Journal
Calm lake with two ducks swimming, a swan in the distance, trees and small village buildings along the shoreline under a blue sky

Practical how-to guides, rigs, baits and tackle advice from an angler sharing what he's learned on rivers, lakes and canals across the UK.

Start With Beginner Tips

New to coarse fishing? Browse guides on rigs, baits, floats and pole techniques written from hands-on experience.

See Recommended Gear

Preparing a Particle Mix for Tench on a Pressured Lake

Tench fishing has a quiet but growing following across Australia, particularly among specimen anglers chasing the species in Victorian lakes and around the Murray River system. Unlike the carp fishing scene that dominates much of the social media chatter, tench demand a subtler approach, especially on venues that see heavy weekend pressure. The fish are present, but they have learned to ignore the obvious offerings and bolt rigs that worked in past seasons.

A particle mix is one of the most effective ways to draw tench into your swim when conventional boilies or pellets get ignored. The mixture of hemp, corn, tiger nuts, and smaller seeds creates a cloud of attraction on the bottom that pressured fish find hard to resist. Done correctly, it feeds the swim without filling the fish, keeping them grubbing around your hookbait for hours.

This guide covers the practical side of building and using a particle mix, with notes on where to source ingredients locally and how to adapt your approach for heavily fished venues from Melbourne to the western suburbs of Sydney.

Reading the water and the fish

Before any bait goes in, spend time actually watching the lake. Tench on pressured venues rarely show themselves during the day, but the clues are still there. Look for flicking tails in the margins at dawn, patches of fizzing bubbles over gravel, and areas where the lakebed changes from silt to firmer ground. In places like the lakes around Wyndham Vale or certain pockets of the Yarra system, the fish often patrol the same routes each morning, which makes location far more important than bait.

For anglers new to venue craft, the detailed notes on how to read a swim walk through the visual signs that matter. A quiet hour with binoculars before casting often saves four hours of fishing the wrong patch.

Choosing the base particles

Hemp seed is the foundation of any decent tench mix. Once cooked, the small seeds leak oil and amino acids that tench find irresistible. Whole corn, either tinned or frozen, adds visual attraction and bulk without breaking the bank. Tiger nuts bring a hard, crunchy element that bigger fish have to commit to feeding on, which keeps smaller roach and bream from clearing your swim.

Beyond these staples, consider adding a small percentage of maple peas or tares if your local tackle shop stocks them. Both swell during soaking and create a textured carpet on the bottom that tench root through methodically. Avoid anything too high in salt or strong flavour at this stage, as the base mix should be neutral and attractive rather than overpowering.

Sourcing ingredients in Australia

Australian anglers do not always have the same shelf options as UK coarse fishers, but the core ingredients are still within reach. BCF stores carry tinned and frozen sweetcorn in bulk, and the bulk food sections at warehouse-style supermarkets around Sydney and Melbourne sell split peas, red lentils, and pearl barley cheaply. Hemp seed is the hardest item to find locally, though online seed suppliers and select pet shops often stock it labelled as wild bird seed or fishing bait.

Tiger nuts are occasionally stocked in Adelaide or Brisbane bait shops, but most anglers order them online in 1kg or 5kg packs. If you cannot find real tiger nuts, raw peanuts soaked overnight make a reasonable substitute, though they are softer on the hook and need a slightly different presentation.

Preparing and cooking the mix

Cooking particles properly makes the difference between a mix that pulls fish and one that sits untouched. Rinse the hemp thoroughly to remove the natural bitterness, then simmer it for 20 to 30 minutes until the seeds just begin to split. Overcooked hemp turns to mush and will cloud the swim without holding fish. Corn needs only a brief blanch if using frozen, while dried corn requires a long overnight soak followed by a slow simmer for an hour.

Drain everything through a sieve and let it cool fully before mixing. Warm particles can burn a tench's mouth and will not release their attractants as well. A colander over a bucket in the garage is the usual setup, though a spare laundry sink works equally well for anglers fishing close to home in the inner suburbs of Melbourne.

Mixing ratios and additives

A reliable tench particle mix runs roughly 40 percent hemp, 30 percent corn, 20 percent tiger nuts or peanuts, and 10 percent smaller seeds like hemp hearts or crushed pellets. Stir the cooled ingredients together in a large bucket, adding just enough water to keep the mix damp but not sloppy. A few glugs of liquid molasses or a teaspoon of strawberry flavouring can push the attraction further on the toughest days.

For groundbait-style binding, a small amount of crumbed bread or coarse crumb can be folded in if you plan to ball the mix rather than feed it loose. Keep additives modest on pressured water, since the fish have learned to avoid anything that smells strongly of human hands or commercial bait dips. A clean plastic bucket and a wooden spoon are all the mixing kit you need.

Feeding and loosefeeding approach

On pressured venues, less is almost always more. Begin with five or six small balls of the mix at the start of the session, then top up with a single small ball every hour. Casting a few grains of corn or a pinch of hemp over the top between top-ups keeps the fish confidence high without gorging them. Tench are methodical feeders and will work over a particle patch for hours if you resist the urge to pile more in.

If the swim dies after a good start, switch to a single hookbait fished amongst the remaining particles and wait. The fish often return to the last scent trail rather than chasing fresh feed. Anglers fishing the lower Murray or Geelong's lake systems often see fish reappear 30 minutes after a quiet spell.

Hookbait and rig presentation

The hookbait should be part of the mix, not separate from it. A grain of corn or a single tiger nut hair-rigged on a wide gape hook sits perfectly amongst the particles. For tench, a simple hair rig with a short shank hook in size 8 or 10 is hard to beat, fished on a light braided hooklink with a small inline lead or method feeder. Keep the lead minimal on pressured lakes, as the fish will drop a rig the moment they feel any resistance.

Setting the rig correctly matters as much as the bait itself. The short guide on how to set up covers the basic knot work and lead arrangement for tench-specific fishing. A few minutes spent tying it properly before casting saves losing fish once the action starts.

Particle mix field notes

The next session at the lake is the place to start. Take a small bucket of the cooked mix, two tins of corn, and a handful of tiger nuts, then spend the first hour simply feeding a chosen swim and watching before casting a rig. Observation is the skill that separates consistent tench anglers from those who go home wondering where the fish went.