Thinking about giving it a try on a smal scale. Looking at running only four rods. More emphasis on finding active fish using my panoptix.
I�m running a stick steer boat which when seated I will lose about 4� Of rod length. Will 12� rods be long enough. That will only give me about 8� in front of the Tm.
I river fish 90% of the time and the water is never clear.

Thoughts and suggestions welcome.

If you fish shallow, it will cost you some fish. Deeper and you should be fine.

If you're fishing 8' deep or less, I'd suggest 14' or 16' rods. Gets the bait away from the TM. 10' or deeper, try the 12s if you already have them. If you don't have 12s, buy 14s. The water clarity will help some by making the fish less spooky.
The 14s or 16s are very cumbersome but there's a reason the guys who spider rig all the time use the longer rods.

You'll be fine with the 12' rods. When we first started, that is what Wes and I used year-round...and we had a few feet of deck space that the rods went over before they passed the trolling motor.

Thanks for the info guys