Busy start to Spring Mack Days

The 2023 Spring Mack Days fishing event on Flathead Lake began last weekend, with a first-weekend haul of 4,295 lake trout entries. Five anglers had perfect 100-fish days, including Mike Benson of Lonepine, Scott Bombard of Missoula, Jerry Benson of PLains and Bob Turner of Kalispell and Kolton Turner of Kalispell (two perfect days). Jason Mahlen of Kalispell had three perfect days.

Tagged lake trout with $100 values were turned in this weekend by Steve Benson of Spokane Valley, Mark McMillin of Missoula, and Mike Benson. Devon Burkowski of Kalispell turned in a $200 tagged lake trout.

Mahlen leads the event with 300 entries, Kolton Turner is in second (298), Sam Cusker of Bigfork has 227 entries for third, Jerry Benson sits in fourth with 217, Bob Turner is fifth with 205, Steve Benson of Spokane Valley is sixth (174), Terry Krogstad of Kalispell is in seventh place (171), Bombard has 164 entries, Mike Benson is in ninth place (135) and Travis Banyai of Lakeside rounds out the top 10 (123 entries).

Leah Banyai of Lakeside is leading the Ladies division with 52 entries and Connie Jones from Kalispell is second with nine lake trout entries. Wyatt Best of Florence is first in the 13-17 age group (three) and Brodie Smith from Kalispell is first among anglers aged 12 and under (18).

There are 433 anglers entered in the event, sponsored by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes as a way to reduce the non-native lake trout in Flathead Lake, and 107 anglers turned in entries in the first weekend. For more information, go to http://www.mackdays.com.