When laying out your kayak for fishing, we often consider the center hatch which typically goes right in front of the paddler in alot of installations. Here is one on a Cobra Marauder. As you can see it's right in front of you, and I mean right in front. Some leave out the round hatch, and have the larger front hatch moved back towards them a bit and split the difference. That way the hatch is closer, but not in the seat area like the one in the photo.
PerryC.