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Ok to address your questions - most boats can handle more than the captain. I have been out in mine in 6 footers but was not fun at all and was white knuckling home. I have also been out 20+ miles on a decent day. Most of the time if they are calling for anything over 3' I stay off the big lake for two reasons 1) my boat does not need that abuse - it happens enough as it is 2) Speed control is horrible and the lures are all over the place depth wise, so fishing is generally really crappy.

Your line is going to change from spring to summer - spring you want to run lighter line for the smaller Coho, I generally run 12 lbs test for spring coho with a 30' flourocarbon leader. Come summer when starting to chase kings I go with heavier line either braid or mono with 20 lbs Flourocarbon leaders. I if you are running wire - it is straight wire to the Dipsy then Flourocarbon leader after that. You want Flouro to be your last 20 - 30 feet in front of the lure. Nothing wrong with Mono and I run 50 lbs test mono on my riggers with the 20 or 30 lbs test leaders although the 50 lbs mono can scare fish away. I run a mix of braid (braid is nice since you can get more yards of line on the reel) mono, lead core, wire and copper. Once again I started and ran the first couple of years with pretty much Mono once again with Flouro leaders. If you are on a budget get mono or braid but make sure you have the flouro leaders. Also note that for Dipsies I would only use braid or steel - I did fish dipsies for a couple years with mono but if you are out very far at all with them, your lose rate goes way up since there is just so much stretch in the line either your dipsy will not release on the hit so you will not notice a fish or by the time the Dipsy releases the fish has had time to break loose (from my personal experience).

Line? The majority of the fish in the lake are stupid. Only a small percentage of them are smart. You can catch plenty of fish by just targeting the stupid ones and you can catch every stupid fish in the lake using 20 pound, clear monofilament all year long. In my opinion, Trilene Big Game matches up well with any brand and costs less than most others.

Big Ed is right about using braid with the dipsey divers - most of the time. Rod to diver should be 30 pound braid - most any brand works. Lately I've been using Sufix 832 Superline. Braid costs more, but you don't have to swap it out every year.

Don't think if 30 is good 40 or 50 is better. Diver depth is determined by line diameter more than most other factors and jumping from 30 to 40 or heavier will have a noticeable difference in how deep you can get the diver.

If 30 pound braid allows a diver to go deeper than thicker lines, wouldn’t 20 pound be even better? Sure it would and there would also be another result. If you use lighter than 30 pound braid (or mono) with your divers you will never have to fish with faded, chipped or battlescarred Dipseys. They’ll be litter on the bottom of Lake Michigan long before they become war torn.

As long as you are buying cheap Trilene Big Game line, pick up one spool of 30 pound test line. (I suggest the bright green solar color.) Watch a YouTube video about tying braid to mono using a double Uni-knot and wind on about 60 - 70 feet of the mono on top of the 30 pound braid on your diver reel. When fishing at this time of year and moreso in the spring when you want the divers to swing wide more than deep, mono will 1) help that happen 2) give extra cushion to everything because of the stretch in the line. Once I need to get my lures more than 15 feet deep (45-50 feet of line out) with a diver, remove the topshot of mono and tie the braid straight to the diver. (Check out YouTube for the double palomar knot.)

You can catch plenty of stupid fish on 20 pound big game as a diver to lure connection all season long. Want to catch the stupid fish and some of the smart ones? Use a fluorocarbon leader on everything. (I do). I use 20 pound Berkley Vanish. Three feet is plenty. (Even the smart fish aren’t smart enough to require much more.)

Wire line? Stay away from it the first 4 or 5 years you fish on Lake Michigan. You’ll hate it, you’ll hate how much it costs, how much the special rods cost, you’ll hate the brillo pads you create with it and how many divers/fish/lures you lose because you tried to untangle the brillo pad. I’ve been using it for decades and I still hate it. Plus, 90% of the time 30 pound braid will work as well as 30 pound wire.

Speaking of hating wire. Stay away from copper wire line until you’ve learned to fish leadcore. You really don’t need to run leadcore until sometime in May and you won’t need to run copper line until sometime in late June here on the south end. In the end you’ll learn to respect and put up with copper wire. No one loves fishing with it.

That is some good strong info... I've read it 5 times now.. LOL Much appreciated as well. You mention the braided line for my Dipseys. I have 3 longer poles and 3 shorter yet the same setup as far as line and reel. Should I put the braided on the shorter and use them for the Dipseys? I would tell you what they are but I am unsure. I am not at home. They were purchased at Cabelas and are their trolling rods. Another dumb question, but I have to run Dipseys directly off the boat with no planer correct? They would just drag under the water? Seems like they would.
Also, Is there a specific bait I would or would not use with the divers? Or is the lure irrelevant? Do you use flashers with specific ones or all? Also, the leaders you gentleman are speaking of. Do you guys make your own or is this something you purchase? I intend to go back to the lake soon and keep trying in the fall. Mostly to play with gear and boat. I will have the winter to make some changes before March it sounds like. I appreciate all the info. Soaking it all up and taking notes.

run the dipsies directly off the boat (side rod holders). There is a dial setting on them to make them plane sideways some. Do not put them on planer boards no.

You can run anything behind a dipsy, but in general I would day use it with a flasher / fly or dodger/ fly more often than not. Not that you can catch fish with spoons behind them either, but it just makes for a good flasher / dodger presentation.

As far as leaders go, make your own. use 20-30lb big game or a good brand of fluoro leader. Just getting into the game and trying to keep expenses down, I would just get a giant spool of 20lb big game. Guys mostly run leaders of 20-50 feet in length. I personally use 30 feet. They will shorten up as you retie from some nicks in the line etc.

To add to Brother Nature's information - I also try to run heavier line to lighter line between each piece of tackle. After losing a couple of full Dipsy rigs to the bottom of the lake I started to make sure the line to the Dipsy is the highest test, then lighter test to the lure. That way if I do happen to hang up on something, hopefully I only lose the lure and not anything in front of it. I am one of the newer guys here so the veterens have much better info than I do. I also run Big Game for my Mono when I am running it since it is easy on the wallet. I also have spent over an hour with two people untangling wire and copper line when things went wrong. It does take some practice and knowing how to troll it, so at BNature said - maybe hold off on that for a couple years. Spring is the best fishing for a newbie other than having to fishing with 100 other boats all fishing the same water. You don't need gear to get you deep, you don't need more than mono and flouro line and a couple of key lures. It allows you to learn the ins and outs of salmon fishing in a target rich environment. Also if you can get a ride on some other guys boats you can see how they work lines , lures and trolling - maybe charter with BNature or one of the other South End Charters who will be willing to show you the ropes (as someone else mentioned earlier I believe).

Thank you all for the information. I intend to apply all of the advice you post as well charter with an experienced captain. I'll keep at it and will for sure post a picture of the first fish on boat. Regardless of size.