Mack Days anglers ahead of 2018 fish count

With just two weekends remaining, lake trout anglers have turned in a total of 14,108 lake trout in the Fall Mack Days event.

There were a total of 1,256 fish the sixth weekend. Friday’s total was 437, Saturday 227, and Sunday 592.

Cold winds made fishing difficult Saturday but 18 anglers managed to find safe areas to fish. The Tuesday-Thursday total is 3,135 and Friday-Sunday total 10,973. The 2018 total at this time was at 11,999 with 2,933 Tuesday-Thursday and 9,066 Friday-Sunday.

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 15-day average is 67.8.

Scott Bombard of Missoula is 2nd with 854-30, 10, 52-and 56.27 avg. In 3rd Felix Gauci of Stevensville-816-27, 0, and 40-no avg., 4th LarryKarper 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.

The top ten anglers are placed by their 15-day average Saturday, Nov. 9 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-and-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-and-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. T

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 PerkinsX2, Terry KrogstadX2, 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 X2, Larry Ashwell, and Jeanee Mooney of Missoula. Drawing tickets are pulled from the weekend entries by fillet staff at the end of Sunday entries.

Entries will continue to be taken until the last day of the event, Sunday, Nov. 10. 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 is held with tickets drawn from all of the entries received. The drawing begins at $1,000 and goes to $400 - 32 tickets will be drawn for cash prizes.

Anglers receive a ticket for every lake trout entry. Once an angler has 15 days entered in the event their tickets are limited using a 15-day average-dropping the low number and that many tickets until 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.

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.