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Only 110 lake trout separate the Top Ten Anglers Jason Mahlen and Kolten Turner in the 2019 Spring Mack Days Fishing Event. This year anglers have turned in 31 perfect 100-fish days. There are 564 anglers registered for this year’s event, and 181 of those anglers have turned in one or more lake trout entries.

This year, windy springtime weather, along with boat motor issues have caused problems for anglers, both affecting the top three angler’s total entries over the weekend. The Turner boat had motor and wind issues on Saturday limiting their totals for Saturday. A total of 1,728 lake trout entries were turned in on Friday. Saturday’s windy total came to 597 and Sunday with snow, wind, and white capping waves the total was 88, of which 71 came from third-place angler David McDaniel of Polson.

Total entries for the weekend was 2,413 lake trout and for the first six weeks, the overall total is 27,069, which is 2,266 more lake trout than is time last year. There are three weekends left in the event, which ends on May 19.

Top female angler Julie Perkins of Kalispell has a total of 466 fish. In second place, Leah Banyai of Kalispell has 284 fish, third is Debbie Paine of Polson with 88 fish, fourth is Connie Jones of Kalispell with 70 fish and fifth is Lisa Cloo of Clinton with 47 lake trout entries.

Jason Mahlen is leading the Top 10 Anglers with 1,379 lake trout entries, Kolton Turner is second with 1,278 fish, David McDaniel is third with 1,099 fish, Bob Turner is fourth with 1,020 and Mike Benson of Lonepine is in fifth with 910 fish. In sixth place is Ken Varga of Kalispell with 827 fish, Jerry Benson of Plains is seventh with 803 fish, eighth place is Scott Mahlen with 774, ninth is Tyler Varga with 742 and in tenth place is Matt Guckenberg of Kalispell is 676 fish.

Larry Karper of Florence is in the lead in the 70 and over group with 361 lake trout entries, followed by Larry Ashwell of Missoula with 310, Gary Perleberg of Bigfork with 237, John Gauci of Florence with 137 and Roger Brewer of Kalispell with 33 entries.

Brodie Smith is leading the 12 and under group with 43 entries. Fjord Borgen of Columbia Falls has 37 fish entries, Fisher Whitaker of Kalispell has entered 33 fish and Gunner Whitaker of Kalispell has 12 lake trout entries.

Matt Guckenberg Jr. of Kalispell is leading the 17 and under group with 426 fish, Abby Hodgson of Kalispell has 20 fish, Wyatt Thompson of Bigfork is at five fish, Emmett Ludahl of Kalispell has four fish, and John Ross Jr. of Stevensville is at three lake trout entries.

Turning in $100 tagged lake trout were Tom Kemmpainen of Columbia Falls, Dave Hoback of Arlee, Matt Guckenberg Jr. and Kolten Turner of Kalispell. Three $200 tagged lake trout were turned in by Scott Mahlen of Kalispell, Jack Kirkland of Missoula, and Matt Guckenberg Jr.

There has not been a large lake trout entry in the event so far.

The last day of the Bucket of Fish category is Sunday, May 5.

The 2019 Spring Mack Days Fishing Event is sponsored by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and is sanctioned by Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks. To find out more about the event go to the website http://www.mackdays.com.