My boat, a former guide boat, was set up by the guide with the riggers rather far forward on the fishing deck. I really like the location as it provides easy access for working with the rigger which you do a lot. When the riggers are out on the back corners they are more difficult to work with and more likely to get in the way if they are still down while playing a fish. When we are playing a big salmon, we can bring the rigger up and swing it forward close to the hull so that it is completely out of the way to create a large netting area beside the boat and less likely that the fish will catch the cable on it, if for some reason the ball is still in the water a little. Having the rigger mounts forward also make it a lot easier to work with the big heavy commercial type crab traps we use when the pot puller is mounted to them.
It is a trade-off of in some respects as we have to watch our tight turns with motors way out the back on the pod, especially in strong current with lots a cable out and a lot of blow-back., but over all works great and for us preferable to have them on the back corners. We have mitigated that problem by having a prop guard on the kicker so that if I get a little too tight on a turn it does not get in the kicker prop. On the other side we always use steel cable because if we turn too tight on that side and the cable were to get over the non-running prop on the main outboard and hang on the leg, you can lift it off with the boat hook. We don't use braid on that side because unlike steel it will cut off if you get it anywhere near the non-running prop. We are also very careful with tight turns on that side if there is a lot of cable out and a lot of blow back. The guys are well-trained to watch the cable and tell me when I am starting to get a little tight and the cable getting closer to the main prop. when turning on that side in bad current, blow back situations.
Another advantage of the combination of having the riggers reasonably forward on the fishing deck and the transducer way out the back on the pod is that we can track the downrigger ball on the sounder down to deeper depth, which is really useful.
There is a huge Al sport fishing boat (looks bigger than your 28 footer and I don't want to even guess what it is worth) in my Marina with a huge fishing deck, and he has three riggers mounted on it. Unlike most who put the third rigger out the stern, he has two mounted in line on one side of the boat, I am really curious how he makes that work, but he must have it worked out.
