Mack Days' future in balance as effective fisheries tool

BLUE BAY — The lines have been reeled in and the tackle boxes have been shut, as the spring Mack Days tournament came to a close this past weekend.

Cindy Benson, fisheries specialist, says that this season’s harvest of lake trout was strong, despite being hampered by uncooperative weather.

“It’s been better than some (years) and lower than others. Last spring we had over 38,000 lake trout that were caught. This year we were just over 28,000.”

Benson said that the weather may have been responsible for the dropoff.

“We’ve had the worst weather that we’ve ever had. We were keeping up with last year’s numbers before the windy weather hit. It really stole our momentum.”

Some of the season’s bounty of lake trout were served up at a fish fry held at Blue Bay on Sunday to celebrate the fishing derby’s success. Many more of the fish, however, are distributed to food banks throughout western Montana.

“They’ve been being distributed (to food banks) every week, mostly from Pablo to Missoula ,” said Benson.

This week, Benson reports that the donations of lake trout will shift northward to include Polson and Kalispell. Benson added that for the first time in the program’s history, Troy will eventually be a destination for lake trout, as well.

One highlight from the tournament’s final days occurred when Steve Benson reeled in a fish with a $1,000 tag in the second to last week of competition. The catch was the most lucrative lake trout to be pulled from the lake this spring.

This year’s tournament was held in the shadow of a soon-to-be-released environmental impact study to determine if Mack Days does enough to control lake trout numbers in Flathead Lake.

The study could be released as soon as June 7, but the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ Natural Resources Division is waiting on approval from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Environmental Protection Agency, said Barry Hansen, a fisheries biologist with the tribes.

Several management options are outlined and studied in the report. One of those deals with whether Mack Days does enough on its own to limit lake trout numbers. The tribes have said the tournament does not, and merely holds the population at a status quo.

The other three options consider what tools, in addition to Mack Days, it would take to reduce the lake trout population by 25, 50 or 75 percent, Hansen said.

Following is a list of winners, provided by event coordinators:

There were 28,321 lake trout entries total.  

Winning angler Jason Mahlen of Kalispell turned in a new record of 1,651 lake trout entries with a 65.8 18-day average.  Jason also added a win in the smallest lake trout category with a 160mm entry. Dan Long of Columbia Falls was first with a 158mm lake trout entry.  Jason fished every day of the event along with anglers Mike and Steven Benson.  Second place in the Top 10 angler category went to angler Mike Benson of Lonepine with 1,142 and a 45.7 average.  Third place Top 10 angler went  to Steve Benson of Four Lakes, Wash.,  and Craig Morigeau of Polson  who tied with an average of 41.39.  Steve turned in a total of 1,021 entries and Craig had a total of 927 over 28 days. In 5th place is Danny Smith of Hot Springs-40.06 and 931, 6th-Scott Mahlen-Bigfork with 37.7 and 901, 7th-Dean Vaughan of Charlo with 33.1 and 615, 8th-David McDaniel-Polson-32.6 and 774, 9th-Jerry Benson-Plains-32.56 and 744, and 10th place went to Bryan Long of Columbia Falls with 32.5 and 641.  

Susan Martin of Polson was first in the ladies category with 369, second place went to Julie Vacca of Missoula, 3rd-Nicole Peters of Missoula-196, 4th-Deanna Knipe-Polson-118, and 5th Tracy Powers of Billings with 55.

Danner Shima of Kalispell won the 13-17 group with 411 entries, 2nd-Tanner Murry-Columbia Falls with 207, Connor Kowalski of Florence came in third with 204, 4th-Roger Guillory-Kalispell with 181, and 5th-Kobe Cox-Charlo with 160. Garett Vaughan of Charlo won the 12 & under with 391 lake trout entries, 2nd-Matt Guckenberg Jr.-Kalispell with 77, 3rd-Abby Hodgson-Kalispell with 51.

Ralph Johnson of Columbia Falls won both of the Golden Oldie awards of $200 and $100. Jim Hoover of Whitefish turned in the highest number of lake trout in that category with 159 lake trout entries.  

Spirit of the Event awards went to David McDaniel of Polson and Susan Martin of Polson.  Spirit of the Event is given to anglers who emulate what the event is all about.