I'll try to share what little I know about stripers.
We thought the braid thing would be the way to go as well and it took some trial and error for us. Well for some reason the stripers seem to favor regular mono line. I don't know if its the braid makes the baitfish swim kind of odd, or if they just feel the resistance from no stretch and don't take the bait. But go get you some Berkley Big Game in about 25-30 pound test. That's plenty big. Most people that use braid for stripers, are using it for specific applications; via running a planar board or doing the umbrella rigs. Live bait guys still prefer mono to braid. I'm personally getting ready to play with fluorocarbon as a leader and see if it makes as much difference to stripers as it does for largemouth/smallmouth.
Your rod is just fine too. I'm using a 7' MH Ugly Stik rod with a Abu Garcia round style reel. As long as the reel has good gears in it, you should be OK. I found this out the hard way...had a Quantum baitcaster that lasted 4 fish before it had all the gears stripped out of it. Gander Mts sells the Ugly Stik Striper rods. You can get them for about $29 for just the rod, or $49 for a combo with a Abu Garcia knockoff reel. My next rod will be the Ugly Stick Striper rod and a Plueger Trion 66 baitcaster.
Around here, Gizzard shad are going to be easiest to catch with the cast nets. It's been hard to find them in numbers though. Keeping them alive is the other thing; you'll need a decent bait tank and take the proper measures to keep them alive in this summer heat. Stripers like things very alive and when the shad start dying or get the "red nose" they don't hit them as well. Use them in about the 3-6 inch range. Cast net size; a 4' is all that we have, and it'll do if you can find the bait. Hook type depends on the person. Some folks like circle hooks like what you'd use for catfish. I personally prefer the Kahle hooks in about 3/0 to 4/0. If you use too small of a hook, you will gullet hook too many fish and they are hard enough to keep alive as it is, let alone having them gut hooked.
Hooking the shad also varies per person. Some like to hook them through the eyes, some through the mouth, some in the tail. As for me, I like hooking them just under the spine behind the dorsal fin.
This time of year, they are mostly going to be deep and in the river channel. The upper end of Watts Bar or Melton Hill are good places to go after stripers. We fish for them this time of year like a lot of folks do for catfish. Just find the river channel bends, and drift in the current. If they ain't pulling much water, you aren't going to catch much and if there is a lot of boat traffic on the water, you aren't going to catch much. Stripers are very spooky fish and it don't take but a few ski boats and waverunners to put a damper on things. Anyway what we do is find the river channel bends near a bluff or something.
The rig is going to consist of a 3/4 to 1 1/2 ounce egg sinker pegged about 12-14 inches above your hook. You can use a barrel swivel and then tie a leader to it like a carolina rig for bass. We just use tooth picks and peg the sinker there. Put your shad on, and then drop it straight down to the bottom. When it hits bottom, crank it up about 4-6 handle turns and either hold the rod still or put it in a rod holder. Then let the current do the rest. IF you can keep the catfish beat off, you'll get into some stripers. Stripers will hit way different than anything in the water. A lot of times they will slam the bait REAL HARD and then come back a few seconds later and just be gone with the bait. And some times they just take it and run with it from the first time they hit it. A lot of times you'll get bit on the initial drop and they'll just slack line you.
