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Spring Mack Days finishes seventh week

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News from CSKT 

FLATHEAD LAKE – The nine-week-long 2019 Spring Mack Days fishing event sponsored by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes ends on May 19. 

It is not too late to get entries in the lottery drawing and be eligible for one of the many prizes. One entry is allowed for every lake trout, and there is always the chance you may catch a tagged lake trout. Over 9,000-tagged lake trout with values from $10,000 to $100 are swimming out there in Flathead Lake. 

There are special tribal fishing stamps for the south half of Flathead Lake, available to anyone. Registration is open until the end of the event. Go to www.mackdays.com and click under the events tab for more information.

The $10,000 tagged lake trout is still in the lake along with other high-dollar tagged lake trout. There are three $5,000 fish and five at $1,000. Tagged lake trout have been released in all areas of Flathead Lake. The anglers turning in $100 tagged lake trout during the seventh week were Kalispell’s Hank McLeod, Bob Turner and Jason Mahlen. A lucky Florence angler, John Gauci, had two $100 tags out of fourteen fish entries on Friday. 

Anglers have turned in a total of 30,963 lake trout entries, which could be record-setting for the spring events. It all depends on the weather over the next two weekends. Wind causes anglers a lot of trouble on the water with big waves. The rough water makes it difficult to stay over the areas with pockets of fish. 

Totals for the weekend were 1,546 on Friday, 1,444 on Saturday and 904 on a rough-water Sunday. Friday’s catch included a 38.5-inch large lake trout by Ken Varga. He was bringing up a smaller lake trout on the fly when a larger one came out of the depths and hit his jig. The larger lake trout just did not have enough girth to weigh in over twenty-four pounds, which is the weight a large lake trout has to weigh to qualify. Varga’s lake trout weighed in at 22.15 pounds. 

Anglers can choose to keep one large lake trout over thirty-six inches a day or they can release the fish after weigh in. Ken chose to release the big guy. 

Jason Mahlen of Kalispell continues to set the bar in this event. He has set a new record for a 15-day average, which will be hard to compete with in future years. His lake trout total is 1,679, with a new record average of 94.47. 

Kolton Turner, also of Kalispell, is still coming in with high numbers. He has a total of 1,530 with a 90.0 average. David McDaniel is in third place with 1,307. Bob Turner is in fourth place with 1,233. Fifth place went to Mike Benson of Lonepine with 1,108. Scott Mahlen of Kalispell has 1,003 for sixth. Seventh place went to  Jerry Benson of Plains with 924. Eight was Ken Varga of Kalispell with 880. Ninth place went to Matt Guckenberg Sr. of Kalispell with 777, and Steve Benson of Spokane Valley was in 10th place with 770. 

Lady angler Julie Perkins of Kalispell had a total of 531 entries, which is also a new record for a ladies spring total. She turned in over seven hundred in the fall of 2018. Leah Banyai of Kalispell is in second with 306. Third went to Connie Jones of Kalispell with 105. Debbie Paine of Polson was in fourth place with 100, and Lisa Cloo of Clinton has a total of 56 for fifth. 

Over 70 anglers participated, including Florence Larry Karper with 466 for first place. Second place went to Larry Ashwell of Missoula with 378. Gary Perleberg of Bigfork was in third place with 237. Fourth place went to John Gauci of Florence with 158, and fifth place went ot Roger Brewer of Kalispell with 36.

Matt Guckenberg Jr. of Kalispell has a total of 513 in the 13-17 category for first. Emmett Ludahl of Kalispell is at 27, and Abby Hodgson of Kalispell has 20. Brodie Smith of Kalispell is leading the other youth category with 122, Fjord Borgen of Columbia Falls has 37 in second, Fisher Whitaker of Kalispell is in third with 33, HD of Arlee has 17 for fourth and Gunner Whitaker was in fifth with 12.

The heaviest bucket of lake trout, which included the four largest lake trout in a bucket on the third day of the competition, May 5, was turned in by the Paine/Nelson boat with a total weight of 19.4 lbs. J/C Jones was in second with 16 lbs. Third place went to Torran Lawson of St. Ignatius with 15.9. The Paine/Nelson boat wins the overall three-days with a total of twenty points. Second place went to the Whitaker boat with 16 points, and third place was given to Krogstad/Perkins with 14 points. 

Come out and dip a line in the water. You may be a winner of a $10,000 tagged lake trout or maybe with one ticket in the drawing you will win one of the several cash or merchandise drawings. Tight lines everyone.

 

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