Last week I hit Tunkwa/Leighton Lake. We arrived Thursday and were on the water by noon. It has recently rained, and the weather was going to be clearing over the next few days. I was hoping the fishing would heat up on the chironomids!
We started off on Leighton, and picked up a handful of fish with leeches and pumpkinheads. Stomach pump analysis revealed fish were feeding on plankton (water fleas) with the odd chironomid in the mix. I decided to try matching the chironmids that we found, which were small olive/brown with red butts. After no success, I switched to a more general pattern (black with silver rib, size 12) and was into fish. Seemed pretty typical - as the fish were not quite switched on to a specific hatch. Rather, they seemed to be taking my larger chironomid in an opportunistic feeding pattern. The fishing was not red hot, but I did hook quite a few fish.
On Friday morning we hit Tunkwa and again caught a handful of fish just trolling flies. After finding a nice area to set-up, I switched to chironomids. Unfortunately, the fishing was a bit slow with just the odd person hooking a fish here and there. I did land a couple of nice fish. One was one a "collaborator", the other on a "green hornet". After lunch we decided to return to Leighton to see if the action had picked up there. We found it to be similar, with fish taking the same black chironomid I used the previous day. My buddy was having some success with trolling a pumpkinhead. After losing a 20 inch trout at his net, he proceeded to land two 18 inch fish in a row just trolling.
As evening approached, I decided to fish a chironomid in the deep area just off the rock bluff. I was fishing 15 feet deep and my indicator went down and an 18 inch rainbow came to the net. Just as I was releasing the fish, my buddy hooked yet another fish on a pumpinhead. As he was tending to the fish, his rod slipped over the side of his tube! That pretty much ended the day as we hit the road to try and find him another rod/reel. The only place we could find (that was open late) was the Walmart in Merritt. He decided to pickup a cheap rod/reel combo and I set it up for him so he would have both a floating line and sinking line set-up.
On Saturday, we again hit Tunkwa in the morning. I managed to land two beautiful fish on a leech and pumpkinhead. However, the chironomid fishing remained slow so we decided to move over the Leighton. It was here where I managed to "dial in". After trying many chironomid patterns without success, I finally went to a "green hornet" and had great success in the late afternoon and into the evening. Soon it was approaching dark, and it was time to reel in and start dreaming about my next fishing trip.
Overall, the fishing was good, but not "on fire". Below are some photos for the members to enjoy...
First Fish on a Chironomid
A quick shot before the release (don't mind the thumb print)
This beauty was fooled by a Pumkinhead
Fish measurement
Quite a few dark fish in Leighton
Green Hornets were the ticket!
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Topic: Tunkwa/Leighton June 4 - 7 (Read 2671 times)