How to fill my freezer this year

Howdy all, new to the forum here.

I am looking for some direction on getting started on Lake Erie (Central) this year. I grew up Walleye fishing on Pyma/Mosquito...man we used to bring home stringer-fulls trolling hot-n-tots! My dad and I recently got back into fishing, about 6 years ago, but the past few years we haven't been doing very well at the small lakes. Meanwhile you hear about everybody on Erie killing them! Well driving an hour each way to get skunked got old, so we just sold our small boat and got something lake-worthy. Problem is, this ain't 10-15 FOW anymore! Our tackle is mostly smaller hot-n-tots and other cranks of that nature. We never did much jigging. Back in his day my dad used to fish Erie and would always limit out...but he said the lake is so much more clear and the fish patterns are surely different so we are basically starting from scratch now.

Long story short: Where do we start? We will put in anywhere between Lagoons and Geneva and would probably like to mostly troll (however I am not against anything, so long as I can keep my freezer full I am happy). What times of year should I expect them to be how far out, how far east, and how deep? How will water temps affect them? What tackle should we be stocking up on (and will our Pyma cranks be of any use to us?)? Should we use the old mast and planer or inlines? When to maybe jig vs troll?

I know this is a lot, and much of it is opinion...but that's what I am after are peoples opinions. Anybody who fishes both, or like us decided to skip the ponds for the lake, any pointers from you?

there's just so many ways to fish the central basin it would take a book to try and answer all your questions. 1st you want to pick a program that's going to be the way you plan to fish the most. I start fishing Geneva around the 1st of july and fish through aug depending on when my son gets his vacation. the fish can be anywhere from 30' down to the bottom. once the thermocline sets up its best to fish just above the thermocline. which is usually somewhere around 60'. I use lite bite slide divers to get me down to the fish. they are just about the same thing as dipsy divers but have a lite bite trigger on the back that you set lite so small fish will trip the diver. some people use about a 3 oz inline weight with inline boards. you can find these and a depth chart at rednekoutfitters.com. then some people use big boards with wire line or inline weights. some people use other types of divers to get down to the fish.

when I first started I went out on a charter a couple of times and he used 6 dipsy divers and big boards with wire line. so I learned how to use dipsy divers then switched to the deeper diver which is just a dipsy without the plastic ring. then I watched a video at slidediver.com and switched to the lite bite slide diver. then a couple of yrs ago I went out on another charter that used six 3 oz inline weights and inline boards and 2 dipsy's. we caught fish but I decided to stay with the divers as I just knew more about using them. and this is just some of the ways to get your lures down. and most use worm harnesses this time of year. then later in the year they will switch back to crank baits, which is what is used in the spring in the western basin. now trying to explain how to use all these methods would take to much space.

the best advice I can give you is to get some guys together and take out a charter that uses divers and get involved in setting them out and ask questions. tell the caption at the start of the trip you want to go to school. then take out a charter that uses boards. or you can just fill some open seats that's offered. just filling your reels can be important. you want line counter reels all the same size reels for boards or divers. then put a mono backing the same length on all your reels then put braid on top for divers and use about a 9 ft fluro leader going to your lure.

if you just want info on divers you can pm me and i'll help what I can. but I don't know enough about inline boards or wire line to be much help.

right now in the western basin they are using ddhj 10's and reef runner 800's and just running them back 60' to 90' and catching eyes. some guys are using snap on weights letting out 30' or 40' of line and putting 1 oz snap on weights then letting out another 30' or 40' of line then attaching the line to an inline board then letting it out. or they are just flat lining there lines.