The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) are proud to announce the results of week six of the 2026 Spring Mack Days Fishing Event. As they enter the final three-week stretch leading up to the May 9th conclusion, they notice that the impact of Montana’s dedicated fishing community has never been more apparent.
Here’s the latest report for week 6 from CSKT:
We just wrapped up week six of the 2026 Spring Mack Days Fishing Event & there are Only three weeks left! Anglers are needed to make the events successful and entries are taken until the last day. Total Fish turned in is 25,839 (Weekend Totals; Friday: 1,620, Sat 2,071 and Sunday 1,513). Remember that every entry gives you a chance to win in the lottery drawings that begin at $2,000 or maybe you will have the $10,000 tagged lake trout at the end of your line. Tagged fish have been caught from docks and shore line not just from boats so give it a try. Bonus amounts are payed once an angler reached eleven entries.
Check out the bonus chart and other prizes and categories at www.mackdays.com. Saturday May 9th will be the last day of the event. All fish are to be turned in at Blue Bay by 3:00 on the last day. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes sponsor the fishing events. The events are used as a management tool to reduce the non-native lake trout and increase native bull trout and Westslope cutthroat in the Flathead system.
The $10,000 tagged lake trout “Chase” is not cooperating with the anglers. He has evaded all of the angler’s lines so far. There are also 3-$5,000, 5-$1,000 and over 10,000 tagged lake trout with values from $100 to $500. Bringing in $100 tagged lake trout the past week were: Steve Andrachick-Kalispell, Matthew Mitts-Kalispell, Jack Kirkland-Lolo, and Tristan Persico of Missoula. Mack Days angler Larry Ashwell of Missoula came in with two tagged lake trout on Sunday-$200 and $500. Lucky day for him!
Kolton Turner of Kalispell began fishing the Mack Days Events in 2022 and proved right in the beginning he would be someone to watch. He has won the Spring Event five times in the past and is leading 2026 Spring Mack Days with 1,487 lake trout entries-Friday 100, Saturday 92, Sunday 100. Kolton has eight 100 fish days out of the first eighteen days of fishing. Bob Turner of Kalispell is 2nd with 1,289-94,78,100, 3rd Patrick Casey of Townsend-1,080-47,52,13, 4th Larry Ashwell of Missoula with 984-59,74,65, 5th Jerry Benson of Plains-983-88,81,78, 6th Terry Krogstad of Kalispell-873-77,55,21, 7th Mike Benson of Lonepine-839-100,81,82, 8th Jack Kirkland of Lolo-796-74,63,26, 9th Devon Bukowski of Kalispell-775-25,0,0, 10th Clint Speer-763-40,49,36.
The anglers now have eighteen days in if they have fished every day. Top 10 anglers are placed by the 18-day average. Julie Perkins of Kalispell is 11th with 751, 12th David Kelch of Great Falls-690, 13th Gene Corne of Kalispell-651, 14th Steven Andrachick of Kalispell-550, 15th Larry Karper of Florence-510, 16th Ken Varga of Kalispell-504, 17th Brodie Smith-465, 18th -Larry Ludahl-440, 19th Tristan Perrsico of Missoula-410, and 20th Marty Herak of Polson-363. Mack Days success is because of the dedication of the lake trout anglers who put in the time, effort, and dollars it takes to go out and be part of the conservation effort of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.
Brodie Smith of Kalispell is an up and coming youth angler in the 13-17 Category and leads with 465, Ellis Stammers of Charlo is 2nd with 6, and Charles Hogenson of Polson has 2.
Mason Persico of Missoula will also be someone to watch over time is 1st in the 12 & Under group with 148, Lincoln Gauci of Florence has 45 for 2nd, Carter Lindsay of Pablo has 39 for 3rd, Eli Dutton of Kalispell if at 12 for 4th, and Allyvia Yang of Missoula is 5th with 11.
Larry Ashwell leads the 70 & Over with 984, 2nd Jerry Benson-983, 3rd Terry Krogstad-873, 4th Mike Benson-839, and 5th Jack Kirkland-796.
Julie Perkins is 1st in the Ladies with 751, 2nd Shaunda Albert of Ronan-292, 3rd Angie Morrow of Kalispell with 274, 4th Laurie Kreis of Huson-83, and 5th Connie Jones of Kalispell 25.
Who would ever dream of catching 50,000 lake trout-one at a time-over a time span of twenty years? When Mike Benson of Lonepine began fishing the events in Spring 2006 he was struggling to catch the lake trout numbers he wanted. He fished 14 days of the event and turned in 158 entries, Fall 2006 104 entries over 9 days, 2007 Spring 76 in eleven days. He came in with a frustrated angler face one day and said he had made a decision-either he had to learn how to catch the lake trout to get better numbers or he was done. The 2007 Fall Event began and he came in with 847 lake trout entries over 20 days and it has been a fishing marathon ever since-winning nine Top Angler titles in the process. His 23rd fish on Saturday (1,275th fishing day of Mack Days Events) was identifiable by a yellow electrical tag when it came in to be entered-lake trout number 50,000.
There are other anglers whose totals are getting up there-Terry Krogstad-33,994 and Larry Ashwell 19,696. Congratulations Mike, how many more will be added to the fish total over the next few years?
Weather is warming up and it is a good time to go fishing on Flathead Lake. Be safe and be weather wise while on the water.
Good luck and tight lines everyone!
Photo: Mike Benson caught his 50,000 fish of the Mack Days Event