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[Tunkwa Lake Resort]

Finally got out on Tunkwa to chase down some of it's big rainbow trout that lurk under the ice. The day started off sunny and calm, with temps around -6,  just a beautiful morning to be out and no one else on the lake!

Started drilling some holes off some well defined weed beds, but had little action. A little bit of adjustment on hole location to get on top of clean bottom areas(without any scrubby weeds inches off the bottom) found the trout!  Holes with any kind of vegetation on the bottom saw no action. Ended up in about 11' feet of water, and had best action about 3' off the clean bottom. A half/half hammered spoon with a "balanced PumpkinHead fly" dangling under it was the hot presentation, trout just went out of there way to smash it, many taking lots of line out under the ice during long runs. Action was pretty good, but once the snow and some unsettled weather moved in, we could really see a change in the trouts disposition! On the Humminbird graph, one could watch the trout cruise in kinda interested, but only bump the presentation, never taking it.....mixing up baits, lures and flies saw the same results, couldn't get another taker. Great to see the trout there in really good numbers and not bad size.

[Zach Sanchioni]

Nice work boys! Love ice fishing up there, great action and nice fish. Can't wait to get up your way!

[FrayedKnot]

Great to see the trout there in really good numbers and not bad size.

 Are the fish in Tunkwa all stocked or are there any that naturally reproduce? Are there special retention regs for ice fishing? Ive never tried it. Those are decent sized rb are they the norm in Tunkwa?

[Al P.]

Tunkwa has both wild(with 2 spawning creeks) and a well managed stocking program, with a switch to all Pennask strain(diploid and triploids) no more Blackwater strain being stocked. Fish grow to a good size on Tunkwa, due to abundant food, it is a very shallow fertile lake. It's rainbow trout can be finicky at times though, and it pays to keep moving/drilling to find active fish. Neighbouring Leighton lake can be a good bet through the ice as well, high density of rainbows, but fish are typically smaller.
Standard reg's apply to the ice, with a 5 fish limit, but only one over 50cm to be retained.
Hope this helps!