I camped up at Lake Takhlakh over 4th of July weekend and fished most of each day and into the evenings. Takhlakh is one of the more beautiful spots in our state, situated right at the base of Mount Adams. It is a small lake, very maneuverable with a pontoon or float and never too deep to drop an anchor down if the wind picks up. There's a trail that winds around the lake and has some bank access, but you have to bring some sort of watercraft to get out on the water and really enjoy the view. WDFW had just stocked the lake with over 4000 trout, 200 of whom were big brood stock fish, those averaging over 3 lbs a fish. I fished mostly small #0 or #1 Mepps spinners in bronze with red or blue dots on the blades. I had no issues catching the smaller stockers, but really wanted to focus on the cutthroat in the lake who fought well and hit the spinners really hard. I fly fished with limited success and at about 7:30 each night there was a huge midge hatch that activated the fish in the lake quite a bit. I tried dry flys, nymphs, chironomids, and woolly buggers and only caught fish with a grizzly-hackled black woolly bugger. The other fly guys I talked to had no problems catching the small stockers, but no one that I met over the weekend had landed one of the bigger fish, who were obviously feeding on the midges as they were jumping, slurping, and porpoising all over the lake during the hatch. There was some excitement after we set up camp and went to launch the boats with a forest fire that was burning about 250 acres very close to the campsite in a primitive area called Horseshoe Meadows. We thought we may have to leave but the fire was contained and it was reported that we would get to stay safely. It was a great 4th of July weekend away from the city.

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