Mack Days passes five-week, 10,000 trout mark

by Stephanie Gillin, CSKT Information and Education Program Manager
| October 20, 2022 8:00 PM

These beautiful fall days are flying by fast, and if you love fishing, Flathead Lake is the place to be! The 2022 Fall Mack Days Fishing Event on Flathead Lake just passed the five-week mark leaving four weeks to participate in the nine-week event.

Mack Days are sponsored by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and offer up to $200,000 in cash and prizes. These events, which began in 2002, are held each spring and fall as a management tool to reduce non-native lake trout in the lake.

While the spring events typically bring in more anglers and more, but smaller lake trout, the fall events usually fewer anglers and fewer but larger lake trout. The total of lake trout entered is at 10,374. Friday’s total was 476, Saturday’s total was 531, and Sunday’s was 442 for a weekend total of 1,449. The 2021 fall total at this time last year was 9,685.

The $10,000 tagged lake trout “Bella” is still swimming the lake. There are also three $5,000, and five $1,000 fish, plus more than 9,000 with values from $100-$500. Bretz RV and Marine has also added a $1,000 tagged lake trout.

Anglers accumulate bonus dollar amounts to help offset the costs of helping CSKT out with this event as their totals go up once they enter their 11th lake trout, earning $45 for 11-30 fish, $88 for 31-50, $813 for 301-325, and on up. Most of the anglers are in the water at the break of dawn and don’t come in until dusk is setting over the lake. Every lake trout counts for an entry in the lottery drawing that begins at $2,000 and goes down to $100.

The lake trout are in their spawning mode right now. Anglers are jigging, trolling, and casting. Some may deploy two different methods or maybe all three trying to find what is working for them on that day. Many anglers use the bright florescent glow-colored jigs or lures and different flavors and colors of scents on their cut bait (no whole fish allowed, nor may whitefish or lake trout parts be used for cut bait).

This week’s winners

During the weekend drawing, Carl Murphy of Missoula received $200 and $100 winners were Kim Mack-Helena, Felix Gauci-Stevensville, Terry Krogstad-Kalispell, and Joe Minnehan-Kalispell. Mike Cosby of Thompson Falls was the only angler to turn in a $100 tagged lake trout.

Larry Ashwell of Missoula still leads anglers with 678 lake trout entries in the first 15 days of the weekend fishing. Second place is Felix Gauci of Stevensville with 630; third place is Mike Benson of Lonepine with 629; fourth place is Larry Karper of Florence with 471; and fifth place is Scott Bombard of Missoula with 457. Ashwell, Gauci, Benson and Karper also hold the top four places in the Golden Oldies group, with Jack Kirkland in fifth place.

Leading the Ladies Category is Julie Perkins with 387, followed by Laurie Kreis of Huson, Kim Mack, Janet Myers of Riverton, Wyo., and Debby Sacchi of Thompson Falls.

Shelbie Petersen of Columbia Falls and Marcus Lucas of Polson are tied in the 13-17 group. William Grob of Bonner has 20 in the 12 & Under group, followed by Baylie Petersen of Columbia Falls with two and Terrace Dieterich of Kalispell with one.

Mack Days wraps up Nov. 13 so now is a good time to get involved. Shore fishing should start picking up with the lake trout coming into the shallower areas.

CSKT reminds all anglers to think safety first, have the proper personal flotation devices and keep an eye on the weather. For more information, visit www.mackdays.com or call Cindy Benson at 406-270-3386.