Leighton is the lake you can take in at a glance from the launch: shallow bays, two small islands, and mud flats under clear water, with loons out on it and killdeer along the shore. Most of the traffic on this road is heading for the famous lake next door. This one gets the same hatches and fewer boats.
It is a small man-made lake in Tunkwa Lake Provincial Park, built like its neighbour to hold water for the ranches below, on grassland and pine north of Logan Lake. A small creek feeds it, and its outflow runs on into Tunkwa Creek. Away from those two mouths lie the parts worth finding: the mud flats and bays, and the two islands. The water within 100 m of each mouth is closed to fishing from 1 May to 30 November.
The mud flats are where Leighton earns its reputation. They grow chironomids in numbers, and from May through August, anywhere outside the two closed zones, a pupa hung under an indicator is the method that catches most fish. In spring the bugs are small; by July and August the bombers are coming off, big enough to see from the boat, and the trout come up to them.
The islands are the most obvious structure on a lake of bays and flats. Their edges give cruising trout something to follow, and they are the place to try when the flats go quiet or the wind pushes you off them.
Winter turns it into an ice fishery for the same rainbows, while the staging area north of the lake sends snowmobiles out onto the Logan Lake trails.
You can drive between the two lakes in minutes, so fish Leighton in the morning and Tunkwa’s weed edges in the evening, or the other way round, and see which one the fish agree with.
Fish in this water
Each fish is rated by its strongest evidence. A rating says how sure we are a fish is here, not how many there are, whether it is worth fishing for or whether you may keep it.
Confirmed
Recorded on this water in the last 15 years, or named for it by a fishery agency, its fishing rules or a fishing publication.
How to fish it
You want a boat; shore anglers catch some fish, but the flats and islands are boat water. A 4- or 5-weight with a floating line, a long leader and an indicator handles most days. In spring, fish a size 14 or 16 chironomid set to hang just off the bottom, and measure the depth before you start. In July and August, step up to a size 10 or 12 bomber pattern.
If an hour passes with nothing, change the depth first: fish a foot higher, then a foot higher again. After that, try another colour, then move to the island edge. When the hatch is off altogether, swap to a small leech or a scud and fish it slow with a hand-twist retrieve. One fly at a time. Anchor bow and stern so the wind can’t swing you off the water you chose, and from May through November keep the anchors more than 100 m from the inlet and outlet.
Access and safety
From Logan Lake, take Highway 97C north and turn right onto Tunkwa Lake Road. It is paved from Logan Lake or Savona and turns to easy gravel inside the park, about 14.5 km from Logan Lake. A gravel parking lot just inside the entrance has a cartop launch, and there are two campgrounds: Leighton at the south end of the lake, with water pumps and vault toilets, and Leighton North by the ATV staging area. There are no stores nearby, so stock up in Merritt or Kamloops.
Wind comes up fast on the open lake, so keep an eye on it in a float tube or canoe. Marmots are common and can damage vehicles and gear. Weather on the plateau turns quickly and nights get cold, even in summer.