Mack Days: Windy weather keeps anglers at bay

The fish are biting on Flathead Lake but the weather did not cooperate during the third weekend of the nine-week long Mack Days Fishing Event. Friday’s fish entry total was decent with a total of 931 lake trout turned in. The brutal winds and cold weather hampered the anglers on Saturday and a much lower total of 396 fish entries turned in.

These anglers are prepared for the cold, wet, weather but wind causes batteries on the GPS fish finding units to run down fast and hampers the ability to keep boats where they want them.

On Sunday, winds were blowing in the morning keeping many from going on the water but the anglers that were out did well. Bob and Kolton Turner’s boat came in with two perfect 100 totals (Kolton also came in at 99 for Friday’s total). Jason Mahlen was next highest with 84 entries. The total fish entries for Sunday for all anglers were at 863.

The weekend total was 2,190, bringing the total lake trout entries to 11,315 for the 2023 event. The 2019 total, which is the current record year for a spring event, was 13,562 for the third weekend.

Spring Mack Days are sponsored by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and sanctioned by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks as a management tool to reduce non-native lake trout in Flathead Lake.

Kolton Turner of Kalispell leads the anglers with 803: 99 Friday, 59 Saturday, and 100 Sunday. Bob Turner is in second with 591; third is Jason Mahlen of Kalispell with 579; fourth is Jerry Benson of Plains with 499; and fifth is Mike Benson of Lonepine.

Lady angler Leah Banyai of Kalispell is in first place with 120 followed by Julie Perkins of Kalispell with 55 and Connie Jones of Kalispell with 30.

Brodie Smith of Kalispell leads the 13-17 category with 82 and Josey Mcilhargey Jr. of Kalispell has 24. The 12 & Under is tied with Wyatt Best of Florence and Hunter Mcilhargey of Kalispell each with three.

Mike Benson leads the 70 & Over category with 449, followed by Terry Krogstad with 352 and Larry Ashwell of Missoula with 208.

Winning weekend drawings were: Kolton Turner, $200; $100 went to Steve Benson, Scott Johnson of Kalispell, Kolton Turner, and Travis Banyai.

Smallest lake trout entries are Bob Turner and Mike Benson; there are currently no large lake trout entries.

The first of the Bucket of Fish Days was won by the Colyer boat from Missoula weighing in at 25.36 lbs.; second was Rick Skates of Big Arm with 24.8 lbs.; third was the Demmons boat of Missoula with 24.5 lbs.; fourth was David McDaniel of Polson with 23.2; and tying for fifth at 18.25 were the Banyai and Krogstad boats. The bucket of fish consists of the four largest lake trout under 30 inches.

Bob McBride of Corvallis and Robert Hopp of Florence each turned in $100 tagged lake trout. Still loose in the lake are more than 6,000 tagged trout with values ranging from $100 to $10,000.

Up to $225,000 in cash and prizes that will be awarded at the conclusion of the event. Anglers also earn bonus dollars depending on their final fish count; lottery drawings begin at $50 and go up to $2,000. Entries continue to be taken until the last day of the event.

For more information, visit the website at www.mackdays.com or contact Cindy Benson at 406-270-3386 or cindy.benson@cskt.org.