suggestions on trolling gear

Heres my situation I have a 17' outboard and I am slowly trying to have it equiped for trolling before spring. I will be doing most of my fishing on Pymatuning or shenange but will take the occasional trip to erie. I believe I have decided on 4 okuma 30D reels 8'6" to 10' rods. I will probably have small planers to run along with something deep. I do not yet have Downriggers but those are on the wish list. Any suggestions or know what works for my situation? I want to stay versitile for fishing the lakes close to home but be effective at erie.Whats best to run for line, should I use leadcore since I do not have downriggers? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

The easiest thing to do would be to buy an assortment of Dipsey Divers. These are simple, but very effective planing devices that help you to get your baits down. They come in an assortment of sizes, but I would make sure that you have some of the size 0 [you will here these being refered to as medium or cookie dipseys] and size 1 [large dispeys]. The ones that I'm refering to are the ones manufactured by Luhr Jenson; however they are other similar ones out there. Here's an illustration if your not familar with what I'm talking about.

http://www.straitlineanglers.com/Articles/Depth_Chart_For_Diving_Planers.htm

The dipseys are most useful for lake Erie, they are not as practical or useful on small impoundments. They can be used, but when you have flucuating bottom contours they are more of a hassle than anything. The medium dispeys will dive to about 35-40 ft, and the larger ones can get your baits down to 75-80ft. They publish dive charts which you will need to consult when using dipseys. Another thing to remember when using dipseys is that they pull substanially on your rod, so you will want solid rod holders and rods designed for this application.

With the design of the dipseys, you can only run shallow running baits with them, i.e. worm harnesses, shallow stick baits, spoons. Deep diving crankbaits do not work in conjunction with dipseys.

Having a smaller boat, you would probably be well served purchasing a set of inline planers. They are very versatile and can be used on Erie and elsewhere effectively. The easiest way of achieving depth with your lines on the boards is to use either snap weights or inline weights. Once again, there are charts that approimate how much weight will obtain greater depths. Your only limiation on the in-line planers is that they can't support much more than 3-4 ounces of weight. Anymore than this and your boards will lag way back and tend to submarine.

Anyways, hope that helps a little...

Have to agree with the others. For your situation, downriggers would be the least useful piece of equipment on your boat.

Uless of course you also have a rubber "trolling" frog.

As for Pymy, best bet there is an assortment of Bottom Bouncers (3/4 oz- 2 oz ) run Crawler Harnesses 4-5 feet long, 30lb Braid on any 7ft Medium action rod.

Alot of timber in Pymy and it likes to eat dipsys, torpedoes, and other assorted expensive tackle. Although I have seen quite a few guys running planer boards there.

I agree on most of the advice given regarding dipseys, in-line boards, snap weights, and line. The Precision Trolling book is a must. I personally would not use a planer mast and big boards with a 17" boat. In-line boards are much more practical, plus you can use them in the smaller lakes. Strong rod holders are very important. Stay away from plastic, basically you get what you pay for. I have Cisco rod holders and they are the cats meow, but also expensive.

Good luck! - Feel free to PM me with any questions.