Fall Mack Days off to a head start in its first weekend New event to be held Friday

Hard fishing lake trout anglers turned in a total of 1,302 lake trout entries during the first weekend of the 2012 fall fishing event slightly edging the 2011 fall event by 38 fish.

Mack Days fishing events are sponsored by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and sanctioned by Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks and are used as a management tool to slowly reduce numbers of non-native lake trout in Flathead Lake. Increasing numbers of native bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout is important for the future populations of these species that were once dominant in Flathead Lake.

Fantastic fall fishing weather lasted over the first three days of the event.

Leading the adult anglers is Max Martz of Corvallis with 116 entries. Martz had daily totals of 51, 31, and 34 over the weekend. Second place is held by Mike Benson of Lonepine with 104 and daily totals of 34, 34, and 36. Scott Bombard of Missoula and Jason Kowalski of Florence are tied for third with 83.

Bombard’s daily numbers were 27, 23, and 33; and Kowalski’s were over just a two-day period with 44 and 39.

Steven Benson coming in from Four Lakes, Wash. turned in 67 to hold fifth place with daily numbers of 15, 31, and 21.

Phil Meredith of Kalispell is sixth with 65, Don Beville of Lakeside is seventh with 63, Chad Cottet of Polson and Craig Morigeau of Polson are tied for eighth place with 57 and ninth and 10th place is held by Larry Karper of Florence with 44 lake trout entries.

Leading the lady anglers is Kim McMillie of Polson with 13. Sharon Beville of Lakeside is second and Deana Knipe of Polson are tied for second with eight fish each. Lorinda Freeman of Polson is fourth with seven fish, and fifth place is held by Cindy Upwell of Kalispell and Susanne Albrecht of Polson with four each.

Youth anglers with lake trout entries are Eric Sams of Polson with 13, Carson McDaniel of Polson with two, Cody Ausbury of Missoula with two, and Tom McDonald of Polson with one.

Catching the smallest lake trout is a contest of its own and sometimes requires a lot of finesse or maybe a lot of luck. The two smallest lake trout entries in the event were turned in by anglers Mike Benson with a 164mm (6 3/8”) and Tyson Cottet of Charlo with 179mm (7”) lake trout entries.

There have been no large lake trout entries in the event — but, there were reports of some close but not close enough.

There is one tagged lake trout worth $10,000, five worth $5,000, 10 worth $1,000, and over 4,000 with values from $100-500.

These fish have pit tags that are not visible. The adipose fin has been clipped on them and they were tagged and released all around the lake. During each event new tagged fish with the high dollar values are released the week or two before the event begins and the old high value fish are changed to $100-500 values.

Information is used from the tagged fish for population estimates, movement, growth, and other information.

Turning in $100 tagged lake trout the first weekend were Mike Howe of Kalispell, Phil Meredith of Kalispell, John Gauci of Florence, Don Beville of Lakeside, Sharon Beville of Lakeside, Gary Smith of Hot Springs, Scott Bombard of Missoula, Jeff Mountgomery of Hamilton, Brian Arnott of Polson, and Reed Blackburn of Whitefish.

Lucky anglers with $200 tagged lake trout were Craig Morigeau of Polson, Tyson Cottet of Charlo, and Max Martz of Corvallis.

Mack Days continues Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays until Nov. 2 and then continues for 10 straight days until Nov. 11. All it takes is one fish to win in the lottery style drawing. Anglers receive one ticket for every lake trout to enter into the drawing.

There are several ways to win — weekend prizes, captains prizes, smallest fish, largest fish, youth prizes, ladies prizes, and over-70 years old.

Go to www.mackdays.com for information on prizes, fishing tips, bull trout identification, fish release tips, recipes, and maps. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes have produced a new Flathead Lake fishing map that is available at Blue Bay or ask the check-in staff for a copy. The map shows some of the popular fishing spots, depths of the lake, fishing tips, and other lake information.

New to this event is a Heaviest Fish Contest — it is for three days only, this Friday, Sept. 28, Saturday, Oct. 20, and Sunday, Nov. 4.

Anglers must mark their four heaviest lake trout entries before entering them at the check-in stations. Mark them with rubber bands, tie them together, use electrical ties around the tail, or similar. They will be put into a bucket and weighed at Blue Bay or they will be put in bags and brought to Blue Bay from the check-in sites.

Points will be given for the top five places. Daily winners will receive $200 and the three-day winners will receive $500, $400, and $300.

Entries are taken at any time until the last day of the event. There is no entry fee. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes have a special $12 fishing license for the south half of Flathead Lake available for any angler and are sold by licensed vendors in Montana.