Welcome Aboard !!
is this going to be a tiller steer or remote ?
can't shed any light on catfishing as that is not in my realm of things.
but, I have put together quite the crappie machine for my wife on our 1648.
The live well is in front of the rear pedestal seat. Florida does not have a limit
as to how many rods you can put out. She fishes the 4 rigs in the back
(no, she does not use 8 rods at a time, it just looks cool)
and I just steer the boat and piddle with my casting rig up front.
The whole PVC rig is one piece and is easily installed or removed in less
than 5 minutes with a screw gun.
Maybe you can get a few of your own ideas from this setup.
Good Luck !!
also, visit https://www.crappie.com and you can get some really good
information there as well for fishing for crappie.