A Quick Family Get-away to Tunkwa Lake
Published on Tuesday, August 11th, 2015
The rainbow trout fishing at lakes across Interior British Columbia is known to be excellent from April to June. It usually tapers off in July when the weather heats up, but picks up in late July and early August, when the “bomber” hatches begin. The term refers to the emergence of extraordinarily large chironomids, which creates a feeding frenzy among these rainbow trout.
When we found out the bite was once again on at Tunkwa Lake from the resort, I didn’t hesitate to book a couple of nights at the cabin for the family. The last time we stayed there was three years ago when Nina was about to give birth to our son Elliot, so we were pretty excited to bring him there for the first time. Joining us was our neighbour Bob and his three kids who have never experienced interior lake trout fishing.
Located just North of Logan Lake, Tunkwa Lake Resort has been operating for several decades and many families have made it their annual family get-away. During this trip, we met families who have been to the resort since 30 years ago, or even gotten married there.
On the first day when we arrived, the rain was pouring down. For some reason that seems to be the theme for me whenever I visit Tunkwa. Being 1,000m+ above sea level, it was also a bit cool, which was actually quite refreshing after enduring a long heat wave in the Fraser Valley since early July.
We settled in our cozy little cabin and lit up the fireplace so it was toasty for the evening.
We woke up the morning to drier weather and the clouds were dispersing. It looked like the rest of the trip was going to be great!
Tunkwa Lake Resort is known to be a family resort. The biggest challenge we’ve discovered when going on a fishing trip with our little one is, obviously, to constantly come up with ideas to keep him occupied. While it’s nice to fish together, the reality is that a 2 year old’s attention span in a boat is no longer than one hour. After the one hour mark, it is time to be on dry land. The playground at the resort kept the kids occupied for hours each day, which was a great asset.
There have also been lots of new additions to the resort since we were last there. The new sheltered picnic area is ideal for lakeside meals.
The kayaks and paddle boards provide options other than fishing for family members who don’t wish to fish.
Now onto the fishing, it was fabulous as expected! We finally ventured out on the boat in the afternoon after watching fish being caught left and right. The hatches were thick and in no time we were into fish.
The large chironomid patterns were suspended a couple of feet off the bottom in 15 feet of water. We either used a 4wt fly fishing rod with an indicator to accomplish this, or a spinning outfit with a sliding float. Both methods worked equally well.
Fish being caught were mostly in the 16 to 18 inches range, while at times a 19 inch long fish would emerge and once awhile a 20 incher was pulled in by a lucky angler. Double headers were also not uncommon, which made the day rather entertaining with two fish circling around the boat while avoiding tangles with each other’s lines and the anchor ropes.
The bite did not taper off during our full day of fishing. After dinner, we headed out again at 7:30pm and were treated with constant action until sunset.
The kids also had a chance to dance with these fish. On our last day prior to departing, Bob brought his three kids out on my boat and they managed to brought six fish to the net in 30 minutes!
If you are considering a family fishing trip and undecided on where you should go, then definitely consider Tunkwa Lake Resort. Like many other families who we met during this trip, we may start a same tradition by going back every year from now on!
