I'm also new to trolling. I have an 05 Lowe with a 90 hp 2-stroke Mercury. I just had a troll-a-matic trolling plate installed. My boat will now get down to 1.38 mph on the GPS on a calm day. It was $100 for the plate. Before that the slowest i could get was 4-5 mph.
Glad you asked this question about adding weight. I was wondering the same (no down-riggers yet). For running spoons in deeper water (20-50 ft): i was thinking about adding a sliding egg sinker to the main line then a bead then a micro-swivel to a 4-5 ft lead of floro to the spoon. Anybody think this will work?