking so your reel runs smoothly. There's alot of choices out there and different opinions as well. Abu Garcia, Penn, Shimano, or Daiwa are all pretty good.

I am a little bias since I am selling this, but something like Shimano TLC-M70HA works for me (for sale here http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=88549.msg1010104).  The action is decent for both saltwater & freshwater, but that really depends on the typical size of the fish in your target area.
I would say for stripers and halibut, I would use minimum 20lbs line and up to 65lbs braid.  You want to use bounce ball setup for hali and mooching setup for stripers.  A castable lure setup is also recommended to go after surface striper.  The Shimano rod above won't cast too far if the lure is less than 1 oz (it doesn't have enough 'whip'). 

But I also second HazardousCliff.  the Ugly Stick will do the job beautifully.    A lot of people love the Ugly Stik and myself included although I went the Shimano way.

If your pockets aren’t deep, daiwa boat Rods are nice they are fiberglass 29.99 m-mh.... with a used reel.

Thank you everyone for the suggestions.  I am overwhelmed by the amount of equipment out there.

I use an Ugly Stik Tiger Medium 7' with a Penn Jigmaster for bounce ball, salmon trolling, rock fish etc.

It's worked out so far. 

For throwing lures I use a 8'6'' Clarus spinning salmon/steelhead rod

from the kayak, I started out using my 8' Phenix Rod I used from Charter Boats, but quickly switched that over to a 7' Shimano Trevala Medium light.  what I wanted for me on the rod was

7'-7'6"
rated for up to 4-6oz lure weight
and I really wanted Medium light and fast action, because that's how I like to fish.
and I wanted it as light as I could while staying in the budget of <150

but anything you can get around your bow, in the Medium range, medium light, medium, medium heavy that can take ~4oz.

for my reel I use an Avet MXL 5.8, but that's just because that's what I had on my Charter Boat setup, I wanted a future proof reel, and I don't think I'll be testing it's max capabilities anytime soon with rockfish and salmon/halibut.

I like the trevala so much I just bought a second one for a backup, and a Daiwa Lexa 300 cause it was on sale on tackledirect ( someone on this forum posted up the sale thanks! )

but I've used a Saltwater Jigging 7' Uglystick with a Penn 209 levelwind, like $100-150 combo and it worked just fine, a little slower gears, but worked great.

Really any rod can catch a fish, just look at some of the Barbie pole challenge stuff!

For jigging and drifting it’s hard to beat a trevala IMO.

For casting swimbaits I am using an abu Garcia vendetta 7-6 heavy for throwing up to 2 oz swimbaits ($60 online sale price). I’ve used this in fresh and salt and so far have caught a 35in hali with it as well as lots of schoolie stripers. It’s a good all around rod that I take bass fishing in freshwater, halibut fishing in the bays, and rock fishing in the ocean.

Reel wise I’ve been using a quantum monster 300 that I picked up on sale. They were $75 so I picked up a few! Changed out the handle and am very happy. The only downside is no clicker which is nice for trolling and bait fishing when you aren’t really paying attention (that’s when most bites come right??)

Anyways look around at what’s available. If you see other guys fishing or launching landing ask about their gear and they will tell you why they use it and like or don’t like it.

+1 for Shimano Trevala ML 7ft fishing rod with Daiwa Lexar 300 reel