Lakeside man wins Mack Days with 1,551 dish

Don Beville of Lakeside won this spring’s Mack Days fishing tournament by catching 1,551 non-native lake trout. This was Beville’s fourth time participating in the tournament and his wife, Sharon, placed fifth in the women’s division with 74 and his son, Garrett, placed fourth in the youth’s 13-17 division with 130.

Beville won a total of $9,550 through the tournament, thanks in part to the 11 $100-tagged fish he caught.

“I was lucky enough to stay on the fish through the whole tournament,” Beville said. “I would fish with Jim Riley, I got a lot of thanks to him for teaching me to catch lake trout and the areas and ways to do it.”

Sharon and Garret would often join him on the lake during the weekend, except for Fridays since Garret had school. Sharon spent four weeks in Florida, so most of the time it was just Beville and Riley. Riley placed 13th in the tournament.

Beville is one of the few top anglers in the tournament who isn’t retired and described it as being like a full-time job. He was able to work in fishing 31 out of the 33 days of the tournament around his job as a millwright at Plum Creek in Columbia Falls by camping each weekend at Blue Bay to cut out the commute time and save on gas.

Once he realized he had a chance to win the tournament he would fish for 14 or 15 hours on Fridays and Saturdays and about three-and-a-half more on Sundays before returning home. He said about 15-20 of the top Mack Days anglers would camp at Blue Bay each weekend as well.

Beville grew up near Lake Okeechobee in Florida and has been fishing his entire life. He started fishing in Montana when he was 10 years old when he and his father would come up from Florida to go hunting and fishing. He came here every year and eventually moved to Lakeside permanently about seven or eight years ago.

Beville makes his own jigs and flies and uses both rods and reels. He said there are three things an angler needs to be successful in a fishing tournament, an Eye Pilot Navionics Chip for a fish finder to measure the contours of the lake, a good heater for cold days, and a boat that’s comfortable for long hours of fishing.

He estimated that he used approximately 3,000 yards of fishing line throughout the tournament.

“You need a boat with a top and sides and be able to fish comfortably, that eliminated half the anglers right there a lot of the time,” Beville said. “The fish have changed their strategy of where they’re going like in Rocky Point, we’re catching fish in new places. The electronics and everything has helped 100 percent.”

Beville said he likes that the fish caught from the tournament are filleted and donated to food banks in the area since it helps feed families and creates jobs for the fillet crew.

“It’s a great idea to donate that much food to the food bank, I don’t know what anyone would do with it otherwise and I don’t know what I would do with 1,500 fish.”

Another aspect of the tournament he likes is how it impacts the local economy.

“I think the Mack Days helps control the lake trout, you are definitely saving the other species out there by using hook and line versus using the nets, nets are a bad idea,” Beville said. “The anglers are spending it (the prize money) back in the sporting goods stores, (but if) you hire someone with nets and put all the money there, they’re not supporting the local sporting goods stores.”

Beville wasn’t the only angler to bring home money from the tournament; Mack Days had over $150,000 worth of cash and prizes for contestants.

Anglers aiming for the top spot in the fall Mack Days tournament can breath a sigh of relief as Beville doesn’t plan to participate since it would interfere with hunting season.