Fall Mack Days final results announced
courtesy photo
A tired but happy taped-up David Myers, winner of 2023 Fall Mack Days on Flathead Lake, looks up at the camera. Cracks in the fingers and a blister on his nose, he held on fishing 60 straight days in the event. Excellent angler!
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FLATHEAD LAKE — The 2023 Fall Mack Days Fishing event on Flathead Lake sponsored by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes is in the books. A total of 17,502 lake trout entries were received. It was the second largest event total since the 2019 Fall event, which had 18,214 entries. In 2020, the event total was 14,821, in 2021 it was 14,036, and in 2022 it was 13,901. One hundred thirty five out of 344 anglers turned in one or more lake trout entries. Friday’s fish total came to 472, Saturday’s raging winds kept the total down to 172, and Sunday was a good day with 448 lake trout entries. Weekend totals came to 1,092.
Fishing sixty-two days in a row, 60 event days and two days pre-fishing for spots, was the winner of the event, David Myers of Riverton, Wyoming. David had 1,399 lake trout entries for the Friday to Sunday competition days. His goal was to turn in an entry every day of the event and he did. David even had his wife out a couple of days of the event. She reported that her hands were very cold, and she hooked a large lake trout. It pulled the fishing rod out of her hands and over board it went. David tied a treble hook onto another pole, and they went fishing for her pole and were lucky enough to get it back.
David turned in 1,423 for the Monday to Thursday fishing event. His 18-day average was 61.61. Great job David. He set a new total record count for Fall Mack Days Fishing event.
Coming in second was Felix Gauci of Stevensville with 1,127 and a 59.61 average. In third place was Michael Benson of Lonepine with 1,135 and a 51.72 average.
Fourth place was Bob Stewart of Kalispell with 980 total and 46.67 average.
Fifth place was Jerry Benson of Plains with 771 and 37.78 average.
Sixth place was Larry Ashwell of Missoula with 726 and 34.89 average.
In seventh place was Larry Karper of Florence with 624 and 32.56 average.
In eighth place was Jack Kirkland of Lolo with 624 and 32.56 average.
In ninth place was Richard Kreis of Huson with 543 and 24.72 average.
In 10th place was Scott Bombard of Missoula with 450 and 22.33 average.
In 11th place was Terry Krogstad of Kalispell with 398.
In 12th place was Laurie Kreis of Huson with 307.
In 13th place was Claude Kaber of Whitefish with 288.
In 14th place was Steve Mack of Helena with 221.
In 15th place was Sam Sacchi of Thompson Falls with 215. In 16th place was Julie Perkins of Kalispell with 210.
In 17th place was Bryan Long of Kalispell with 193.
In 18th place was Jim Flinchbaugh of Kalispell with 185.
In 19th place was Joe Minnehan of Kalispell with 175.
In 20th place was Brian McDowell of Whitefish with 154 lake trout entries.
The winner of the Ladies category was Laurie Kreis of Huson with 307. In second place was Julie Perkins of Kalispell with 210. In third place was Debby Sacchi of Thompson Falls with 143.
Kim Mack of Helena, with 67 entries, came in 4th. In fifth place was Connie Jones of Kalispell with 18 lake trout entries. Connie had a lucky day on Friday catching two in a row with tags.
“The Ghost,” the $10,000 tagged lake trout eluded all anglers during the 2023 fall event. A new lake trout will be tagged as the $10,000 fish for the 2024 Spring Mack Days event.
Turning in tagged lake trout in the last week of the event were: $100 - Julie Perkins, Richard Kreis, Connie Jones, and Tony Incashola of St. Ignatius. Turning in $200 tagged fish were Connie Jones and Alison Putzler of Kalispell.
The winner of the 13-17 age group was Lucia Savola of Missoula with 11 lake trout entries. Alison Putzler took second place with nine lake trout entrees.
Winning the 12 & under age category was Blaine Helvey of Thompson Falls, with 18 lake trout entries. In second place was Paisley Helvey with 18 lake trout entries. There was a tie for third place between Zander Oliver of Missoula and Emily Simonich of Missoula, each turning in five lake trout entries.
Terry Krogstad of Kalispell won the 70 & over age category with a total of 398. In second place was Mike Cosby of Thompson Falls with 132, and in third place was Paul Grove of Wyoming, Illinois, with 116 lake trout entrees.
We would like to thank each and every angler who caught one fish or hundreds of fish; you are all awesome and are helping a conservation effort to increase native fish numbers in Flathead Lake.
