I couldn’t help myself, and dropped a line in 
….in 20 min’s I landed one chunky 2lb rainbow, that couldn’t resist a Trigger X bloodworm bait on a dropper hook, rigged 6″ below a silver Blue Fox Flash spoon……. fish was down at 8′ FOW(feet of water) over 11.5′.
The Hardwater season has begun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The past couple nights have been very cold, hitting -20C, making ice in a hurry. You can hear Tunkwa moaning and groaning as it’s being formed. The area had a good blanketing of snow on Monday morning, really brightening up the landscape.
This afternoon, we ventured off the dock to drill a couple holes to test for ice thickness. One hole was 4″, one was 5.5″ and one was only 2″! we didn’t venture to far out after that drilling. Overall, the ice is still not safe, but with these temps it won’t be long till the hardwater fun starts!
The mild spell this past week, coupled with rain and high winds, removed most of the ice on Tunkwa. Yesterdays cooler, and calm, morning allowed the lake to freeze over again. Some more seasonably cold nights, are needed to thicken things up. Water levels continue to rise, which is great news, sure will help the fish winter well. Guests have been making the short trek, to a lower, nearby trophy lake, to extend there stillwater fishing season even further.
Tunkwa was completely frozen this morning, with about 3/4″ of clear ice. It’s looking like the ice is probably here to stay now. As the ice thickens, we will post thickness and when ice conditions are safe to start ice fishing.
Tunkwa is wide open and still ice free, with some skim ice in some of the protected back bays, that is often gone by mid morning. Water levels have been increasing and the lake level is noticably higher.
Angling pressure has been very light, but anglers are doing well when the weather permits. Active fish are still shallow, with lots of 1 to 1.5lb rainbows being caught. Guest visiting a nearby trophy lake report doing well fsihign from shore, and also seeing many big fish cruising the shallows.
The nearby Thompson River opened up for steelhead fishing, a week ago Friday, which is an encouraging sign for a stronger run of these magnificent fish.
Watch for current ice fishing reports when the ice fishing gets under way. We are lookign forward to a great season of hardwater fishing this winter, and want to see many anglers come up and give it a try!
After a slow week or more fall fishing appears to be underway, fishing has picked up well since yesterday, water boatman, scuds and leeches are seen in the shallows, boatman and scuds were not seen for over a week since the cold snap on the 9th,10th and 11th of October as the temps were between -20 and -17 at night changing the water temperature dramaticaly to the point of putting down the aquatic insects, thus no fish feeding, no fish feeding= little fish caught.
Fish have VERY large bloodworms in their stomach’s, stuffed with them in deep red and flouresant green, some are close to an inch and a half!!!
Gang trolls with worm are working well with one large rainbow lost at the boat, worm and bobber fisherman are doing well casting right off the dock or the peninsula!
A few fly fisherman have arrived so we’ll report how their doing “on the fly”as soon as we get reports from them.
Just in from a fellow using a worm and float that the fish are very aggressive this morning and taking a moving worm hard, one fish kept was full of scuds.
Fall fishing is here finally!!
Fishing has been slow since the short cold spell last weekend, fish did take leeches recently with a 2.5 lb rainbow giving the fly angler a good fight. Boatman hatches appear to be done for the year. It’s been a strange fall, the fall feed has yet to materialize, there are fish porpiousing taking something just under the surface yet unseen by anyone, it could be daphnia or very small chironomids. Fish have small snails in their stomachs so they are in the shallows and weed beds feeding but not active as anticipated.
Some brutally cold early mornings up here has made fishing hard to do! But, when temps have improved and the wind settled down, the trout have been biting. Fishing shallow has been productive, same patterns as previous reports. Fish are being caught of the resort dock as well.
Productive Fly patterns from this week.
A windy week has kept most of the water. Guest getting out when the weather breaks have been doing good, with some nice trout being caught. Even nice fish coming in off the resort dock. Fish are shallow and hitting a variety of presentations. Pumkinhead, olive K-Marts, Micro Leaches in Olive or black or marroon, have all been producing. Slow trolled Kwikfish or HotShots in the usual colours, have been working as well. Fall fishing can be fristrating dealing with Mother Nature, but the rewards are well worth it!
Cooler weather the past few days has dropped the water temperature by a few degrees which has resulted in the fishing to pick up today as anglers trolling F-4 kwikfish in cracked frog have been doing well off the weed bed by the provincial campground, guest fishing off the point at cabin 17 with a worm and bobber have been doing quite well this afternoon. Fish have been seen jumping and porpiousing around the weed beds throughout the day for a change, the sign of fall fishing it appears has slowly started to pick up after several weeks of slower than normal fishing. We had our first good dusting of snow in the hills surrounding Tunkwa this morning which has now melted but with that will be water full of nutrients delivered back to the lake in natures way with the cycle of life. Water boatman are not yet very abundant but with the freezing nights forecast that should change.
Fall came in with a blast! Saturdays wind storm was something else, with winds up to 65 kms, it sure got Tunkwa rough. No one could fish the lake from a boat yesterday afternoon, but shore bound anglers still had success despite the conditions. We saw a beautiful 2.5 lber pulled off the dock by a young guests fishing a Kwikfish, and guests fishing worms under a float, from shore, got into trout as well. Prior to the big winds, many fish were being caught, mostly from the water above the weed beds using various presentations. Sunday morning, we awoke to clear, calm, but very cool conditions, with temps below the freezing mark, and we are seeing fish start to come in again. With the upcoming forecast for this week, fall has definitely arrived!
Morning temps have been dipping down to the freezing mark, but quickly rising into the upper 20’s by mid day. Sunny calm, just spectacular weather! Fishing pressure has been quite light the past few days, with most guests out trolling. They are catching fish, but most of th actively feeding fish are being seen up in the shallows above the weed beds.
Fishing a leach pattern in olive, burgundy or black, on a floating line above the weeds will put trout on the end of the line. Casting shallow running plugs( eg. KwikFish) into the same areas will work well for gear anglers. A worm under a float in the same areas will produce as well. These cool nights and cold mornings should help get the water temps down and bring on the fantastic fall fishery.
Anglers faced some windy conditions this past weekend, making fishing tougher for all. Anglers who found more sheltered spots, did manage to hook up, mostly reports of smaller fish, but some decent fish were caught. Earlier in the week, we had 2 guests with fish into the 5lb class. Fish on the cleaning table are full of scuds. We are observing a fair bit of fish activity in the shallow, weedy bay in front of the resort, which is always a good sign. After a week of above normal temps, this morning it felt more seasonable, with temps right at the freezing mark, only to warm up to a beautiful, sunny fall day. Some cooler temps should really help set conditions up for a great fall bite, the BEST fishing of the year.
Fish are also being caught on willow leafs/worm, hot shots and flat fish and worm under a slip float have been doing well off the two west weed beds. A small front approaching from the west will move through tonight, fishing should be good before the approaching front this evening and take a day or two before the fishing gets good after the front leaves the area and the barometer rises as high pressure once again moves into the area to continue this beautiful Indian Summer were having up here at Tunkwa Lake.
Local lakes are reporting excellent fishing for ones who are expierienced at chironomiding and get to the right depth, area on the lake, time of day, type of fly,color, size and retrieve.
Tunkwa was engulfed in beautiful weather this weekend, clear sunny sky, temps approaching 30C, and no wind! Night time temps dipped into the low single digits. Fishing remained a bit on the slow side, but still quite a few fish were caught by guests. We hosted a few ‘fun derbies’ this weekend, and it took fish well over 3lbs to place in the derby. Most guests were trolling, Hot shots, Kwikfish, gang trolls or attractor flies, but the ‘ole worm under the slip float, proved to be the best presentation. Stomach samples showed a fair number of snails in the fishs diet, usually spelling tougher fishing for. Guest hopping over to Leighton reported the chironomid fishing was going really good, with lots of fish, chironmids in size 16, static bag or dark green, seem to be the ticket. Guests day tripping to lakes at higher elevation reported lots of boatman activity, but still pretty tough fishing. Cool nights should help the fishing, and get the fall bite going stronger.
The lake has been like glass the past few days, fish are bitting #12 black chironimods fished near the bottom with an indicator. #12 copper chironomids have also has sucsess alomg with #14 maroon leeches w/a few strands of red flashabou. Worms have been working as well fished in 10 feet of water approxametly 6-7 feet in deep. Blood worms appear to be staging for another hatch, the next week we will get a better idea when they will start to start their emergance once again. Egg laying bombers have been hatching in good numbers in front of cabin 17 and to the east close to shore. These chironomids are very big , they are coming off around 7:30p.m. until and after dark. Dry fly fishing proved challenging last night with Tom Thumbs and Lady McConnells as the takes were very quick, fishing like that can be very exciting especially while casting and getting a fly in the rear end!
High pressure still dominates the area with a change mid week possible.
Fishing pressure has been relatively light on Tunkwa this week, but fishing remains good to excellent. We have had several nights with temps droppign to freezing, foloowed by nice, sunny warm days. Ranchers are continuing to pull water, and the moving water seesmto be keeping the bite going strong. Hatches have been lighter and more sporatic, but fish are still gorging on chironomids. Darker patterns in green or blacks have been woking best. Bloodworms fished alojng the bottom and leach patterns fished deeper, have produced well for guests this week, as well. The evenings have seen some absolutely unreal surface activity and guests are reporting non-stop action fishing chironomid patterns in the surface film, when this is happening. Guests trolling gang-trolls, tipped with worms or hot-shots/Kwikfish lightlky weighted, are pcikin up fish. Worms fished under a slip flaot set at 6-8′, fished along weed lines are doing very well on the rainbows as well. Fish to just over 5lbs have been caught this week.
Also locally, small jach chinook salmon are starting to show up and be caught in the nearby Thompson river.
Long term weather forecast is looking absolutely beautiful and should keep the fishing action going strong.
Reports came in later yesterday afternoon of many larger rainbows being caught, with one large trout clearing the water during a battle and hitting the anglers wife and dog as it cleared the boat!
Some pretty good surface, dry-fly action occurred in the later afternoon and into the evening as well.
Rainbow fishing continues to be excellent!! Cannot beat a size 10 chironomid fished 1′ off the bottom, in 14-16′ of water, big numbers of fish are being landed, with fish over 4lbs being caught, and many stories of even bigger ones getting away are being told. Hot chironomid colours continue to be static bag/red rib, black electra, and black & reds. Guest fishing worms in the same zone are catching trout as well. Trollers are picking up the occasional fish, but fishing anchored, set up just off the bottom is hard to beat!
The long awaited BOMBER hatch has started today, fishermen have been getting double didget quantaties of fish in the 2-3 lb range this afternoon. Frequent double headers with some down to using a single rod instead of chironomiding with two rods if alone in the boat. From red to green to brown and now grey as they emerge to the surface. Mayflies were coming off yesterday late afternoon and some anglers were getting them on the dry as they dried their wings, takes were suttle and one had to be on the ball to hook the surface sipping rainbows,
Worm fishermen have been doing satifactory on slip floats in 14 feet of water a foot off the bottom. No one is trolling at this time so I can’t give a report.
Sorry for th short report, I’m going fishing!!
Fishing was fair today. Worm under a float anchored or drifted worked the best, gang trolls with frog flatfish prodused fish if fished deep, Chironomids worked for some anglers who moved to find the fish, red butts and static bags were chironomids of choice in size 12. We are having heavy mayfly hatches in the evenings so if one fished a mayfly pupa just under the surface it should produce good results. Warm weather continues up here but the lows are 12 Deg providing some relief of the heat at night.
Fishing has slowed down a bit after Staurdays intense storm. Fish seem to be a bit more scattered right now, and anglers moving around are into them still. Bigger chironomid patterns, in Static-bag, green/red butt, & dark brown seem to be working best. We have been experiencing some incredible mayfly hatches the past few evenings, providing some good action fishing mayfly nymph patterns and some dry fly action in the evenings. Some success is being reported by guests trolling Frog HotShots as well. Guests drifitng wet fly patterns in green colours are hitting fish as well, the key seems to be getting the fly down near the bottom, where the fish are gorging on the bloodworms. Worms under a float, fished near the bottom, in 14-16′ of water continues to do very well.
Fishing continues to be very good with fish to 3.5lb’s. Chironomids are coming off already this morning in size 12 and 14, dominant color is brown and they are coming off in shallow water. There is also very small(18-20) chironomids coming off also in the shallows. Even though fish are either full of large blood worms or nil of them their targeting red butts and brown chironomids in size 12 to 8. Mayflies are also coming off, the adults are black. Dragon flies and damsels are about in the adult stages. Flyfishermen are having stellar days on the lake with feeding activity 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Early fishers in the morning are having some sucsess trolling gang trolls with worms, kwik fish and hot shots. Worm fisherman using slip floats are doing anywhere from good to slow, one has to find the fish and be on the move to new feeding areas of the lake the fish favor. Fish are at certian depths with ones who know the depth doing extremely well while one anchored next to them having little sucsess fishing either too shallow or too deep.
Were into a very hot weather pattern this week (35 Deg), this may trigger the balance of early summer hatches to emerge at water temperature increases. This will make for an interesting week as the barometer is high and steady for multiple days, the fishing should continue to be good. We do have a mid week special, small cabin/boat, give us a call for more information if you don’t have to go to work @ 250-523-9697.
Yesterday the fishing was excellent with some anglers reaching the 50 mark using chironomids under an indicator, red butts, black and red, chironies, static bag, brown w/cooper rib, rootbeer/snow cones and blood worms. The mid afternoon bite made anglers use a single rod as two rods proved chaos with multiple double headers. The very warm sunny and calm weather appears to have triggered the blood worms transforming to large chironomids for their emergance to the surface. This triggers the trout for a feeding frenzie which happened yesterday. Fishers are grouped in a few areas of the lake today and not moving so fishing appears to be good once again, Trollers using wedding bands and worm are doind well and worms under a float are doing well. Water surface has a number of spent shuks, damsels are active, #10 brown chironomids were coming off mid afternoon.
Guests continue to be reporting some great fishing on Tunkwa, even on Saturday when the entire province was getting pounded with heavy winds The strong winds whipped the lake up pretty good, stirring lots of giant bloodworms off the bottom leaving them suspended in the water column. Based on stomach samples, fish have been gorging on them. Guests, especially kids, have been catching all kinds of good sized rainbows, simply fishing worms under a float, with slip floats working best. Trolling and drfiting various lures have been working as well, darker cloured Kwikfish and Hotshots have been producing, as have gang trolls over the deepr portions of the lake. Chironomid fishing using bigger brown patterns, static bag, ‘carrot’ and dark-green has been working. Bloodworms patterns are starting to come into there own now. The usual attractor patterns drifted or trolled are hooking up as well. We have seen more of the bomber sized chironies hatching, as well as some decent mayfly hatches coming off as well.
A great day for the fisherman today, fish to 3.5lbs have been coming in regularly using blood worms,#8 brown bombers, flat fish, chromies in size #10. Worm fisherman have also been doing well with fish to 2.5 lbs, gang trollers with wedding band have been catching fish but a bit smaller unless fished deep. Grasshoppers have been jumping around the resort today so hopper patterns should also work along the windward shore edges. damsels are still emerging out of the shallows and weed beds, some fishers using elongated patterns and some using the Georgi damsel are getting into some nice fish, the fish are just “hammering”the flies. Weather looks nice, warm and sunny thru the weekend and into most of next week providing hopefully a long warm spell which will bring on more hatches of chironomids, the “bombers” should be arriving very soon as evidence of more mature chironomids are seen during throat samples. The Navy is ready for them. :)
Fishing is very good today. A slow troll using flat fish and hot shots caught many fish. Nice sunny summer day fisherman have had with nice weather in the near future. Damsels were hatching in good numbers this morning. Fish are in 7-10 feet of water with some fish taken near the surface. Chironomiders who keyed in and used a anti-statibag did well. Worm fisherman using the slip float tecknique we doing very well also, Gang trollers with wedding band were also catching fish. A story from the lake today reported a big fish spooling an angler, there was nothing he could do he mentioned. Winds are light and temps are in the upper twenties.
Fishing picked up late yesterday afternoon with chromies in sizes 12 to 14 fished in 19 feet of water producing fish to 4lbs, fly line screaming out into to the fly guy’s backing made for some exhilarating angling. Fishing today was good with almost everyone getting into fish using worms under a float, gang trolls with worms or a hot shot, micro leeches, damsels, k-marts, pumkinheads, sedge pupa patterns, and many different sizes and colors of chironomids. After a day of nice weather with slow fishing after a week of unstable weather the usuall second nice day turned the fishing back on! Shuks from hatched chironomids were scattered around the lake surface, little bird activity feeding on the adults. The fish are very fiesty with guests having 2 lb fish get them into their backing a number of times and a challenge to land, then seeing the size at boat side have them scratching their heads. The lake is doing very well this year according to long time guests in size, quality and abundance.
Fishing has been slow for today so far, at first light some anglers did get into some fish, later in the morning if one worked the weed edges at the drop offs with micro leeches and leeches they did come into the occasional fish to 2lbs. Yesterday evening worms worked well outside Bloodworm bay, the pumkinhead fished deep out near the provincial park did very well for one angler. Different sizes and colors of chironomids were coming off late yesterday afternoon, lighter hatches today even with the warmer weather they are shy to emerge. Winds are light and the smoky/overcast skies are now clearing nicely. Damsels are hatching anong the shore line and a few flyfishers were getting the odd fish on Gumphous patterns dragging thru the weeds. Hopefully the stable weather will entise the feeding activity for the trout.
Unstable weather the last few days have made fishing spotty. Fishermen using hot shots, kwik fish and gang trolls with worm are catching fish throughout the lake, fish are up tp 4 lbs. Flyfisherman are haveing a bit more of a difficuly time keying into what the fish are feeding on. This evening black with chrome ribbed chronomids were coming of in size 10-12, light brown chironomids on the surface or just below in sizes the same were also observed. Fish are stuffed with monster bloodworms and bomber chironomids in a wide range of colors, red with chrome rib 1 3/8 were noticed along with very bright green ones, other fish had immature scuds, fish are on the bottom with all the “mush” in their stomachs. Caddis hatches have slowed down on Tunkwa but is strong on Leighton but even top rods are having a difficult time getting into fish. Tomorrow should be a nice and sunny day with the possibility of an afternoon thundershower, so were back to seasonal weather and hopefully the fishing will pick up even more. We have a couple cabins open for this weekend and if one checks our web site we have a special on for July mid week to tackle some Tunkwa trout.
Fishing continued to be pretty good this weekend on Tunkwa, with everyone catching fish. Fish up to 4lbs were caught this weekend. Stomach samples show the fish have started to gorge on large blood worms. Fish were caught on all different presentations, mostly over the deeper parts of the lake, out off the weeds. Bloodworm or large chironomids, fished close to the bottom were doing well, but the usuals(pumkinheads, damsles, Spratleys, K-Marts etc) were all producing as well. Kwikfish or HotShots in orange or lighter colours worked well, as did wedding bands or gang trolls tipped with worms.
Weather was incredible and lots of happy guests with some good fish stories to go home with.
Out on the boat docks this monring, we observed the lake surface covered in chronomid shucks, in all sizes including many of the huge bomber sizes. We have a couple cabins become available for the July 17/18 weekend, give us a call if you would like help planning a Tunkwa fishing get-away.
Fishing is still very good even with the mixed weather yesterday of rain showers and cloudy conditions with some sunny breaks. A small high pressure system should be filling in today so some wind will acompany the partly cloudy skies for improving weather pattern for Friday and Saturday. Flat fish in black and green are producing fish trolled just under the surface. Worms drift fished under a bobber are catching fish, everyone is getting into fish from 1 to 3 pounds, the fly fishers have been doing well on scuds under an indicator or useing a ghost tip close to the weed beds. Chironomid hatches have been light the past two days along with mayflies and cinamon caddis, the warming trend should enhance stronger hatches around the lake’s shallower spots.
Fishing has been very good the past few days, a few thunderstorms moved in and out of the area and fishing in between them has been very productive. Fish have been taking hot shots, kwik fish, worms on a bobber, flies trolled are doing well, wolly buggers, and pumkinheads. Chironomid hatches are spoty, flyfishers using small green chironomids fished close to the bottom. Fish are feeding on scuds, leeches and chironomids. Gang trollers are doing well using hot shots and worms. Getting the bigger Kamloops trout is proving a challenge for anglers, fish to four pounds are being caught but the larger ones break off leaders of 6lb or less, using a stonger than 6lb leader the bigger trout get leader shy or spooked. Reports of fantastic fights and arial jumps are making for some fun fishing!
We had some unsettled weather passing through the area, with thunder booming in the air, and the odd bit of rain over the past few days. Luckily, the brunt of the storms by-passed us. The passing storms really seemed to get the trout cranked up, and we saw a lot of fish getting caught the past couple of days. Again, trolling or wind-drifting produced best, whether you were working plugs or various spinners, or wet flies in patterns, same as last report. Anglers fishing worms under a slip float continue to do very well, even fishing from shore. Chironomid fishing has been slow, but today we started to see some fish with lots of chironies in the stomachs, mostly olive greens, instead of all the scuds of late. Some reports of more bigger, ‘bomber’ sized chironies coming off, came in as well.
Fishing is very good today, a number of two to four pound fish were caught by anglers trolling flies in many areas of the lake, fish are actively jumping and porpiousing all over the lake. An angler had her hook straightened, another was brocken off using a pumkinhead and one fellow lost his rod to a fish. Worm fisherman are doing well anchored or drifting, one fellow caught a nice 2.6 lb. fish right off the boat dock in the late evening. Scuds and small chironomids are being targeted by the trout, dragon flies,damsels,waterboatman are out during the day and cinamon caddis in the evening are spotted in flight.
Weather is mixed with mostly warm, sunny days with the odd thundershower looming the plateau in the late afternoon, we were spared a shower today but the fish really went arial as the storm approached the lake.
Trollers using gang trolls with hot shots were also hooking into fish, sprateley’s,leeches,micro leeches trolled were sucsessful. Colors varied from green to burgandy and black to maroon.
Temperatures were back to normal, but we did have a very windy weekend up here, with lots of sun and no rain. A calm, ‘picture perfect’ Monday morning up here now! The wind made setting up to fish a bit harder, but it seemed like everyne was still catching fish. Anglers trolling or wind drifting were doing the best. Various attractor patterns flies are working, B-52, Spratleys, PumkinHeads, damsel patterns and maroon micro-leaches, all were working. Guests trolling Hot-Shots in bright coluors did very well, as did red wedding bands, and gang trolls, all tipped with worms. Guests that could set up properly and fish worms under a slip-float did extremely well. Chironomid hatches seemd to be lighter, more mayflies are being seen, as are damsels, some guests noted some larger travelling sedges coming off as well.
Above normal temps have engulfed the area, making fishing a bit tougher on the whole. Guests trolling Gangtrolls tipped with worms, or Kwikfish and HotShots have been still steadily scoring with fish. Leach patterns trolled or wind drifted behind the boat are working as well. Anglers fishing worms under a slip float,(usually setting up just outside deeper wedge edge) have been doing extremely well. Fish have been caught off the shore as well. We had a few days of incredible chiromomid fishing, with fish seeming to be very concentrated in certain areas of the lake, and taking smaller chironie patterns in greens. We have noticed chironie hatches coming off in the bright reddish brown colour, our ‘carrot’ coloured chironmids have been tied for this hatch. On some of the calm evenings, we have seen a lot of surface activity, with small hatches of cinnanom caddis coming off. Today, we noticed, the first of the damsels flies showing up, our docks are covered in emerging nymphs drying there wings, and the air is starting to fill up with adults flying, a great sign and usually the start of some great fishing. Lake level has dropped a couple inches, and the first sign of an algae bloom was noticed today. Weather forecast is for more seasonable temperatures, with lots of sunshine.
Large fish have been seen jumping at rock piles, deep inside bloodworm bay,farmers bay and around goose island with anglers shaking their heads as they arn’t getting a sniff. Fish are either stuffed with scuds or chironomids making fishing difficult.
Bombers are coming out in the very late afternoon/evenings trying to fly their large bodies up only to be carried down the lake with the breeze a few feet above the water.
Water temperatures are 54 Deg.
Some local lakes are fishing well!
A productive weekend for anglers along with warm temperatures and sunshine! Bright color hot shots with some weight on to get deeper in the lake worked well with fish to 4lbs, wedding bands with a willow leaf did not work to well as they are not getting deep enough to the fish to provoke a strike. Fly fisherman were quit successful using chironomids,leeches,micro leeches,immature damsels and water boatman. Indicator fishing in 20 feet of water 14-16 feet down provided the best results. A number of fishers were broken off by feisty and, or large fish. One fellow was spooled into his backing, once he saw the reel core he palmed the reel, lost the fish which never did jump and ended up with a straighted hook! Water temp is 53 Deg.
Trolling slow is the key at this time. With the warmer weather the water will warm up some more(51 Deg. currently) and the lake should get even more active as the insects emerge. Reports in today from our neighboring lake Leighton have been that it’s slow today.
Sunshine arrived this afternoon after cool unsettled weather kept air and water temperatures lower than normal making fishing rather slower than normal for this time of year. Cool water from melting snow in the hills and mountians surrounding Tunkwa Lake kept the water cooler the past few days, water temperature is 50 Deg. today.
fisherman have been catching fish using flatfish, kwik fish and hot shots (F-4) in green and black with silver speckles. Gang trollers have have sucsess with willow leaf and worm. Flyfishers have been doing well with wooly buggers in brown and olive green cast into the shallows, a number of the anglers had “break offs” of large fish taking their wooly buggers and bringing back exciting stories to shore. Chironomids have been coming off the past few days even in the cooler weather, and today they were in swarms as the wind died down and things warmed up, swallows are all over the air space, from just on the surface eating fresh hatches to a few hundred feet in the sky taking chironomids in flight, it’s a sight to see the birds by the hundreds manouvering amungst on another feeding.
As the temperature warms up in the next few days and into next week fishing will improve as more and more insects emerge from the lake bottom and asend to the surface, take flight, mate and lay their eggs to complete their life cycle.
Some nicer, more seasonable weather, on the Tunkwa this weekend. Water temps stayed about the same, with some spots warming up to 47F, still unseasonably cool. Creeks flowing into the lake are still high and are carrying in the colder snow melt. there is still lots of snow in the hill tops. Very few rainbows have moved up to start spawning in the creeks as of yet. Mixed reports coming in, but seems like everyone was catching some at least. Some reports of decent catches came in as well. For flies, larger, gaudier coloured leach patterns seem to be the best bet, or any attractor type pattern as an alternative. Even with some chironomid hatches coming off, mostly small sized, anglers fishing chironies are not having much success on them. Trollers fishing kwikfish and hotshots are starting to hook up, and the first reports of success with gang trolls tipped with worms have come in. More movement of fish has been observed all over the lake, seems the fish are getting restless and waiting for some warmer water to get them going. Reports from leighton were indicating abou the same thing going on. Fishing should improve as the days get warmer, with the best still to come.
Finally a beautiful day on the lake, calm conditions, scattered sun and some decent temps. Our area had been getting hit with lots of wind, and almost every kind of percipitation imagineable. Fishing has been slow, but fish are being caught. Immature damsel and leach patterns have been producing best, but some reports of action coming from guests fishing small bloodworms, small chironomids in black/red, & static bag patterns. Lake levels continues to rise from snow melt in the hills and seem to be keeping water temps down, it’s still hovering around 46/47F, hopefully the warmer weather/sun in the forecast will improve water temps and fishing action. Still lots of fish jumping and making there presence known.
Big SW winds have been pounding our area, making fishing a challenge. Mixed repsorts coming in from the lake, but some fish still being caught shallow on darker coloured leaches, with brown-flash being the most productive colour. Some chironomid hatches have been observed, with swallows feeding on them heavily, but most specimens still being very small. Reports of success fishing small (#16) chironmids in chrome or ‘static bag’ patterns. Worm under a float is working as well. Fish are still shallow, so not really set up for much trolling action yet.
Lake levels continue to rise, a good rain in the area last night, with more snow in the hills, have made the creeks feeding into the lake, rise and swell up, and is no doubt attracting spawners to the creek mouths. Reminder to anglers they must stay 100m away from the creek mouths and fish traps when in place. Water temps are still holding around 46F.
Fishing was bit tougher today from reports coming in. Water temps are still cold, and holding around the 46F mark, lake level is starting to slowly rise, warmer temps & sunshine the past few days, are starting the snow melt up higher. Some strong winds and the occasional short rain burst passed through the area Sat. night. Today wind direction was constantly changing, making boat set up and control a challenge for everyone out there. Some decent reports came back from some guests fishing Saturday, reporting leach patterns fished very shallow in ‘sparkly’ browns, black and maroon are producing better then anything else. Everyone is commenting on all the active fish being seen almost ‘everywhere’ in the lake. Unfortunately, no first hand reports from neighboring Leighton Lake.
Water temp hit 47 yesterday, guests were catching fish, some doing very well, some struggling. Active/catchable fish seem to be very shallow, 3′ of water, and peak fishing was 9:30 – noon yesterday. Samll green(#14) in Tunkwa green(dark olive/red) was a good match to stomach pump samples. Micro leaches in darker patterns were working as well. Also, very slow trolled, darker colured Kwikfish were working.
Lake levels are still low, as the snow in the surrounding hills, has not started to melt, the warmer weather we are now getting, should start the melt and get the levels up.
The ice came off today!!!
Wind picked up this aft and piled-up the last remaining bits up on the west shore. Time to fish!
Just had an angler stop in and reported the ‘ice-off’ really progressed on Leighton today as well, and it won’t be much longer either.
Another beauty day up here, finally spring is here.
The difference a day makes! An absolutely gorgeous day at Tunkwa today, and one of our famous sunsets reflecting on all the open water. Sure looked like the ice would be gone by the end of today, but when the sun started to set, we could see there still was a small bit left out there……tomorrow! A handful of boats out there today, with a couple stopping in reporting some success, but still slow. We saw fish jumping around us as we worked on the docks today. A drive by Leighton late this morning, saw more open water along the north shore, but still more ice then open water. Everything is shaping up for a great ‘traditional’ opening weekend. See you out there.
The ‘stillwater’ season is about to begin!!!!
The ice cover continues to shrink, and some strong winds have it moving around the lake, and piling up on the various points it runs into. Cold nights have slowed the melt down, and really warm weather has not materialized, despite the weather forecast predicting otherwise. We saw out first boat on Tunkwa today, moving around in the open lake along the shore to get access to the open water and large open bays, still a risky proposition, as the wind can push the ice and close up your way back. Not much change on leigton lake, and it is behind Tunkwa right now. Logan Lake is almost iced off, and a drive past Mamette Lake on Fri. had it with less then 1/3 of it’s ice cover remaining.
Our supply of new locally tied flies arrived today, tied by local guide, Bruce Southern. Bruce has taken his vast experience from time on the water and provide us with his proven patterns for Tunkwa/Leighton Lakes.
Some strong, warm winds and higher temps have really been working there magic on the ice, large chunkks have broken off and are moving, there is ice starting to pile up along the north shore, it’s looking good, and won’t be to much longer.
Ice off on Tunkwa is progressing nicely. Warm temps, strong sunshine, wind, and the occasional rain shower, is all working it’s magic. Shorelines are opening more, and the ice out from these areas is rotten. Areas were run-off is entering the lake is open as well. Looking at pictures from this time last year, makes us think we are probably 2 weeks ahead of ice conditions then. Long term weather forecast is calling for a lot of warm weather, it won’t be too much longer!
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