Fall Mack Days Week 9 Results
The 2020 Fall Mack Days fishing event is heading down the home stretch. A total of 14,066 lake trout were entered through the first nine weeks of the 10-week event, which ends Sunday. In years past there has been a fish fry and awards presentation on the last day of each the event. However, due to the coronavirus, the event has been canceled.
Winter weather blew in over the ninth weekend with raging winds, cold temperatures and snow.
Friday's total was 205 lake trout entered. There were 354 Saturday and 33 hard-caught entries Sunday, when anglers dealt with frozen reels, lines and fingers
Sunday was the third and final day of the Heaviest Bucket of Fish competition. Six anglers were out on the water trying to catch four fish to put in a bucket. Heaviest bucket went to Mike Benson with a 14-pound bucket of fish. Second place was Larry Ashwell of Missoula with 11.55 pounds, followed by Terry Krogstad and Julie Perkins with 9.95 pounds, and Steve Benson of Spokane Valley, Wash., with 8.9 pounds.
Overall winner of the three days of the bucket competition goes to Rick Skates of Polson, who turned in a first-place bucket at 18.35 pounds on Sept. 18 and a third-place 20.6-pound bucket Oct 10.
Mike Benson leads the anglers in the Top 10 category with 988 and an 18-day average of 49.06 over 26 days of lake trout fishing. Second place holder is Sam Cusker of Bigfork, who has 15 days in and a total of 706.
Larry Ashwell of Missoula is third with a 32.61 average over 23 days, followed by Scott Bombard of Missoula (30.17-21 days), Terry Krogstad (27.06-24), John Gauci of Florence (27.67-21), Julie Perkins (24.61-23), Steve Benson (23.33-20), Larry Karper of Florence (22.44-19) and Richard Kreis of Huson (9.0-22).
Julie Perkins leads the Ladies with 497 total entries, followed by Laurie Kreis (280), Gina Schiff of Kalispell (80), Kim Mack of Helena (66) and Kim McMillie of Polson (52).
Larry Ashwell is leading the 70-and-over group with 642, followed by John Gauci of Florence (517), Larry Karper (411), Jack Kirkland of Missoula (291) and Marty Herak of Polson (119).
Rich Ferris of Thompson Falls, Julie Perkins, Terry Krogstad and Mike Benson turned in $100 tagged lake trout, and John Gauci had a $200 tagged fish.
Winners of $100 in the ninth weekend drawing were Sam Cusker, Kenny Garrett of Missoula, Jack Kirkland and Mike Benson.
Tripp Bick of Arlee leads the 12-and-under group with 13. Jeff Devlin of Polson leads the 13-17 group with 14.
The $10,000, 3-$5,000, and 5-$1,000 tagged lake trout have eluded anglers for nine weeks. There are also over 9,000 with values from $500 to $100.
It is not too late to get involved in the event and help out in this effort to increase populations of native trout in Flathead Lake. Entries continue to be taken until the last day of the event. For more information check out www.mackdays.com or call 406-270-3386.
The event, sponsored by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, is a management tool used by fisheries managers to reduce numbers of non-native lake trout in Flathead Lake and to increase populations of native bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout.