Paternoster Rig for Herring: The Jetty Fisher’s Go-To

If there’s one rig every Perth kid should learn before they learn to ride a bike, it’s the paternoster. Two hooks above a sinker, tied in two minutes, murder on herring, and cheap enough that losing one to a mussel-encrusted pylon doesn’t ruin your afternoon. Every jetty from Woodman Point to Hillarys has seen more paternoster rigs than seagulls, which is saying something given seagulls outnumber actual fishers at Perth jetties by about nine to one.

Float rigs are prettier and sabikis catch more when the school is thick, but the paternoster is the honest workhorse — simple to tie, easy to fish, and it does exactly what a herring rig needs to do. Get this one sorted and you’ll outfish half the jetty most mornings.

What a Paternoster Actually Is

Strip the jargon and it’s this: a short length of mainline with two hook droppers tied up the side and a sinker on the bottom. The sinker anchors on the deck, the hooks suspend above it in the feeding zone. Herring cruise mid-water in schools, not nosed on the sand — that’s exactly where you want your bait. A running sinker rig (bait on the bottom) is great for bream and whiting but the wrong depth for most herring.

Tying It: The Two-Dropper Setup

Work with about a metre of 8-10lb fluoro or mono leader. Doesn’t have to be fancy. Top to bottom:

• Top loop (15cm from the top): surgeon’s loop or dropper loop, 8-12cm long.
• Bottom loop (40-50cm below the first): same knot, same length.
• Terminal end: small loop or swivel to clip the sinker on.
• Top of the rig: swivel to attach to your main braid.

The surgeon’s loop is easiest — double the line, tie a double overhand, pull tight, snip one end of the loop for a single dropper arm. If you’re teaching a kid, use this. The dropper loop (wrap six or seven times, pull the middle through) stands off the mainline cleaner and is worth learning once you’re past the basics.

Keep droppers 8 to 15cm. Longer and they tangle every second cast. Shorter and the bait presentation looks stiff.

Hooks, Sinkers and Leader Weight

• Hooks: size 8 to 10 long-shank, chemically sharpened, fine wire. Herring have small mouths but inhale baits, and the long shank gives you something to grip when you’re unhooking a wriggling fish. Don’t use heavy-gauge hooks — herring will ignore a clunky hook long before they’ll bend a fine one.
• Sinker: a small ball sinker (size 1 to 3) or a 20-30g bomb weight if there’s current. Heavy enough to hold bottom, light enough to feel bites. Most Perth jetties sit in two to six metres — a size 2 ball is usually bang-on.
• Leader/mainline: 8lb fluoro is the sweet spot. Drop to 6lb on a flat calm morning when the schools are fussy, or step up to 10-12lb if tailor are around shredding everything.

The whole rig costs about a dollar in tackle. Anyone selling a $14 pre-tied herring rig is taking you for a ride.

Bait That Gets Eaten

Keep baits small and keep them fresh:

• Maggots — the quiet Perth classic. Stay on the hook, subtle scent, irresistible.
• Mulie pieces — thumbnail-sized, never a whole fillet. A strip along the shank looks like a wounded baitfish.
• Prawn bits — cheap, available everywhere, work anywhere.
• Tiny squid strips — 1cm by 3cm. Tough, stay on through multiple fish.

Thread the bait so it sits straight along the shank, not balled up. A scrunched bait looks wrong underwater and gets picked at rather than eaten.

How to Fish It Off a Jetty

Drop straight down beside the jetty or cast gently 10-15 metres. Let it sink until the sinker taps bottom, then wind up one turn of the handle. That lifts the sinker and suspends your droppers in the feeding zone. Hold the rod — no rod holder, you want to feel the bites.

Work it with tiny lifts — rod tip up 15cm, back down, pause five seconds, repeat. That subtle lift-and-drop often turns a looking-but-not-eating school into a feeding one. No touch in five minutes? Wind in, check baits, move 10 metres along the jetty. Schools are mobile — you’re hunting them, not hoping they find you. When fish come up in twos and threes, the rig’s doing what it’s meant to.

When to Switch to a Sabiki (or Something Else)

Horses for courses:

• Sabiki — when the school is thick and you want numbers. Six flashy jigs, herring hit them like confetti. Good for bait-gathering or when kids are losing patience. Downside: they tangle if you look at them wrong, and unhooking one with three fish on it is a test of character.
• Float rig — when herring sit high in the water column, or weed on the bottom wrecks your sinker every cast. Pencil float, single size 10 long-shank, 40-60cm leader, maggot or prawn. Slow, relaxed, good for a Sunday arvo with a beer.
• Single-dropper paternoster — strong current, constant tangles, or teaching someone brand new. Half the mess, most of the result.

The two-dropper paternoster is your default.

Spots to Put It to Work

Most Perth jetties hold herring. Ammo Jetty is the gold standard — sheltered Cockburn Sound water, walk-in access, schools most of the year. Woodman Point Jetty fishes well on the deeper side when the Doctor’s pumping. Hillarys Boat Harbour is sheltered enough for a winter session, and boat-ramp traffic stirs bait in a way the fish appreciate even if you don’t.

South of the river, Rockingham Jetty is a cracker when the wind’s off the east and the water behind Garden Island stays clear. Further down, Palm Beach Jetty holds schools year-round and is flat enough underfoot to park a chair and stay all morning.

For bag and size limits, defer to DPIRD — the rules move around and your mate’s advice from 2018 isn’t current.

The paternoster isn’t glamorous but it quietly outfishes clever alternatives ninety mornings out of a hundred. Tie one, fish it properly, and you’ve got a system that works on any Perth jetty deep enough to hold a school. For more on the target, the Australian herring page has the detail, and before you load the car check wind, tide and solunar on BiteCompass — pick the right window and two hooks in the water will do the rest.