Fishing Rigs Explained: 8 Essential Rigs for Australian Waters

A rig is just the arrangement of hook, sinker, swivel and leader on the end of your line. Most of the fishing rigs hanging on a tackle shop wall are variations on a handful of designs, and once you understand why each one puts the bait where it does, you can tie or adjust any of them on the spot. That’s worth more than memorising diagrams, because the right rig changes with the current, the bottom and the fish.

This guide covers the eight rigs that handle almost all Australian saltwater and estuary fishing: what each is for, how to tie it, the component sizes to start with, and where it does the heavy lifting. If you haven’t sorted your rod, reel and line yet, start with tackle basics. The knots used throughout are in the fishing knots guide.

Which Fishing Rig Should You Use?

A few terms come up in every rig:

• Main line: the line on your reel.
• Leader (or trace): a length of heavier or tougher line between main line and hook, usually joined with a swivel or a line-to-line knot.
• Dropper: a short side loop off the rig that carries a hook above the sinker.
• Snell: a way of binding a hook to the line around the shank, used to tie two hooks in a row for whole baits.

How Do You Tie a Running Sinker Rig?

This is the first rig I teach anyone, and still the one I tie most. Because the sinker slides, a fish feels almost no resistance when it picks up the bait. Bream, mulloway and snapper mouth a bait before they commit, and a fixed weight is often enough to make them drop it. Fish it in estuaries, off jetties and calm beaches, and anywhere the current is light enough for a small sinker to hold.

Leader length is the main adjustment. A longer leader (up to 1m) lets the bait waft around naturally in clear, slow water. A shorter one (30cm) tangles less, shows bites faster and keeps the bait close to the bottom in snaggy country.

Two variations are worth knowing:

• Sinker straight to the hook: leave out the swivel and let a tiny ball sinker run right down to the hook. It casts well and sits the bait hard on the bottom, which works for bream in light current.
• Snelled two-hook version: swap the single hook for two snelled hooks to hold a whole pilchard or a strip bait straight. The Barwon River mulloway guide uses this setup with 5/0-8/0 hooks and a 1-3oz bean sinker in the current.

When Should You Use a Paternoster Rig?

The paternoster flips the running sinker rig upside down. The sinker goes on the end, and one or two hooks hang off dropper loops above it. The trade-off is that a fish feels the sinker sooner, so it suits fish that bite hard and decisively: salmon in the surf, snapper on reef, whiting on a sand bank. It also lets you fish two different baits at once and see which one the fish want.

The Dunsborough and Cape Naturaliste salmon guide explains why the paternoster is the tangle-free choice in heavy surf and current around the Cape, with the running sinker kept for days the fish are shy.

How Do You Rig Ganged Hooks for Tailor and Salmon?

Tailor often chop the back half off a bait and leave the head. On a single hook you miss that fish. A gang of three or four hooks covers the whole bait, and because it holds the bait dead straight, the pilchard swims instead of spinning and twisting your line.

Ganged pilchards can be fished several ways. Cast them unweighted into the wash or a gutter and let them drift. Add a small running ball above the swivel when you need distance or depth. Or hang them off a paternoster dropper in heavy surf. The Swan River chopper tailor guide fishes them unweighted for the most natural drift and adds a ball only for a headwind or a deep channel.

How Do You Set Up a Float Rig?

A float does two jobs. It holds the bait at a set depth, and it shows you the bite, because the float dips, slides away or lies flat the moment a fish touches the bait. Choose the smallest float that will carry your bait and shot. The less buoyancy the fish has to pull against, the more confidently it takes the bait.

A fixed float, pegged to the line, is fine for shallow water. A running float slides on the main line between a stopper knot and the swivel, so you can fish deeper than your rod is long and still cast comfortably. In WA, weighted “blob” floats give you the casting weight to reach herring schools off groynes and beaches. The Mandurah Estuary herring guide uses a weighted float with no sinker at all.

Burley turns a float rig from good to deadly. A steady trickle of bread or pollard mix keeps herring and garfish feeding near your float instead of drifting off.

When Does an Unweighted Bait Work Best?

The unweighted rig is just a leader and a hook, or two snelled hooks for a whole bait. What makes it work is how you feed the line. Leave the bail open or the drag light and let the bait sink at its own pace. Watch the line where it enters the water: if it twitches, speeds up or stops sinking early, a fish has it.

The classic version is the snapper strayline, where a whole pilchard or squid strip drifts down a burley trail behind a boat. The Shoal Bay snapper guide rigs it on two snelled 5/0 hooks with a small ball sinker sitting right on the top hook, the lightest that still gets the bait down. The same approach works for bream with a peeled prawn on a size 1 hook in the shallows, and for live baits on kingfish and mulloway.

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What Is the Best Surf Fishing Rig?

A surf rig is really a paternoster or running sinker rig built heavier, with the sinker chosen for the beach on the day. Read the beach before you rig. Find the gutter, the deeper, darker water between the sandbank and the shore, and watch which way the sweep is pushing the foam. If your sinker keeps washing back to the sand, you need either more weight or a sinker shape that grips better.

Keep droppers short in heavy surf (around 10cm), because long droppers wrap around the rig in the wash. The Fraser Island tailor guide sums up the choice well: a running sinker for most beach conditions, and a paternoster with a pyramid or star sinker when a heavy sweep keeps dragging the bait down the beach.

How Do You Rig a Jighead and Soft Plastic?

The rule for jighead weight is the same as for sinkers: use the lightest head that still lets you feel it touch bottom. A lighter head sinks slowly, looks more natural, and snags less. In deep water or strong current, step up until you can feel the head land within a few seconds. Plenty of bites come as the plastic sinks, and a head that’s too heavy plummets straight past the fish.

Match the hook to the plastic, too. The hook point should come out of the back about a third of the way along the body. Too small a hook and fish strike the tail and miss. Too big and the plastic won’t sit straight. Tie the jighead to a 1-2m fluorocarbon leader with a uni knot, or a small loop knot if you want more movement. The techniques guide covers how to hop, roll and pause a plastic once it’s rigged.

How Do You Tie a Snapper Flasher Rig?

Pre-tied flasher rigs hang in every tackle shop, and they catch plenty of fish. Tying your own lets you choose the hooks and line, and keep spares that match. Use non-offset circle hooks if you plan to release undersized fish: NSW DPI’s circle hook advice explains how they reduce deep hooking and improve the survival of released fish. With circles, don’t strike. Let the rod load up and wind.

Sinker weight is set by depth and current. Use a light lead in a calm bay and go heavier in deep water or a run of tide, always choosing the lightest that keeps the rig on the bottom as you drift.

Which Knots Hold These Rigs Together?

Five knots tie every rig in this guide. Learn them well enough to tie them in the dark with cold fingers:

• Uni knot: hooks, swivels and jigheads. The one knot to learn first.
• Dropper loop: the side loops on paternoster and flasher rigs.
• Snell knot: two-hook rigs for whole baits.
• Double uni or FG knot: joining braid to a fluorocarbon leader.
• Stopper knot: setting the depth on a running float. A rubber float stopper from the tackle shop does the same job.

The first four are shown step by step in the fishing knots guide.

What Are the Most Common Rigging Mistakes?

Most missed fish and lost rigs come down to a short list of mistakes:

• Too much lead. A heavy sinker snags more, spooks fish and makes them drop the bait. Go lighter until the rig just holds.
• A buried hook point. Tough baits like squid and chicken can cover the point completely. Leave the point and barb exposed.
• Droppers too long or too close. If the droppers can reach each other or the main line, they’ll tangle on every cast.
• Shiny hardware around toothy fish. Bright swivels and snaps draw strikes from tailor and mackerel, and the line above gets bitten through.
• Not checking the leader. After every fish or snag, run the leader through your fingers. If you feel a nick or roughness, re-tie.
• The wrong hook for the bait. A small hook buried in a big bait misses fish, and a big hook in a small bait kills its movement.

Your Questions About Fishing Rigs

What is the easiest fishing rig for beginners?

Is a running sinker or paternoster rig better?

Do I need a swivel on a running sinker rig?

How long should the leader be on a running sinker rig?

How far apart should paternoster droppers be?

What is the best rig for jetty fishing?

What is the best rig for snapper?

Should I buy pre-tied rigs or tie my own?

Why does my bait keep spinning on the retrieve?

Why do I keep getting snagged?

Do the same rigs work in freshwater?

Hook sizes, sinker weights and line classes in this guide are starting points. Local conditions and your nearest tackle shop will fine-tune them. Rules on the number of hooks and lines you can use vary between states, so confirm them on our fishing regulations page before you fish.

Explore more fishing spots, read up on target fish in the species guides, or match your rig to the right bait with the bait guide.