Think in moderation. In an inland lake, you're not dealing with countless square miles of wide-open nothingness. It's a relatively defined space. Focus on areas of perhaps 20 to 40 feet of flat basin within a half mile or so of something structural. Take baby steps.
Cruise out over the basin, watching your electronics. See anything out there? Any suspended baitfish? Any indications of larger fish? How deep are they? Are they suspended? Near the basin? Signs of life indicate possibilities. Empty water is mentally tougher to fish and potentially risks empty livewells, too. Seeing is more like believing.
See signs of life in a general area, at a general depth? Good. Mark the spot on your GPS if you have one; if not, pick out landmarks on shore to indicate your approximate position. Heck, toss out a marker. Then move upwind a quarter mile or so, and shift into neutral. Select a lure or combination that'll troll down to the proper depth, be it a diving minnow-imitating crankbait or a weighted line with something like a spinner-crawler harness behind it. If fish appear to be hugging bottom, consider a heavy bottom bouncer instead of an online weight like a Rubbercor, or a pinch-on weight like a snap weight.
Once you rig up a likely candidate, begin slowly motoring downwind toward your target area, while letting out sufficient line to reach the likely depth range. A kicker outboard is ideal, but if you don't have one, shift your big engine in and out of gear to maintain a decent trolling speed. Use a line counter reel if you have one, or experiment. In a pinch, an inexpensive Shakespeare Line Counter clamps onto your rod shaft and indicates length of trolled line, just like the big boys. Ten-pound mono is about right for walleyes.
Next, to spread your line(s) to the sides of the boat, pinch a planer board onto your line, then lower it into the water. The angled front face pulls your line out to the side. Feed it out under line tension, say 75 to 100 feet, engage the reel, and put the rod in a holder. One down. Depending on circumstances and regulations, you might eventually complete a spread of four lines, all running at slightly different depths with speed-compatible lures. Now you're swooping in on target like a squadron of fighter jets instead of one lonely little line trailing behind the boat. Plus you're covering a wider swath and reaching out to fish that are potentially spooked out to the sides of the approaching boat's passage.
The rest is patience, practice, and persistence -- experimenting with trolling speed, lure styles, color patterns. In late spring and early summer, modest speeds of 1 to 2.2 mph are great. Weave in slight s-shaped patterns to speed up lures on one side of the boat while slowing those on the other, looking for an indication of productivity. Change line lengths, probe deeper or shallower. Circle back over marks on your electronics if the water is calm; pick up lines, moving upwind, and resetting again for a downwind approach if it's windy and wavy. This is always easier and more effective than trolling across the waves.
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OK, so the expert big-water troller has multiple rod setups, fancy electronics, a big boat, several thousand crankbaits, and a fleet of planer boards. That stuff definitely helps. But his biggest advantage is confidence. You don't get that without earning it. Experience is the best teacher.
Begin at the beginning, logically and simply, with a sampling of gear to sufficiently test the waters: some minnow-imitating crankbaits, typically in silvery patterns with dark backs to resemble suspended baitfish; a few planer boards and snap weights; maybe some clamp-on line counters instead of initially investing in trolling rods and line-counter reels. Add a few big-bladed spinner harnesses and 3-ounce bottom bouncers and a couple clamp-on rod holders. Assuming you already have a boat and electronics, you're all set. GPS is a luxury for a beginner, a necessity for the devotee.
