Soft Plastics on paternosters

[Wellzy94]

Has anyone used this technique with success? I've heard that it's good for drifting for flathead, as the drift gets the action of the SPs working well.

If so, how do you rig it? Do you have the sinker on the bottom as normal, and SP on the lowest hook (and bait the others)? 

Alternatively, would the SP right at the bottom and sinker on the lowest dropper loop be more effective? (as shown in drawing)

Cheers,

Wellzy

[Jiggy]

Have you thought about trying a drop shot rig, it's similar to this and you can add another hook above for bait.

You can see some drop shot setups here:

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=drop shot rig&qs=n&form=QBIR&sp=-1&ghc=1&pq=drop shot rig&sc=1-13&sk=&cvid=ECA3198E746E438EAB3E65ECC4336D1E

Oh mods if this is against policy please remove.

Cheers

Rob

Edited June 8, 2017 by Jiggy

[GreasePit]

I do this when chasing salmon in the surf, just with a surf popper on the top and a bait on the bottom dropper.
Surf popper usually does the damage over the bait as well. 
I've put a zman grub on for the same application to see if any surf bream would have a go but nothing. 

Interested to see what people have to say about flatties on the SP paternoster.
When i chase them in the estuary, i'll have one casting rod and drop one out the back with a soft vibe when i'm drifting, it gets a hook up here and there.  

-Chris

[New Signing]

I nearly always use big pink and white curl tail grubs on my top dropper and bait on the second one.

 

If you rig it as per the picture you're going to end up with a tangled mess and not much more

[zmk1962]

I use SPs and the paternoster rig drifting for flatties.  At the start of a trip we usually try to rig each rod on the boat differently, so for example one has SPs on top and bait on bottom and the other has SP on bottom and bait on top, another may fish all bait and another fish different SPs etc.  We then watch for a pattern, whats waorking and is there a preference .... and it changes day by day.

eg we were drifting in 60m off longreef wide and found that >50% of the time the big flatties took the SP and they preferred the SPs mounted on the top hook. ...and the SP for that day was a 13cm Berkley white jerk shad.  So all on the boat eventually ended up with that rig.

Last weekend, the bigger flatties of Barrenjoey preferred the SPs on the bottom hook - but no particular SP pattern was preferred.

So be prepared to mix it up and see what is working on the day.

 

BTW... the way you have drawn your paternoster - it will just end up as a paternoster with the heavy sinker on the bottom and the SP (bottom) playing out on a longer dropper....which will cause you problems when dropping the rig as SP(bottom) will just wrap around the main line and the first dropper on the way down....unless there is a really really really strong current to keep SP (bottom) laid out away from the mainline.

Cheers

Zoran

 

 

Edited June 8, 2017 by zmk1962

[Wellzy94]

I figured as much in regard to the rig drawn, but I had heard it mentioned before.

I guess I'll take a mix of baits and plastics, and try a few different things to see what works on the day!
Cheers,

Wellzy

[Lungfai76]

I use the SP at the bottom and the 2 drops with bait, select jig head size appropriate for the depth and current. Ditch that sinker you have on the second dropper, jig head plus bait should provide you with enough wait to get down where you want it.

[macca02]

I've had success using a paternoster rig & an unweighted plastic on the top hook when beach fishing.

Star sinker on the bottom, half a pilchard on the next hook up, then another bait or surf popper or hook through a plastic further up.

The beauty of this is, if your bait gets taken at some point before you realise/wind it in, you still have a chance for a fish on the lure/surf popper.