Master the Paternoster Rig for Catfish
By: Keith "Catfish" Sutton
Big flatheads like this prefer live-fish dinners. A paternoster rig allows fishing with those baitfish in a manner that doesn't spook cagey cats. (Keith Sutton photo)
The paternoster rig requires extra time to prepare, but it's invaluable for certain types of catfishing
I've never been a very good knot tier, so I typically use simple catfishing rigs that don't require many knots.
I like simple catfishing rigs for other reasons, too. Fewer knots means there's less chance a line will break. Casting is easier, and there are fewer components to interfere with natural-looking bait presentations.
In certain situations, however, I find more complex fishing rigs provide benefits I can use to my advantage. The paternoster rig, for example, requires extra time to prepare, but has applications that make it invaluable for certain types of catfishing.
In its simplest form, a paternoster is any rig where the hook(s) are on droppers above a fixed sinker. Besides a tidy presentation, this arrangement allows the angler to try more than one bait and you'll often find paternosters with two hooks, or even three or four. Effectively, this allows anglers to hedge their bets and try more baits (which could be the same or different types), thereby increasing the scent and attraction.
READ THE FULL STORY ON GAME & FISH