Mahlen lands 1,338 fish for Mack Days

The Spring Mack Days fishing tournament on Flathead Lake recently came to a close with Kalispell angler Jason Mahlen taking top honors for the third consecutive year.

Mahlen turned in 1,338 lake trout in his top 18 days of tournament fishing, giving him a comfortable lead over second-place Ryan Shima with 1,236 lake trout.

The goal of the tournament is to get the most lake trout removed for the lowest dollar, as part of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ ongoing effort to restore Flathead Lake’s threatened bull trout population.

As of May 17, more than 30,000 lake trout had been turned in. The inaugural Mack Days tournament in 2002 brought in just 888 fish.

Fishing styles are as varied as the anglers who compete in the nine-week tournament. Some cast a spoon-style rig that they jig up and down with quick flicks of the wrist. Others run two flies, but they can risk running too heavy, unable to feel the bite.

Despite his mastery over the popular sport fish, Mahlen is far from secretive about his technique — it’s cast and drag with a simple neon grub baited with sucker meat.

“A lot of people, if they’re used to stream fishing, they think they’re going to get hammered by bites, and 70 percent of the time the bites are so light you barely feel it,” he said. “This is finesse fishing. I like to fish slow but I catch fast.”

Mahlen has his favorite holes, preferring to locate on top of structures, abrupt changes in depth on the lake bed ranging from 175 to 230 feet. But he knows when to cut his losses, pulling up anchor and roaring off to the next spot if the first 15 minutes leave him empty-handed.

“Before the tournament started, I started working out and exercising to try to get myself in better shape,” Mahlen said. “To stand up here in the washboard all day, these guys have got some endurance.”

Rough weather doesn’t just make for tired legs — the psychological toll of poor fishing conditions can be wearying, too. 

“I’ve had a few days where I have 60 fish by noon, and yesterday by noon I had eight,” he said. “Some days, it’s just not working out for you.”