i just started doing erie for walleyes as well. heres what i have run into and may be helpful. i went out and spent some money ($170 aprox) and was able to set myself up with the full gear. A dipsy rod comes in real handy, and for this reason in particular: we were fishing at 60 feet of water with dipsy's at 40... However, a lot of guys were fishing at 90' of water at 70' with better success. A #1 dipsy will do this fairly well, and if you match it with a good rod (dipsy rod around $80 rod+reel), you'll still have plenty of play in the rod. The line counter came in real handy though as we could fairly accurately calculate our depth. As well some good floro line was ideal. I used 17lb test on the rod line and picked up some 30lb test for leaders.
This is the setup we went with and was not too costly, but will make it a lot easier to effectively fish the waters.
I hope this helps, and i hope it nets plenty'o'fish.