Main thing, do you have the ground?

If you are talking about the Dhufish

Glaucosoma hebracium 

They are only found in South West of WA.

40mts of depth, probably should be fishing with braid. Others will say mono for abrasion resistance, but the stretch is crap and you cant feel anything. Braid from 20lbs + to 50lbs for some heavier outfits.  Leader 40lbs up to 120lbs in some of the rigs I have seen, though in 120 they were paternosters with double loops and I saw one break with a double hookup, but single fish landed.

If fishing baits, then paternoster or snelled rigs, or there are soft plastic and jigs.

Either will require specific rod/reel and rigging.

hi mate, get yourself into a bluewater tackle store and ask the staff to show you a paternoster rig for bottom bouncing , that will be the easiest way to start and as far a green head i would concentrate on around 30m of water (we have fished leeman many times and done well in this depth)  cheers

Hey mate, if ur not gonna be fishing too deep for them and there isnt a really strong curent running then i sugest drift baiting for them. Ive found this method more succesful then the traditional bottom bouncing rigs, the bait is presented more naturaly and u can also fish with lighter tackle which can be a bit more fun and easier for the young bloke. Just do a search on the site for oceanside tackles drift baiting rig and ull get all the info ur after. Another bonus is the rigs are fairly cheap compared to a paternoster rig with a big sinker. If u come up empty handed from ur search then pm me and ill send u some info. Cheers

for someone who is new to fishing for demersals driftbaiting is usually difficult , especially in a place like greenhead (where its generally windy) unless you use your engine to hover over lumps or its very calm it can be uneffective , which is why i suggest a paternoster rig and drifting, once you have some spots that are holding fish then you can scale down your gear (providing the conditions allow , or you have mastered using your outboard to hold station over a spot) then driftbaiting or plastics can come into their own  cheers

Mark, Thanks for the visit to Oceanside Tackle and Marine. As for the driftbait rig its very effective in light to moderate wind drifts and is deadly on getting fussy fish to bite and/or enticing bigger Dhufish.

Driftbaiting can be done on all line classes but 20-50lb braid is better and smaller overhead reels or baitcasters ideal. The patternoster rig is very effective in getting bottom fish but if the wind drops off and the bite is a bit slow drop down a driftbait rig as it can turn a slow day into a productive day. As for depths, we use the driftbait rigs in 35-45m mark normally with success and whole californian squid the best bait. The rig we use for driftbaiting is 80lb leader line with a number # 5 bean sinker and 2 snelled chemically sharpened Mustad Big Red 6/0 suicide hooks. (We also sell that rig in the shop made up by us)

The key is to periodically freespool your driftbait squid to the bottom and wait for the bite but let the fish have a go before striking, we like the fish to load up the rod before striking. Heres Ryan Thipthorp's baited up driftbaiting rig......PM us or call if you need more info;

Thanks for the reply, I will get into Oceanside next time I am over that way - hopefully next week.

Seems like a good setup for my son and also gives me two different ways of fishing so nice to have some variety.

mark

 But the drift bait rig has been around for longer than most of us and will be for far longer than the rest of us.It would be like me saying that the commodore allrounder boat is named after me.Mark they both work well as do jigs and softies.It more comes down to location location location and a bit of luck.

We promote the driftbait rig like many other rigs available to use, we never claimed  to event the driftbait rig (silly to think that in the first place) but was showing Mark the baited up pic of Ryans squid & rig info as he asked

I think that anyone who does a search on drift baiting will soon realise that Oceanside and Ryan in particular have heavily promoted the drift baiting method.  Ryan has acknowledged in the past that he didn't "create" the method.  From what I have read he may have some claim to popularising it in the last few years although he has never made this claim to my knowledge.

I am grateful to Oceanside for their response to my question and will be in there to setup for drift baiting.

Edit:  Thank you to everyone for your help.

paternoster rigs are best with dhufish

Viaqua.

Katsy85,

Yes there is a crimp on the leader line. Typically it is 10-15 cm from your first snelled hook to prevent your sinker from sliding toward your swivel. When the sinker slides to the swivel it can cause tangles betweeen your leader and main line, So when you put a crimp in place it eliminates this problem and allows your baits sink down correctly and give you a more direct feel of whats happening to your bait.