The 2023 Fall Mack Days Fishing Event on Flathead Lake sponsored by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes is in the books. A total of 17,502 lake trout entries were received. It was the second largest event total since the 2019 Fall Event which had 18,214 entries. In 2020, the event total was 14,821, in 2021=14,036, and in 2022=13,901. One hundred thirty five out of 344 anglers turned in one or more lake trout entries. Friday’s fish total came to 472, Saturday’s raging winds keep the total down to 172, and Sunday was a good day with 448 lake trout entries, weekend totals came to 1,092.
Photo is a tired but happy-taped up David Myers winner of 2023 Fall Mack Days on Flathead Lake. Cracks in the fingers and blister on his nose he held on fishing 60 straight days in the event. Excellent angler!
Fishing sixty-two days in a row 60 event days and two days pre-fishing for spots, every single day, was the winner of the event, David Myers of Riverton Wyoming. David had 1,399 lake trout entries for the Friday to Sunday competition days. His goal was to turn in an entry every day of the event and he did! David even had his wife out a couple days of the event, she reported that her hands were very cold and she hooked a large lake trout. It pulled the fishing rod out of her hands and over board it went! David tied a treble hook onto another pole and they went fishing for her pole and were lucky enough to get it back.
David turned in 1,423 for the Monday to Thursday fishing. His 18/day average was 61.61. Great job David, he set a new total record count for Fall Mack Days Fishing Event! Coming in 2nd was Felix Gauci of Stevensville with 1,127 and 59.61 avg., 3rd place was Michael Benson of Lonepine with 1,135 and 51.72 avg, 4th place was Bob Stewart of Kalispell with 980 and 46.67 avg., 5th place was Jerry Benson of Plains with 771 and 37.78 avg, 6th was Larry Ashwell of Missoula with 726 and 34.89 avg, 7th place was Larry Karper of Florence with 624 and 32.56 avg, 8th place was Jack Kirkland of Lolo with 624 and 32.56 avg, 9thplace was Richard Kreis of Huson with 543 and 24.72 avg, 10th place was Scott Bombard of Missoula with 450 and 22.33 avg, 11th place was Terry Krogstad of Kalispell with 398, 12th place was Laurie Kreis of Huson with 307, 13th place was Claude Kaber of Whitefish with 288, 14th place was Steve Mack of Helena with 221, 15th place was Sam Sacchi of Thompson Falls with 215, 16th place was Julie Perkins of Kalispell with 210, 17th place was Bryan Long of Kalispell with 193, 18th place was Jim Flinchbaugh of Kalispell with 185, 19th place was Joe Minnehan of Kalispell with 175, and 20th was Brian McDowell of Whitefish with 154 lake trout entries.
The Ladies winner was Laurie Kreis of Huson with 307, 2nd place was Julie Perkins of Kalispell with 210, 3rd place was Debby Sacchi of Thompson Falls with 143, Kim Mack of Helena with 67 entries was 4th and in 5th place was Connie Jones of Kalispell with 18 lake trout entries. Connie had a lucky day on Friday catching two in a row with tags!
“The Ghost”, $10,000 tagged lake trout eluded all anglers during the 2023 fall event. A new Lake Trout will be tagged as the $10,000 fish for the 2024 SpringMack Days Event!
Turning in tagged lake trout the last week were: $100-Julie Perkins, Richard Kreis, Connie Jones, and Tony Incashola of St. Ignatius. Turning in $200 tagged fish were Connie Jones and Alison Putzler of Kalispell.
The Winner of the 13-17 age group was Lucia Savola of Missoula, with 11 lake trout entries, Alison Putzler took second with 9 lake trout entires.
Winning the 12 & under age category was Blaine Helvey of Thompson Falls, with 18 lake trout entries, 2nd place was Paisley Helvey with 18 lake trout entries. There was a tie for 3rd place, Zander Oliver of Missoula and Emily Simonich of Missoula each turned in 5 lake trout entries.
Terry Krogstad of Kalispell won the 70 & over age category with 398, 2nd place was Mike Cosby of Thompson Falls with 132, and in 3rd place was Paul Grove of Wyoming, IL with 116 lake trout entires.
We would like to thank each and every angler who caught one fish or hundreds of fish, you are all awesome and are helping in a conservation effort to increase native fish numbers in Flathead Lake.
-CSKT–
