Some time after the middle of July, when the grass on the plateau has gone gold and most stillwater anglers have written off the heat, Tunkwa’s chironomids get big. The late hatch here is bombers, pupae long enough to see from the boat, and rainbows that spent the summer down on the flats come up to them across the lake.
It is an odd place for a famous trout lake: an irrigation reservoir on open ranch country between Savona and Logan Lake, wide and shallow and given over to the wind. It ranks among the best rainbow lakes in British Columbia, and in 1993 it hosted the World Fly Fishing Championships. Think of it in three parts: the open flats where the chironomids hatch, the weed edges along the margins, and the lake under ice.
The flats are where you start. They are shallow enough that a good trout has little cover and has to cruise, and from ice-off into June they carry the spring hatches most people drive up for. Anchor on the edge of one, hang a single pupa under an indicator, and let the fish come past you.
The weed edges are the part people motor over on the way to the flats. Smartweed lines parts of the shore and pondweed grows thick at the west end, and on the days the hatch stalls, a small leech cast tight to the weed and brought back slowly finds fish the indicator boats never see.
Winter shuts the launch but not the lake. From about January into April it is an ice fishery, the same rainbows under a white plateau, with snowmobile and ski trails running out from the park.
Tunkwa draws the crowds. When the flats are lined with anchored boats, the smaller lake beside it, Leighton, is a few minutes away through the same park, hatching the same bugs to fewer anglers.
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.
Fish and forage
Most are modest; a few big ones come out each season. Chironomids are the main food, from small spring pupae to the bombers, but in some years the trout are stuffed with scuds while a hatch comes off around them. Bloodworms, dragonfly and mayfly nymphs, and leeches fill the rest. The old local pattern, the Tunkwanamid, still earns a place in the box.
How to fish it
A 4- or 5-weight with a floating line and a long leader covers almost everything. In spring, fish a size 12 to 16 chironomid in black, brown or maroon under an indicator, set so the fly hangs a foot or two off the bottom. Clip a depth-finding weight on first and measure. If nothing happens, change depth before you change the fly, then change colour, then move to another flat.
For the bombers, go up to a size 10 or 8 on a long shank with a copper or black bead. Leave white beads and white gills at home when there is algae in the water; it clings to them and the fish refuse the fly. When a heavy hatch is on, fish can sit high in the water, so shorten the leader and look shallower.
When nothing is coming off, swap the pupa for a scud or a micro leech and fish it slow along the weed edge with a hand-twist retrieve, or troll a leech on a sinking line to find where the fish are. One fly at a time, always. Put an anchor off each end of the boat so the wind can’t swing you off your spot.
Access and safety
From Logan Lake, take Highway 97C north and turn onto Tunkwa Lake Road; it is about 16 km to the park, or about 24 km of pavement up from Savona, with gravel only near the lake. The provincial campground has a gravel launch and reservable sites, but no drinking-water taps, so bring your own. A resort on the east shore has cabins, boat rentals and a small store.
Marmots are everywhere and can damage vehicles and gear left out. The plateau weather changes fast and nights are cold even in summer. Wind builds quickly on this open lake, so watch it in a small boat or float tube. A toxic algae bloom on a hot late summer once killed cattle that drank from the lake: when a warning is posted, don’t swim, and keep dogs out of the water. There is no fish-cleaning station.