I run 3 off each side. we do get tangles every once in a while but not oftewn, I switched to lite bite slide divers and run them like a dipsy. if you hook a fish on one of the outside rods move to the middle of the boat and wait for the fish to get over the inside lines before reeling the fish in. when letting outside rods out start as far over to the other side of the boat as you can without getting hung in those lines. when you get out about 10' past your inside rod take the rod your letting out up and over thr other rods and put it in the holder and put it in gear. you want to run the outside rod about 20' past your middle rod and run the middle rod about 20' farther than the back rod. say you want to run your front rod at 150' out. then you only want to run the middle 130' and the back rod at 110. once you get use to putting them out you can drop to 10' instead of 20.