Beyond beautiful. That looks like an incredible area!

I used to fish these lakes in the late 60's early 70's. I went in up the Skokomish and then up the then open road to the trailhead to Flapjack lakes then over the ridge and dropped down to the big lake. At the time the big Mildred had huge fat rainbow up to 24 in. and easily caught off the shoreline and in fact one of your pics was a good spot. The middle bouldery lake with reeds held nice 20 in. Montana blackspot and were a hoot on a fly rod. That lake held freshwater shrimp, shallow and highly productive. Kind of a let-down that Brookies have taken over. A 16 in. brookie is a big one,,,,did they appear to have the stunted big head or well proportuned?? Either way in is a serious grunt of a hike.

Well proportioned to me and healthy fish. I mostly caught rainbow. Didn't pull out any cutthroat. The 2nd middle lake, with water levels down last summer, you could see the fish the fly anglers were after. They were very active in the surface.

I've always been on a time crunch when I've made the trek up to Mildred. This next summer I plan on getting up there for at least 2 nights. I would love to explore all the way around the 3rd lake. Like you said, many good pockets and spots. I was just lucky to stumble upon a very nice side inlet and decent camp spot.

The thing I love is the absolute privacy. The only other people up there (and I've been alone 2/3 of my trips) are dedicated hikers/anglers. Most people I see make it a day hike simply because bringing the equipment required for an overnighter and food/water adds too much weight for most to endure the difficulty of the hike itself. It's all worth it though!

Go to the alpine lake archives and check the pic which appears to be a Westslope cutthroat. Look like your "brookie"? So how big the rainbow? If they are still there then they are self propagating or someone is planting. I don't think the USFS does that anymore as it is a budget cut thing. The freshwater shrimp is a small maybe 1/4 in. long green thing called Gammarus lacustris that lives in the organic detritis along the lakeshore and out to the dropoffs.. Power food for alpine trout. Any green scud patten is great fly for an imitation. There is another pond in the area, hard to find and probably void of fish now. Lincoln Pond. Look west up the big lake and it's over the ridge to the left. Small. The shrimp was introduced there in the 60's and just a few rainbow and they grew to enormous size as the pond is shallow, south facing and gets early spring sun and warms quicjky. No spawing habitat so they are most likely gone. Hard place to find and all overland/brushwhack no trail navigation. I don't have all the reports but if you send an e-mail I might give you some leads to find about this stuff. growler-boat@comcast.net

I believe it's stocked by WDFW via Trailblazers.
http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/washington/highlakes/stocking.php.

I could be mistaken though. I stumbled across another stocking report as well. I will try to see if I can locate again.

Lincoln pond 650 in 2007, Mildred 2 ,,777,, 2011, Mildred 1 1150,, 2010 ... Should be premium this year of 2016 with all the shrimp feed.

Nice work on getting into Mildred!!! That fishery is one of the very best alpine ones in the state. I have been to Mildred many times and it is a blast (if you can make it). The middle lake has some HUGE fish in it. We caught one last summer that was almost five pounds. The rest averaged between one and two pounds and were taken on large black flies and this one rooster tail that was a bumble bee pattern in yellow and black. The fishing can be hard because you really have to sneak up on them and the water is super clear so they can see everything. If you could get a settup on the bottom somehow without getting snagged I swear there are fish pushing ten pounds in that lake. They were all westslope cutthroat we caught in the middle lake and in the first lake it was all rainbow to about 11". The rainbows were way better eating than the cutthroat. We just kept a couple for dinner each day and then C & R'd the rest very carefully. Thanks for the report - I always love reading the Mildred ones because it is so damn hard to get into. I guess that is why the fishing is so good. That and the creek that feeds both the middle and the lower lakes - it was chock full of stuff for them to eat. I am headed back this summer as well...I've been up there probably ten times total in my life. Beautiful place.

Every time I go I try and convince a friend to bare the beast with me. I time my hike every time and try to beat my previous time. My PR is 4:00 flat to the left middle side of the 3rd (big lake). But that was with my athletic friend so we only stopped about 2 times. With my dad it's about 2 hours longer. Every hike has been with about 40lbs of pack full (60L northface).

I just love the challenge. I'm only 24 so I really enjoy the physical nature of it. My goal next summer is 3 hours flat from the parking lot to the big lake, no stops. Last year I made it down in 2:50 flat.

It's the most beautiful area I've ever seen. The fishing is so good it's hard to describe. I was even using 8lb. test (not sure why...) and they were hitting my yellow/black pokadot rooster tail like crazy. My rainbow rooster tail was very effective too.

Next time I'm up I'll be sure to fish the middle lake for the big boys. I agree through, the rainbow was great. Every time I'm up there I just wish I could stay longer. I want to summit the peak across from the big lake and get some awesome pictures of the lakes looking down.