Week one of 2026 Spring Mack Days is officially in the books—and let’s just say the fish weren’t the only things getting hammered… so was the weather.
Despite snow, wind, and full-on blizzard conditions, anglers showed up, showed out, and stacked nearly 1,900 lake trout to kick things off. Not bad for a weekend that felt more like January than spring!
Here’s the latest report:
Mack Days Fishing Events are sponsored by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. The events are fish conservation efforts used as a management tool to reduce non-native lake trout in Flathead Lake and increase the native bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout in the lake. The native fish are an important part of tribal history and are important to the people of Montana. They were a food source people depended on.
Knowing the habits of the fish and where to find them during certain times of the year was a way to survive if other food sources were depleted. The areas these native fish once inhabited has been greatly reduced over the years. Native fish require clean, cold, and clear water-water areas that they are losing for a lot of different reasons including the dryer weather and warmer temperatures from climate change. Flathead Lake is one of the few remaining strongholds for the bull trout and westslope cutthroat. Protecting these fish is a responsibility we all need to share.
Anglers asked to be part of the effort to reduce the numbers of the non-native lake trout in Flathead Lake and the events were developed for anglers to become involved. The 2025 Spring Event holds the record of the most lake trout entered-60,138. Five time 1st place winner in the Spring Events Kolton Turner holds the record of highest number with 2,320 during the 2025 Spring Event. The anglers make the events the success that they are. Every angler is important to the events-catching one fish or 100-they all count. Thank you to all of the anglers who come out and participate.
The 2026 Spring Mack Days Event continues until May 9th, come out and do your part to help restore the native trout species of Flathead Lake. These events began in 2002 with 888 lake trout entries in that first event There are two events per year-this is the 48th event. To be successful in this fish reduction effort the events need to continue well into the future. Mack Days Events are sanctioned by Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks.
Lottery drawings-begin at $2,000 and go to $600-every lake trout entry gives you a chance to win one of these cash prizes. Bonus dollars start with your 11th lake trout entry-check out the bonus chart on the website www.mackdays.com. Example 11-30 lake trout entries-$45 in bonus dollars, 151-175-$420, 451-475-$1,710 and on up. Tagged fish with values from $10,000 to $100-(1)-$10,000, (3) $5,000, and (5) $1,000. Largest lake trout, and smallest lake trout prizes-just a few of the ways to win!
Entries are taken until the last day of the event. There is no entry fee. You can even go out and fish all day and enter at the end of the day when you come in. The slot limit for 30-36” lake trout is now lake wide. No lake trout entries will be taken for those fish. The largest lake trout entry is to be documented with a dated picture of the fish and a measurement device. Releasing the large lake trout is encouraged after the measurement and picture are taken.
It was a blustery, cold, snowy first weekend for the lake trout anglers on Flathead Lake. The lake trout anglers were determined and successful-fighting the cold temps and wet weather. Two hundred sixty- two anglers are registered in the event. Thirty anglers fished the 1st weekend. They turned in a total of 1,831 lake trout in the Friday to Sunday fishing. Thursday was the first day of the Monday-Thursday fishing with a total of 37 lake trout brought in by two wind-blown anglers Patrick Casey of Townsend and Jerry Benson of Plains. They were two against the wind and the big waves rolling on the lake.
Week one final total came to 1,868. Fridays total came to 907. The first 100 limit of lake trout was turned in by Bob Turner of Columbia Falls with Kolton Turner coming in seconds later with another 100-lake trout count. Other high counts were: Ken Varga of Kalispell with 76 and Larry Ashwell of Missoula had 73. Ending total for Friday was 907. Saturday started out with snow coming down making and looking like it was winter wonderland weather not fishing weather.
Once again Bob and Kolton Turner had 100 fish limit totals with Patrick Casey joining the 100 club with his. Next largest number of lake trout was 58 turned in by Jerry Benson. Saturdays total came to 487. Sunday-100 fish limits again for the Columbia Falls father and son-Bob and Kolton Turner. These guys have 3-100 fish days so far. Total for Sunday fishing came to 437.
Top Twenty Angler placing after the 1st weekend: 1st and 2nd-Kolton and Bob Turner of Columbia Falls-300, 3rd-Jerry Benson-Plains 160, 4th Patrick Casey-Townsend 155, 5th Devon Bukowski of Kalispell 113, 6th Clint Speer-Kalispell 96, 7th Mike Benson-Lonepine 79, 8th Gene Corne-Kalispell 78, 9th Ken Varga-Kalispell 76, 10th Larry Ashwell-Missoula 73, 11th Angie Morrow-Kalispell 70, 12th Jack Kirkland of Lolo 51, 13th Brodie Smith Kalispell 44, 14th Michael Colyer of Missoula 42, 15th Michael Stevenson of Kalispell 38, 16th Larry Ludahl-Kalispell 35, 17th Steven Andrachick Kalispell 31, 18th Greg Salisbury Missoula 25, 19th Bob Bouchee-Missoula 24, and 20th Joe Minnehan-Kalispell 11.
Angie Morrow of Kalispell leads the Ladies Category with 70 lake trout entries.
The 13-17 Category leader is Brodie Smith of Kalispell with 44 turned in on Saturday. Aiden Brewer of Stevensville turned in a nice lake trout and is leading the 12 and under with 2 fish. One was the largest fish in the boat!
70 & Over leader is Jerry Benson with 160 lake trout entries.
A $200 tagged lake trout was turned in by Kolton Turner on Saturday and Bob Turner turned in a $100 tagged lake trout.
Winners of the 1st weekend prizes are: $200-Larry Ludahl of Kalispell and $100-Jerry Benson of Plains and Kolton Turner of Columbia Falls.
Reminder to be weather observant when out on the water, have a good weather app to check before going out. Check your safety equipment and have your PFD’s on board.
Good luck and tight lines everyone!
-cskt-