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When rigging a vessel for offshore one should take the boat out into clear water and run at the trolling speed you are going to use most of the time. Say 5 knots..
Get the boat going at 5 knots and get up as high as you can on the bridge or cabin top or up the tower. Now you need to observe the wake pattern of your boat. Does she squat and have big roller waves in the wake at 5 knots? usually three big frothy waves and then a couple smaller wake waves and then a smooth area with all the bubbles and froth in the wake. Drop your out riggers down to put the outrigger top line out to bounce a bait on the farthest wave behind the boat on the outside set of bow waves. One on each side, far back.
Next if you are going to set secondary outrigger lines part way out to the tips they would be rigged to bounce your bait on the inside and closer in than the far outs.
Then you rig a couple rods from the rocket launcher with maybe a couple christmas tree spreaders or flat bars or a daisy chain..
then your outside flat lines up close on the second or third wake. Some times a big teaser up tight on the corners on the back of the first wake. Then a couple more flats in board of the corner flats out behind the corner baits but not so far back as to be beyond all the suds and foam. Right in that suds and foam area is good.
Then if you have a middle rigger you drop a far center bait way out behind, beyond the far out riggers. Use a bait here with a lot of movement. You are showing a bait that has lagged behind the big school of bait behind your boat and is trying to catch up with the school.
With this spred you will fish eleven rods and display a great bait pattern behind your boat.
Usual beam for a spred as above would be at least ten ft. beam up to as wide as you build the boat. As the beam gets narrower you have to cut out some of the clutter and reduce the say, secondary outrigger lines and maybe the two inside flat lines.
Keep the two corner teasers and the center rigger if you can. The idea is to picture the boat, wakes and bait pattern from below, as a fish would see it. It should look like there is a great school of bait chasing the bubbly wake of the boat.
Experiment with various distances, on top of the wake waves if towing skirted bullet heads and cedar jigs and then vary them from the top of the wave to the back of the crest but into the depth of the wave to back further till the baits are skipping on the front of the next wake wave. If you are in an area that is producing and you are not catching keep adjusting your bait display, the bait colors and sizes till you get the right connections. This is where your friendship with others in the fleet will pay off as you hear or see others using the color that is "HOT" at that time.
Also, vary your speed. Sometimes a change of a knot or a knot and a half or two knots faster or slower will be that "magic something" that turns the fish on to your boat, baits and spred.
Good Luck.
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