Trolling gear?

The ones at Poor Richard's are good for "start up" equipment. We've used them and had good luck with them.
Look at the combo's that Fish USA offers also...good equipment and really good customer service if you have a problem with it. That's where we've been doing our shopping lately, because of the customer relations.
 
Spool them with 20 or 30 pound Power-Pro and Fluro leader and you should be good to go.
7' rod work good, but sometimes if you are kind of cramped for room go with the 6' rods.
 
Leadcore isn't "over-rated" but it has it's time and place in trolling and isn't always the answer to catching fish! There is sometimes a "learning curve" to when and where to use it.
 
As to the number of rods, this year starts the 3 per angler rules, BUT...sometimes more rods can mean more tangles when just learning how to troll!
Start with how many you feel comfortable dealing with until you get some time on the water and see how things behave for you.
 
I'm by no means an expert, just speaking from what I've "learned by doing" on the water!
 
HTH

I would say the number of rods is going to depend on your experience level, number of persons fishing, and how big is the beam on your boat?

I own an older Ranger 690 that I run on Erie probably 7-8 times a year. When your starting out, keeping it simple at first will help your learning curve. Once you've mastered certain techniques, you can add more specialty rods to your program. Keep it simple to start so you're not overwhelmed by all the different techniques, set-ups, rods, etc...Asking on forums annd searching around will definetly help shorten the initial learning curve.

I'm not sure on what size Ranger that you have, but I would probably think you will want to get some rail mount rod holders. You probably don't want to drill a bunch of holes in your nice fiberglass boat. I have 4 Dubro rail mount tube holders, and I have 4 custom titelock holders on the transom. Look around, but you want to invest in good solid rod holders, not the cheap plastic ones. Look up Cisco rod holders, they are quite pricey but I've heard nothing but great things about them. They make holders specially for Ranger style boats.

I have 8 rod holders, but I rarely run more than 6 lines. One of the biggest reasons is that the beam in not wide enough on my boat to space out 8 or 10 rod holders. I would say 6 would be a good starting point.

Inline planers work fairly well, however they have there limitations on Erie. They don't work all that well when the lake is choppy with 2-4 footers [which is alot of the time], or if you are trying to pull 4 or 6 oz of extra weight.

I'm not sure which parts of Erie that you plan on fishing, but if it is here in Pa waters you will find that you need to get your baits down deep once the warm weather hits. Early in the season you will find th eyes in relatively close-say 20-30ft, but as the water warms up they migrate to deeper waters, say 50-100 ft. The inlines are not very effective at targeting fish in these depths. The most common device used here is the Dipsey divers. You can search the forums here if you're not familar with these.

I never invested extra money for the more pricey rod and reels. I've used the Cabelas depthmaster series almost exclusively and never had any issues. It gets expensive when you have to outfit 8-10 rods.

There is alot of guys on the Walleye Central site that run Ranger boats. Here's a link how one of the guys over there has his Ranger set-up...
http://www.walleyecentral.com/forums/album.php?albumid=72&pictureid=561

Heres a pic of how my boat is set-up...
http://www.walleyecentral.com/forums/album.php?albumid=706&pictureid=6399

It all depends on how much you intend to fish. It gets expensive upgrading after upgrading, I fish on average 3 days a week from may-september the cheap stuff doesn't hold up for me. Where on Erie will you be fishing and what times of year? Answering these questions will help us answer yours better. Also what is your budget? Fishing gear is one place you usually get what you pay for.

Typically cranks in the early spring and once the water warms up a bit in the late spring worm harnesses bring me lots of feeesshhh.
Harnesses can be trolled as slow as 1.5 mph to 2.5 m.p.h.
Colorados for lower speeds.
Willows for faster speeds.
12 lb mono will do you right for walleye fishn. If you are using dipsys or jets most guys run 20 to 30 lb power pro braid. Its some good stuff. Following your diver is where you will have a 6-10' leader of 12lb mono.
Be sure to have quick change clevises on your harnesses and have several different color blades on board.
The fish will tell you what they want.....