Fishing was slow but I still mangers to pull a 4 lbs out of there

Tunkwa Lake Rainbow.

Tunkwa Lake is a beautiful spot southwest of Kamloops, with trout as big as 10 pounds. Tunkwa Lake was stocked with 40,000 trout in 2018. Al Patton from Tunkwa Lake Resort says that the BC Freshwater Fisheries Society has recently changed the strain of rainbow trout they stock in Tunkwa Lake. The Pennask strain is a bug-eating trout. “They thrive in Tunkwa Lake. There’ve been good sizes and catches, and people report that fishing is the best ever.” Patton says that fly patterns are even more productive than before. It’s especially useful to match the hatch, he says. Chironomid fishing has always been great at Tunkwa. “From July to August, we get these giant chironomid bombers, and that makes for the best fishing,” Patton reports. “It’s best for people to anchor and float, because trolling doesn’t work as well here.” Patton notes that the best patterns are Pumpkinheads and Patrol Car Leeches, and the Blue Maroon Leech, which is tied especially for Tunkwa Lake Resort. Vampire Leeches can also produce good catches. Some of the best fishing is right at ice-off. “The bottom is darker-coloured, and tends to heat early. The shallow fishing is phenomenal,” Patton says. If you want to head out before then, Patton says that ice fishing is the best it’s ever been. He suggests that anglers concentrate on the really shallow spots, like less than two feet. “People used to go to Leighton Lake for ice fishing because Tunkwa was hard to figure out. But once everyone got used to fishing in the shallows, it really took off,” he says. Tunkwa Lake was chosen as one of the locations for the 2016 National Fly Fishing Championships. This Level 1 Competition was sanctioned by Fly Fishing Canada. The event saw some of the best fly anglers from across the country fishing in one of the region’s best fishing lakes! LAKE ACCESS The lake is located within Tunkwa Lake Provincial Park, about 40 km south-west of Kamloops. Access to the lake is via Tunkwa Lake Road, a gravel road that runs between the towns of Logan Lake and Savona. Tunkwa Lake Resort has a small store with groceries, tackle, and locally-tied flies. It offers rustic cabins or camping. The provincial park is available on a first-come, first-served basis, and there are two boat launches located within the park—one at Tunkwa Lake and one at Leighton Lake. There is a motor size restriction of 10 hp on Tunkwa Lake. It is recommended boaters use slow speeds to avoid damaging habitat or disturbing anglers—thank you.

Beautiful weekend of ice fishing with 2 of my friends of over 20 years... caught close to 30 fish in 2 days!!

https://youtu.be/etb2pFku9Xc

Fishing remained good and constant since the last report. A windy unstable day on Friday made it a tough day, but other then that, it’s all been good. Chironomids continue to hatch in a variety of sizes. Lots of bomber sized shucks can be seen on the lake surface each day. Any of the ASB(anti-static bag) patterns continue to produce best, but good catches coming on darker patterns as well. Some good dry action has been happening in the evening, if your in the right areas, where fish are actively feeding on the surface. Trollers have been seeing success as well. Wedding bands tipped with worms, or Kwikfish have been working as well. Weather has been beautiful, with nice clear blue skies, warm days, and nice refreshingly cool, star filled nights. ORIGINAL POST: http://www.tunkwalakeresort.com/fishing/2017-fishing-reports/

http://www.tunkwalakeresort.com/fishing/2017-fishing-reports/ May 29/17 We saw some beautiful summer weather after the cold front ripped through earlier in the week. For the most part fishing was very good. Chironomid hatches were coming off steady and the trout were on them. This weekend, we saw the hatches slow down, and the trout were a bit more scattered, roaming around more. Guest were into good flurries of action, then it would just stop as the trout moved. Size 14’s or 12′, in darker colours have been working best. Metallic Greens or dark greens are another good choice. We saw our first damsels flying today, and there are starting to be some mayflies coming off in the afternoons as well. Anglers that keyed into the damsel migration, did pretty good, hitting some bigger trout right up against the banks. When the trout scatter and start roaming, we see guests trolling start having better success rates. Trolling HotShot or Kwikfish plugs, were producing. Trick is getting them down to the level of the trout that day. We’ve sold a bunch of metallic Pink Hot shots to guests, they must be working well for them. Guests fishing worms under a float off the dock are doing well. Report by: Al Patton Tunkwa Lake Resort Email: [email protected] Phone: 250.523.9697 or 1.877.623.9697 http://fishingwithrod.com/fishing_report/tunkwa_lake.html

Lower Mainland Freshwater Lake Report

Ross Lake in Skagit Valley Provincial Park is a good place to check out if you are thinking about doing overnight camping/fishing trips. The lake offers good bull trout and rainbow trout fishing as the cold water drains from the Skagit River keeps the lake cool. These bull trout feed on redside shiner in the lake. Check out the video above for more information. Urban lake fisheries in the Lower Mainland are not so productive now that stockings are completed. Most of the fish are found in the deepest part of the lakes. Your better option right now is to venture out to lakes one or two hours outside of Metro Vancouver. As the weather warms up, you have a bigger chance catching introduced species such as bass and carp than trout. Hicks Lake should still be very productive. Beside the catchable rainbow trout which were stocked a few weeks ago in the lake, anglers can also expect to get into bigger rainbow trout, cutthroat trout and some kokanee. All the fish are down deep right now due to the hot weather, so a boat is required to access these spots. Weaver Lake is producing well. Most of the rainbows are not big but they are plentiful so this is an easy lake to fish for kids. The road up to the lake can be rough so a 4WD drive is best. Cultus Lake in Chilliwack is often overlooked but the fishing can be pretty good. Boat traffic can be heavy so that is one disadvantage. Northern pikeminnow, cutthroat trout, bull trout are your target species. Jones Lake's water level is back to normal height. Most of the rainbow trout and cutthroat trout caught in the lake have been skinny early in the season, most likely due to the lack of food in the lake. Casting small spoons, float fishing with bait such as krill, shrimp, single eggs have been working very well. The road up to the lake is in pretty good shape now that it is quite dry. Chilliwack Lake can be very good during this time of the year, especially in the evening hours, for bull trout and rainbow trout. A boat with a gas motor is usually needed, or you can fish at creek mouths where fish are more likely to congregate. Big schools of sockeye salmon can be seen swimming along the shallow parts of the lake right now. This is quite a sight for those who have never seen it before. Alta Lake in Whistler has a healthy abundance of rainbow trout and also produces large cutthroat trout. There is a bait ban in effect for this lake, so casting lures or fly fishing are the best methods for targeting these fish. This is a catch and release lake. Another lake which we always highly recommend, if you are looking for a family vacation which involves multiple days, is Tunkwa Lake. Tunkwa Lake is excellent during this time of the year due to the heavy "bomber" large chironomid hatches. Rainbow trout which you will encounter are between 1 and 4lb large. See original Post: http://fishingwithrod.com/fishing_report/lower_mainland.html

Tunkwa Lake Resort - Cabins, Camping, Store, Boat Launch