The chilly autumn winds were rolling across Flathead Lake on Friday during the fifth weekend of 2019 Fall Mack Days. Eight hard-core anglers were out on the rough rolling water and turned in 253 lake trout entries. Saturday and Sunday were better fishing days for most anglers. Saturdays total was 688 entries. Anglers could deal with the rains that fell on Saturday and many were turning good numbers of lake trout. Sunday afternoon winds began kicking up again. Wind is the enemy on the lake when fishing. Lines get tangled and boats can’t stay on the spots they need to be on. Fish total for Sunday was 558, bringing the weekend total to 1,498 and the five week total to 12,411.
There have been 135 hard working anglers that have put entries into the lottery drawing. Tuesday through Thursday total five week entries is 2,693 and weekend total is 9,718. That compares with 2018-2,324 and 7,492 for 9,816 and 2017-2,018 and 6,555 for a total of 8,573.
Marie Laveau the lovely $10,000 tagged lake trout is still swimming somewhere in Flathead Lake. Any angler would love to bring her in as an entry. It is said she has a bent bony body with scales everywhere. Marie will make you $10,000 richer if you bring her in. Scanning a fish with the $10,000 tag would be exciting for everyone. There are (3) $5,000 tagged lake trout, (5) $1,000 tags and over 9,000 with values from $500 to $100. Lucky lady angler Laurie Kreis of Huson caught the second $500 tagged lake trout on Sunday along with a $100 tagged fish. One of many good fishing days on the Kreis boat. Husband Richard added a $100 tagged fish over the weekend. Also bringing in tagged lake trout on the end of the lines were: Missoula anglers Bob Christensen $100 X 2, Bob Hereford, Scott Bombard, Larry Ashwell, Julie Perkins from Kalispell $200 and $100, Brad Ivanoff of Arlee $100, and John Malatare of Arlee-$100.
Mike Benson of Lonepine is leading in the Top Ten Angler category with 952 entries-Friday-63, Saturday-66, and Sunday 61. Scott Bombard of Missoula has 762 with 27, 50, and 25, 3rd Felix Gauci of Stevensville 749-0, 69, and 27, Larry Karper of Florence 4th 612-0, 36, 43, Sam Cusker of Bigfork 5th 495-0, 41, 19, 6th Larry Ashwell Missoula-474-24, 28, 26, 7th Terry Krogstad of Kalispell-433-16, 36, 23, Julie Perkins Kalispell is 8th with 409-16, 34, 29, 9th Jack Kirkland of Missoula with 321-0, 15, 0, 10th Bob Stewart of Kalispell has 278-21, 0, 0.
Lady angler Julie Perkins leads the category with 409. These ladies put in many hours fishing on the lake along with their partners. Laurie Kreis in second has 90, Gina Schiff of Whitefish is third with 65, 4th Bobbi Hereford of Missoula with 64, and 5th Kim McMillie of Polson with 37.
Over 70 leader is Larry Karper with 612, 2nd Larry Ashwell with 474, 3rd John Gauci of Florence with 231, 4th Bob Christensen with 78, and 5th Mike Cosby of Thompson Falls with 74.
Leading the youth anglers in the 12 and Under group is HD of Arlee with 23, Darien Moua of Missoula has 7, and Kieran Incashola of St. Ignatius has 6. 13-17 leader is Matt Guckenberg Jr of Kalispell with 8 and Tayven Moua has 3.
Weekend drawing winners of $100 were: Larry Karper, Felix Gauci, Rick Skates-Polson, Dwayne Whitaker-Kalispell, and Sam Sacchi of Thompson Falls.
The second day of Heaviest Bucket of Fish was won by Rick Skates of Polson with a weight of 30.6 lbs., 2nd Bob and Bobbi Hereford with 28.3, 3rd Krogstad/Perkins with 26, 4th Bob Christensen 25.5, and 5th Larry Ashwell with 25.0. Heaviest bucket wins $200 with overall prizes added after the third bucket day which is November 3rd. Points are given for placing and ties are broken by weight.
Mack Days Fishing Events are sponsored by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. The events are a tool used to reduce non-native lake trout in Flathead Lake to increase native bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout. Native fish recovery is important all over the country and is important to the history of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the State of Montana. UP to $150,000 in CASH and PRIZES will be available to anglers who participate in the event. One fish is all it takes to be entered in the lottery drawings. Entries are taken till the end of the event. The lottery drawings begin at $1,000 and to go $400. There is no entry fee for the event. There are several ways to win-Weekend Drawings, Captains, Largest Lake Trout, etc. go to mackdays.com and click on the events tab for information or telephone 406-270-3386.
Three weekends remain in the event. Come out and join in fishing for lake trout on Flathead Lake. The lake trout are in their spawning mode and are many are moving closer to shore. Anglers are casting, jigging, and trolling. The event will end on November 10th with a fish fry and awards that begin at 3:00 at the Blue Bay headquarters.
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