Hello all. My dad and I are going to be taking a few trips this summer to Port Clinton and we'll be targeting the walleye. We've got some of the essentials, port & starboard inline planer boards, line counter reels on trolling rods & I tie my own harnesses. We used to make 4-5 trips per year, but always just casting crawler harnesses. Seems like then and even more now that trolling is a lot more effective way to catch fish, so we're going to give it a shot.

My question is, for first-time trollers, having never used planer boards, what are some pointers to get us started? Would you recommend divers or inlines? Which of each is a good one to invest in (it seems most prefer Tru-Trips). Also, I'm up in the air on whether or not to spend twice as much to go with braided line, or if most still prefer mono and what test to run.

I can provide any info that will help to answer any further questions, right now I feel like I've got a fair understanding of how to rig and run a spread, I just am unsure about how to complete our presentation. It's been a few years since we've even been up to the lake, so any insight into everything from blade & diver/sinker colors and which brands to buy to lead length on our harnesses would be greatly appreciated.

Right now we're a lock for late July and hoping to make it up in a couple of weeks as well.