If I am by my self I fish 3 out the front if someone is with me we fish 3 front and 3 off the back and I use 2 14footers and a 8 footer in front and 2- 12 and 1- 10 off of the back, I stagger the rods where we are covering about 35 foot swath on a pass.I wished I was like Scott and have some 18 footers. Most of the lakes I fish you can only fish 3 rods per person and that would be the Coosa chain of lakes.