Spring Mack Days fishing tournament to start March 15
Flathead Lake’s anglers will have $150,000 worth of cash and prizes as motivation to get out on the lake and competitively fish from March 15 through May 19 for the spring round of the Mack Days fishing tournament.
Tournament days are Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays for the first 10 weekends with 10 straight days of competitive fishing from May 10-19.
Sponsored by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and sanctioned by Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, this fishing tournament is a management tool developed to implement the Flathead Lake and River Co-management Plan. The tournaments are used as a tool to slowly suppress non-native lake trout in Flathead Lake to benefit native bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout.
The prospects for future contests will be determined by the outcome of the Environmental Impact Statement to be completed this spring.
The alternative selected in the EIS will determine whether suppression efforts continue and how much suppression is necessary. Each suppression alternative includes an ordered progression of all possible tools to harvest lake trout.
Mack Days is always the first tool and additional tools would only be employed if and when Mack Days’ harvest does not reach the selected target harvest level. The EIS was only initiated because it was determined that Mack Days alone was not sufficient to meet the goals of the co-plan. Therefore if none of the “action” alternatives are chosen, Mack Days would end because the monetary investment would no longer be justifiable.
Updates on the EIS process will be available on the Mack Days website, www.mackdays.com, starting in the middle of March.
THE PRIZES
Spring Mack Days has over 4,000 tagged lake trout with values from $100-500, 10 worth $1,000, five worth $5,000, and one worth $10,000. Anglers also receive a lottery ticket for every fish they catch for a chance at additional prizes at the end of the tournament.
There are several additional prizes for categories such as top angler, youth and ladies, weekend prizes, smallest fish and largest fish.
Bonus awards go to each angler once they have turned in 20 entries in the event and continue to go up with an angler’s total. Last year’s winner of the spring tournament, Don Beville of Lakeside, won nearly $10,000.
The CSKT has a special $12 yearly fishing permit available to anyone to fish the south half of Flathead Lake.
The permits are available from area vendors who sell fishing licenses.
Entry forms are available at area sporting good vendors, FWP offices, or online on the Mack Days website. Entries continue to be taken until the last day of the event.
For more information, call 883-2888 ex. 7294 or go www.mack days.com.