Small boat, Long Rods, Problems!!!

In considering some updating of tackle, I am wondering if anyone has attempted the following and what were their results?  My problem is presented to those fisherman that primarily fish out of smaller boats as larger boat anglers probably don't encounter these issues.

I fish out of a 16' boat and have ongoing issues with long diver rods while on the water.  While traveling at high speed on the water diver rods are a challenge to control as they are bouncing and banging around all over the boat.  When landing fish on long diver rods additional issues are seen with having adequate room.  Diver rods are a great presentation but a pain to work around.

.On my diver rods I now use slide divers rather than dipsy divers as I am able to easier control the length of trailing leaders as I can stop the sliding diver to any point I choose in front of fish with a bead stop and swivel.  My down riggers have only 2' booms so I require little diver rod length to adequately create clearance beyond the down riggers.  

My question is:  Has anyone ever used shorter diver rods in the range of 7.1/2 feet rather than the traditional 9 - 10 feet and what were their results and what are your recommendations?  

Sorry this post got so long, but I wanted to portray the problem fully.  

I too have experience in the small boat room problem. Here is what I did and works for me. I run 2 riggers of the corners with 2' booms, 2 slide divers on 8-6 rods and 2 boards on 8-6 also. 17' boat , 78" beam. 

Get rod trees. Put them past midship. Boards on top and divers on btm. Obviously riggers out back corners. This leaves the shoot open to net. 

If u need to/want to tun all boards instead of riggers it's even better as all rods are up front and handles are not "inside" the boat.

I often run solo and it works great because there is no need to move or touch any rods that are in the way because simply.... they are not. Just my .02

Also, I have a vertical 8 rod holder I put on the bow on a 6" berts track. I use the lindy Velcro straps around the line/lure when underway. They may bounce but never tangle.

I use 7' Ugly Sticks for diver rods on my small boat.  I think they provide better control for the space available.  This was recommended to me by Roger at R&R in Cudahy.

FF,  I'd give the S-Biner rig a try. You can run long leads and remove the diver altogether when the rod is out of the water.  

I have used 7.5 ft wire diver rods for years without problems.  I do have short boom manual Big Jon's out each side of my 18 ft boat.  Never had a problem due to rod length.  The shorter diver rod clears the rigger without a problem.  I think you could tangle a diver and a rigger with any rod length if the diver and rigger are set too close and you turn too sharp. I do remove the dipsies when running in and out, but thats not a big deal to me. I put a short length of snubber over the wire to allow me to wind up the wire to the tip of the roller.  Hope that helps

I fish out of a 27'er and a 17'er.  I will tell you I personally like shorter rods - for anything and everything.  To me, it just feels a little more fun.

The only exception I would say, is that you may experience a higher hit-to-land ratio on your diver rods when you go longer (depending on brand/model).

Even fishing out of my 17'er, I still prefer 8' diver rods.  I only go bigger than 8' when fishing two divers, per side.  I go with a 7.5' and a 9.5' rod for 1set and 3 set divers, respective.

When running a single wire or braid, I prefer the smaller rods.  You shouldn't worry about your diver not running far enough away from the boat if you're only running one per side.  If you're running these with (lets say) >60LOC, then you're probably creating plenty of horizontal spread.  

*Caveat, there are some coho fishing days were you might actually want those diver rods crunched into your rigger spread - fish may enjoy that "crunched" presentation more than you think.

From someone who also once thought 10' rods would be awesome, trust me....7.5' rods are great.  I run them for all my boards.  Riggers I run the 7'3" ugly sticks, and divers I run 8'

you can buy a rod holder, 8 tubes, that goes into a chair base.  keeps your rods vertical and in the front of the boat when moving....then use hair clips to secure dipseys, flashers etc so they don't spin when traveling

also, I really liked the rocket tube rod holders in my small boat...keeps the butt of the rods out of the boat and gives you more room to work with.

When I had my small 14 footer I used for trolling in milwaukee (small, i know...) I used 8 foot combos I got from Gander and made sure the leads were just long enough that I could net and tilt the rod forward. Instead of slide divers you can also mount a rod holder to the front of the boat to hold the rod so you can net the fish. I assume the problems arise because you are fishing alone. Some guys are using s-biner attachments to there dipsy rods and that system works very well. Like a planer board under water and you can take them off instantly. You could also try torpedo divers like the ones the kayakers use. Im thinking about changing my dipsys over and just use those personally. Good luck! Lots of guys with WAY more info then I can talk about!