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Lost my depth finder on a trip with a stiff east wind a while back so I could not pull off a N-S troll. That was miserable. Ride them out until too rough hammer on until the deep rigger bounced. 300’ copper dug in on the on bound troll I turned pulled all the other lines so I could work that snag up off the bottom. Snag was the biggest king we landed that year and once we snugged it back up it made that known…

Fishing the heat of the summer and going deep into the swamp to pull out some nice largemouth bass on West Harbor of Lake Erie. West Harbor Lake Erie Bass Fishing Video Click Here

Don't need much more than a depth finder that can tell you how deep it is - actually could probably catch fish completely without any electronics sometimes. But as long as the post was about "perfect set up" I'm adding in the luxuries!

I am in the same boat as you, figuratively speaking! When looking to buy a boat, the wife said it had to be "family-friendly," NOT just a fishing boat! Challenge accepted! Read on: My 21' Steiger Craft Miami has a 3-sided cuddy cabin with canvas/isinglass back curtain, which is great in the early Spring and keeps me getting drenched in the rain. I have the boat set up to quickly & easily convert from fishing-friendly to family-friendly, or vice-versa. In her Fishing mode, I run 2 manually operated downriggers on rod holder mounting plates, with 2 rod holders mounted to each downrigger. The second rod holder can be used with Stacker Clips to double my downrigger opportunities, or in the Spring run 2 DR's & 2 surface lines. A trident rod holder on both gunwales holds 3 rods each for lines to the Big Board Planers. 2 quick-release Down-East style rod holders are mounted on each gunwale for dipsey diver rods. My Planer Board mast & motors are located on the cabin roof with a quick release mount. Conversion to Family mode takes less than 10 minutes with someone on the ground to assist, or vice versa. I pull the downriggers, remove the Down-East and the Trident rod holders, then disconnect the Planer Board mast & motors. Now she is family-friendly! Problem solved! My wife is happy, and I am happy, too! Tight Lines!

I run lets see an ancient fish finder I traded for bags of weed, an aquarium temperature gauge that cost $3, and a Garmin hand held GPS. Learning how to read your boat, the rods, and the weather is way more important than relying on tools that can fail you. One of the best trips we had I broke my transducer off the stern and never set the subtroll on the 22’. Learned later the break was down 90 that day funny we caught fish from full cores all the way to bouncing the bottom in 140’ or so

My comments may not apply to you, and FYI I run a 19 ft aluminum side console, but here you go: I get sea sick easily. I hate cuddy style boats and much prefer open boat setups even in rain and cold. I bring the clothing to make things comfortable. Generally, I prefer side consoles, but not sure who makes them in the 20+ ft range. If it's wavy enough that I'm getting the bow to chop into the waves it's too wavy for me to be out there anyways. I also prefer outboards because they're easier to maintain and you can keep the boat ready to fish much earlier in the year, and fish much later into the year. I would also say I prefer rod trees to a rocket launcher holder setup because with long dipsey leads i have people walk to the front of the boat and make netting easier for the person at the back. Two downriggers. Rarely do I find I would want a third. Electronics? I've gotten used to my Humminbird 10-inch graph. Has a chirp, down imaging and side imaging. For salmon i pretty much exclusively use to simple sonar (either high frequency or low frequency depending. I also usually run with gain maxed out. Fish-Hawk is a must. For setups, I usually have 3 diver rods (2 wire, 1 braid). 3 downrigger rods. 2 w/ 20 lb test. 1 with 15 lb test. 3 leadcore setups - 2 color, 3 color 5 color. Copper setups - 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400 coppers.

Thanks for your reply!

Center consoles are great when it is warm and dry. Now so much when cool, windy or rainy. If you fish the spring, it is always cool on the water, even on warm sunny days because the lake is still cold. I prefer a cuddy cabin for gear and enclosed cockpit at least on 3 sides with an open rear or drop curtain. I'd want 2 corner riggers on a boat that size(if it had a 10 ft beam or bigger, I'd go with 3 riggers and add a chute rigger), then 4 good diver rod holders to run 4 divers and either a rocket launcher or rod trees for planer board rods. Don't go cheap on electronics, get the best you can afford. Make sure you have a good marine radio and at least a 9ft antenna.

22’ Four Winns cuddy. Launching solo is not pleasant.

I’m thinking about updating equipment, including boat, riggers, rods, etc. I’d love to hear thoughts on your “ideal setup”. Some basics for me; 23-27’ center console manageable trailering with one person loading/unloading reasonable trailerability (travel) multi-use in that it will occasionally be used as a family cruiser, ski boat, etc. What options would be important to you? engine configuration? Downriggers? Rods/reels? Electronics?

Went out around 2 pm looking for fish bait for whitefish around the piers. After being ignored for a few hours by all the fish I could find, I decided to troll small spoons in the sand bars. Picked up one nice steelhead on an orange double crush mini streak. Went back towards the piers at dark to look for whitefish, and eventually found a bunch around 7 pm. Fished until 9 and got like 12 fish to the boat - about 5 of them fair and the rest foul hooked. Good last boat outing. Weather's looking cold for the foreseeable future.

Sold sold sold Sent from my iPhone using Great Lakes Fisherman

I'm hoping for another one. Sent from my SM-A156U1 using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App

You got in a bonus trip!

7 wiggle wart for sale asking $170 shipped Pm if interested: +17793792394

Fished solo, 3hrs, went 4 for 6, all small kings, released them to grow for next season. Worked water 50-60ft off harbor north, west and south. Had to check the lines alot because of the small jacks. Waves were building the farther I went out. I caught them on std yeck crazy sweet corn and MS bloody nose std. On north and south trolls. Surface temp was 53.7. Bottom temp was 44-45. Ran the ball about 5 feet off the bottom (50-53°). Used a 6C and 8C to the sides. Ran spoons and a wonderbread jplug. Bait was around but only in a few spots. Installed a couple of electric DRs, so I just had to try them out. I didn't see any other boats out. It's been over a month since I have been out. Sent from my SM-A156U1 using Great Lakes Fisherman Mobile App