Best pier rig for a beginner

[The Flying Tench]

I'm a coarse angler who's hardly caught anything in the sea. I'm going to Bournemouth for 5 days in July and I'll mainly be fishing in the rivers, but I'd also like to have a crack at sea fishing, probably from one of the piers as I think I can handle that with my coarse tackle. 

Can you advise a good rig for a beginner? Is it enough to fish on the bottom, or should I set up a paternoster rig with a bait higher up?

And what about baits? I once fished Swanage pier with ragworm, and it was 'bite a chuck' with tiny wrasse. What bait would still provide bites but increase the size a bit?   

[chesters1]

You can pretty well try all depths ,flatties on the bottom and hopefully everything else from then up ,i fished folkestone pier with no weight just a set of baited mackeral feathers (sight and smell ) and did ok and you can chuck the horse mackeral back along with the pouts if your feeling kind .Weight is determined by the tide and wave action but if your thinking of going more often forking out for cheap sea tackle will be better than all but the heaviest freshwater stuff they are not designed for dragging fish vertically  unless you buy or make a drop net and using one of those difficult alone ,if god existed sea anglers would have three arms!

Pretty much all the bait and advice you will need will be at the nearest tackle shop