Sanders County Ledger - Your Best Source For Sanders County News

One week is all that is left of the 2023 Fall Mack Days Fishing Event on Flathead Lake. All fish entries must be turned in at Blue Bay by 3 p.m. on Sunday, November 12. A small awards ceremony will be held and lottery drawing winners will be posted at that time.

Total lake trout entries for the 2023 Fall Mack Days event are 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.

Turning in $100 tagged lake trout the past week were Jens Gran of Polson (two), Larry Ashwell of Missoula, Richard Kreis of Huson (two), 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 Twenty Anglers. He also has fished the Monday to Thursday days of the event for a total of fifty-three 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. Hee 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. David’s 18-day average is 61.33.

Second place and not too far behind is Felix Gauci of Stevensville with 1,088 (58.72 average), third is Michael Benson of Lonepine (1,084, 51.5), fourth is Bob Stewart of Kalispell (980, 46.67), fifth is Jerry Benson (735, 37.33), in sixth place is Larry Ashwell of Missoula (688, 33.89), seventh is Larry Karper of Florence (598, 32.17), eighth is Jack Kirkland of Lolo (616, 31.67), ninth is Richard Kreis of Huson (511, 24.33) and in 10th place is Scott Bombard of Missoula (436, 22.22). The Top Ten Anglers will be placed by their 18-day average.

Laurie Kreis of Huson leads the ladies with 293 lake trout entries, second place is Julie Perkins of Kalispell with 179, and third place is Debby Sacchi of Thompson Falls with 143 entries. Blaine Helvey and Paisley Helvey of Thompson Falls lead the anglers age 12 and under with 18 lake trout entries each, and Lucia Savoia of Missoula is the lone entry in the 17 and over category with 11 entries.

The Bucket of Fish Days are finished with Jens Gran of Polson turning in the heaviest bucket at 26.95 pounds, Michael Benson was second with 25.35, third was Larry Ashwell at 23.2, fourth place was Calvin Dee of Missoula at 17.6, and fifth place was Richard Kreis at 16.8lbs. Rick Skates and Jens Gran tied for first overall with 18 points each. Ties are broken by total weight. Each had two bucket weights over the three days of the competition. Rick won with his total of 59.75 lbs. and Jens came in second with a weight of 51.35.

Smallest lake trout entries are Paul Groves with a 141mm lake trout entry and Felix Gauci and Jerry Benson are tied with 145mm lake trout entries.