Anglers race into final Mack Days weekends

Lake trout anglers on Flathead Lake have two weekends left in the 2021 Spring Mack Days Fishing Event on Flathead Lake. The competition, sponsored by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, helps reduce the number of non-native lake trout in the lake and increase the population of native bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout.

A total of 22,534 lake trout entries have been turned in by 216 anglers. The $10,000 tagged lake trout is still waiting for some lucky angler. Three $5,000 and five $1,000 tagged lake trout plus over 9,000 with values from $500 to $100. Hank McLeod of Kalispell turned in a $500 tagged fish and Julie Perkins of Kalispell turned in a $200 lake trout.

Kolton Turner is leading in the Top 10 category with 1,477 and an 18-day average of 80.5, second is Jason Mahlen (1,435 and 77.94), third is Bob Turner (1,175 and 64.33), fourth, Mike Benson (770 and 41.5), fifth Steve Benson of Spokane Valley (733 and 40.39), sixth is Sam Cusker of Bigfork (714, no average), seventh Larry Karper of Florence (641 and 35.61), eighth Ken Varga (639 and 34.89), ninth Travis Banyai (602 and 33.44) and tenth Scott Bombard of Missoula (623 and 33.22).

Larry Karper leaders the 70 and over category, Matt Guckenberg, Jr. is first among ages 13-17 and Brodie Smith leads the 12 and under category. Julie Perkins leads the ladies with 252.