Myers leads Mack Days heading into final weekend
One week remains in the 2023 Fall Mack Days fishing event on Flathead Lake.
Up to $200,000 in cash and prizes sponsored by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes will be awarded on the last day of the event Nov. 12. There will be no fish fry-but there will be a small awards ceremony and lottery drawing winners will be posted at 3 p.m.
All fish entries need to be turned in at Blue Bay by 3 p.m.. There will be no fish pickups on the last day.
Total lake trout entries for the event so far have reached 15,934. The total fish entered Fridays through Sundays are 12,423. Monday through Thursday totals are 3,511 entries. Last Friday’s total entries were 443, Saturday’s entries were 568, and Sunday entries were 355, for a weekend total of 1,366.
The “Ghost” has not been caught. The $10,000 tagged lake trout is still in the lake lurking in the depths of the lake.
Turning in $100 tagged lake trout the past week were Jens Gran of Polson, Larry Ashwell of Missoula, Richard Kreis of Huson, Joshua Wisniewski of Missoula, Michael Benson of Lonepine, Marty Herak of Polson, and a $200 tagged fish was turned in by Jack Kirkland of Missoula.
David Myers of Riverton, Wyoming is still holding on to the lead going into the final week. He has a total of 1,314 lake trout entries in the Friday to Sunday category, which is what counts for the top-20 anglers. He also has fished the Monday to Thursday days of the event for a total of 53 straight days of Mack Days fishing, which does not account for the few days he fished before the event began.
His total so far is 2,513 lake trout entries.
His first Mack Days Event was the 2021 spring event, when he only participated for two weeks and had a total of 119 Friday to Sunday days. He became addicted after entering his third event in 2023 spring and decided he was going to come back and fish the whole event someday when he retired, this is his fourth event.
Myers' 18-day average is 61.33, his Friday total is 48, Saturday 62, and Sunday 70.
Second place and not too far behind is Felix Gauci of Stevensville with 1,088, third place is Michael Benson of Lonepine with 1,084.
Laurie Kreis of Huson leads the ladies with 293 lake trout entries. In second place is Julie Perkins of Kalispell with 179, and third place is Debby Sacchi of Thompson Falls with 143 entries.
The Bucket of Fish Days are finished, with Jens Gran of Polson turning in the heaviest bucket at 26.95 pounds.
Smallest lake trout entries are Paul Groves with a 141mm entry and Felix Gauci and Jerry Benson are tied with 145mm entry.