Saturday, October 05, 2024
46.0°F

Lonepine's Benson leads Fall Mack Days

by Stephanie Gillin
| September 26, 2024 12:00 AM

Fall Mack Days on Flathead Lake continues on until Nov. 3 and anglers just completed the third week of the nine-week event. 

Mack Days Fishing Events are sponsored by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes with up to $200,000 in cash and prizes to be awarded at the conclusion of the event. 

A total of 6,723 lake trout entries have been entered so far in the event. 

Fridays total was 504, Jerry Benson of Plains had the high count of 87. Saturday’s count was 820 and Terry Krogstad of Kalispell had a high of 74 also the Kreis boat from Huson had a total of 101 between Laurie-51 and Richard-50. Sunday’s total was 893, with Mike Benson bringing in the first 100 limit of the event. 

The weekday total came to 1,162. On Monday, Terry turned in a high of 36, on Tuesday Lyndon Lee of Canada turned in six, on Wednesday Patrick Casey of Townsend turned in nine, and on Thursday Jerry Benson turned in 74 lake trout entries.

Flying fishing lines were plentiful throughout the weekend beginning on Friday, with the first of the Bucket Days. Beautiful fall weather Friday through Sunday with some breezy times causing some rough water, especially Friday but there was sunshine all weekend.

Several anglers were vying for the heaviest bucket of four lake trout. Winner at the end of the day was Rick Skates of Big Arm with a 29.65-pound bucket and 10 pts. Second place goes to Jens Gran of Polson with 25.4 pounds and 8 pts, 3rd place was Richard and Laurie Kreis from Huson 24.5 pounds and 6 pts, 4th place was Mike Benson of Lonepine 20.2 pounds and 4 pts, and 5th place was Cole Williams of Kalispell 17.8 pounds and 2 pts. 

There are two more Bucket of Fish Days on Saturday, Oct. 5 and Sunday Oct. 20. Winner of each Bucket Day receives $200. Overall award is by total points after the three days. Tie is broken by total weight.

Total anglers registered in the fall 2024 event is at 341 anglers. The majority of anglers have Montana addresses with a few sprinkled in from Texas, Washington, Illinois, Florida, Oregon, North Dakota, Minnesota and California.

Entries continue to be taken until the last day of the event Nov. 3. This is a fish conservation effort to reduce the numbers of lake trout and increase the populations of native bull trout and westslope cutthroat in Flathead Lake. Fish all of Flathead Lake.

Johnny Cash” is still waiting around the bend for someone. He is the $10,000 lake trout. Everyone would love to have him at the end of the line. Tagged fish caught over the third week were: $100 tags-Larry Karper of Florence and Steve Mack of Helena. 

There are also 3-$5,000, 5-$1,000 and over 9,000 with values from $100-$500. Twelve tagged lake trout have been caught so far in the event.

Leading the anglers is Michael Benson of Lonepine with 599 lake trout entries. Mike and brother Jerry Benson fishing in separate boats and in different areas of the lake. They flipped back and forth over the weekend for the first-place spot. Mike was in first Friday, Jerry was leading at the end of Saturday, and Mike took back first on Sunday. Jerry turned in 87, 65 and 68 for the weekend. 

Placings can change fast with daily 100 fish limits on the lake. If you have a good day your fish count will move you up quickly. 

David McDaniel of Polson is 3rd with 358, 4th Richard Kreis of Huson 309, 5th Terry Krogstad of Kalispell 303.

Laurie Kreis is leading the fantastic fishing Ladies with 258. Julie Perkins is 2nd with 149, 3rd Lorinda Freeman of Polson 25, 4th Debbi Sacchi of Thompson Falls 19, and Jolene Tatum and Jenny Perth of Missoula each have 10.

12 & Under-Zander Oliver of Missoula has 2, Eli Yang, Bucky Yarrow, Bear Yarrow, and Tayzee Whimper each have 2, Payton Kuchera of Kalispell has 1. 13-17 Category-James Kuchera of Kalispell with 8.