2019 Fall Mack Days Update – Week 6
By angelamontana

Posted: October 28, 2019

Two weekends are remaining in 2019 Fall Mack Days on Flathead Lake. Entries will continue to be taken until the last day of the event-November 10th. There is no entry fee to be registered for Fall Mack Days. Up to $150,000 in Cash and Prizes sponsored by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes will be awarded to anglers. Anglers qualify for prizes and awards with each lake trout entry. A lottery style drawing on the last day of the event November 10th is held with tickets drawn from all of the entries received. The drawing begins at $1,000 and go to $400-thirty two tickets will be drawn for cash prizes. Anglers receive a ticket for every lake trout entry. Once an angler has fifteen days entered in the event their tickets are limited using a fifteen day average-dropping the low number and that many tickets till the end of the event. Totals continue to go up with all fish added to their totals. 

Mack Days Fishing Events are used as a fisheries management tool to reduce non-native lake trout in Flathead Lake. Bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout populations both native fish to Flathead Lake for thousands of years are at a fraction of what they were years ago in the system. Anglers are helping to bring a balance to the fish populations by reducing the lake trout population so that the native fish populations will continue in the Flathead system. 

Lake trout anglers have turned in a total of 14,108 lake trout. There were a total of 1,256 the sixth weekend. Fridays total was 437, Saturday 227, and Sunday 592. Cold winds made fishing difficult on Saturday but eighteen anglers managed to find safe areas to fish. The Tues-Thurs total is 3,135 and Fri-Sun total 10,973. The 2018 total at this time was at 11,999 with 2,933 Tues-Thurs and 9,066 Fri-Sun.

Mike Benson of Lonepine continues to lead the Top Ten angler category with 1,052. His entries were 20-Friday, 48-Saturday, and 32 for Sunday. His fifteen day average is 67.8. Scott Bombard of Missoula is 2nd with 854-30, 10, 52-and 56.27 avg., 3rd Felix Gauci of Stevensville-816-27, 0, and 40-no avg., 4th Larry Karper of Florence with 612-0 for the weekend and no avg., 5th Sam Cusker of Bigfork with 563-0, 23, and 45-no avg., 6th Larry Ashwell of Missoula-543-32, 7, 30-35.7 avg., 7th Terry Krogstad of Kalispell-511-26, 16, and 36-33.0 avg., 8th Julie Perkins-Kalispell-495-31, 10, 45-32.33, 9th Jack Kirkland of Missoula with 351-0, 0, 30-no avg., 10th Bob Stewart of Kalispell with 305-27, 0, 0-no avg. Top ten anglers are placed by their 15 day average on Saturday November 9th  with fishing Sunday a separate day with its own prizes. Entries do go on the angler’s final lake trout total.

Julie Perkins is leading the ladies with 495, 2nd Laurie Kreis of Huson with 113, 3rd Bobbi Hereford of Missoula with 81, 4th Gina Schiff of Whitefish with 67, and 5th Kim McMillie of Polson with 37. 

Larry Karper took a rare weekend off but continues to lead the 70 & Over with 612, Larry Ashwell of Missoula is 2nd with 543, 3rd John Gauci of Florence with 281, Bob Christensen of Missoula is 4th with 100, 5th Mike Cosby of Thompson Falls with 76. 

Matt Guckenerg Jr of Kalispell is 1st in the 13-17 group with 8 and Tayven Moua of Missoula is 2nd with 3. HD of Arlee has 23 in the 12 & under group, 2nd Alison Putzler of Kalispell with 13, 3rd Darien Moua of Missoula with 7.

The lovely $10,000 tagged lake trout Marie Laveau is still swimming about in Flathead Lake. There are weird tales of Marie being on the end of lines but not coming up from the deep. She must use her magic to make lines fail or poles to somehow fall overboard in the water. Someone may break her spell and bring her in yet. We continue to hope that will happen. Anyone has a chance to hook onto her. Tagged lake trout have been released in all areas of the lake. Besides Mare there are also (3) $5,000 and (5) $1,000 along with over 9,000 tagged lake trout with values from $500-$100. There were $100 tagged lake trout turned in over the sixth week by: Julie Perkins X 2, Terry Krogstad X 2, Tim Brooker of Plains, John Gauci of Florence, Mike Cosby and Ken Rickert of Thompson Falls, Mike Benson, and Laurie Kreis. 

Weekend drawing winners were: Scott Bombard, Mike Benson X 2, Larry Ashwell, and Jeanee Mooney of Missoula. Drawing tickets are pulled from the weekend entries by fillet staff at the end of Sunday entries. 

For information on the event go to www.mackdays.com. Click on the events tab for drop down entry forms, Fish ID, rules, etc. or telephone 406-270-3386. Fish on!

 

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