Fishing season heats up on Flathead Lake with Spring Mack Days underway

Fishing guide Russ Hadley fought high winds and cold weather the last few days on Flathead.

But it’s been worth it.

Hadley has been boating big lake trout every day he’s been out on the lake. Last Friday, Hadley worked shallow waters around the north end of the lake, hoping to land a big pike or lake trout. He boated several big fish including several that were large enough to be released.

Last Tuesday, he did well also.

“I caught eight, but they were all in the slot or over,” Hadley said. His largest fish was 21-pounds, 4-ounces. “I am fishing for quality-sized fish not small ones,” he said. Hadley is fishing baits in shallow water.

The Spring Mack Days fishing tournament opened last weekend, with anglers vying for over $225,000 in cash and prizes.

The tournament, sponsored by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, is designed to reduce populations of nonnative lake trout.

The tribal fisheries program is continuing to estimate the size of the lake trout population by tagging fish.

Tagging fish helps biologists estimate how the tournament is working to reduce lake trout populations. “As we continue our efforts to increase harvest, it is increasingly important to demonstrate how increased harvest affects the abundance of lake trout,” Evan R. Smith, tribal fisheries biologist, said. “We need to tag a large number of fish to get a good estimate.”

Smith said more tags in the lake means better population estimates and “better opportunities for anglers to catch tagged fish.”

Those fish have values over $1,000 for anglers in the tournament. The fisheries program staff will be on Flathead Lake to collect fish from anglers for tagging on most Fridays during the contest. Smith said they will try to restrict their activities to smaller portions of the lake so that they can approach anglers several times during the day to collect fish for tagging. 

Smith asks anglers who need to turn in a tagged fish can call him at 270-3384.  

Two-time Mack Days champion Jason Mahlen will be back on the water in the Spring Mack Days tourney. Mahlen has perfected the art of jigging for light-biting trout, but he’ll be going up against some serious competition in Mike Benson of Plains. Benson was the top angler in the fall Mack Days tournament. Polson angler Craig Morigeau was sixth.