NorthWest Kayak Anglers
Regional Discussions => Montana Kayak Fishing => Topic started by: pmmpete on March 19, 2021, 10:30:06 PM
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The Spring 2021 Mack Days fishing derby started today (March 19) on Flathead Lake, and will continue until May 16. If you want to get paid to go fishing, this is where to do it. Check out the Mack Days website at https://mackdays.com/.
Those sneaky lake trout had deserted my favorite fishing spots, but I found a herd of them elsewhere and pulled in 22 before heading for home in the early afternoon.
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I look forward to your posts of Mack Days and your Lake Trout catching every year! :banjo:
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I look forward to your posts of Mack Days and your Lake Trout catching every year! :banjo:
Come out to Montana and join the fun!
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Pete, you should host a Lake Trout CLINIC this time of year. It sure would be fun to join you!! I'll certainly let you know when I'm in the area.
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Pete, you should host a Lake Trout CLINIC this time of year. It sure would be fun to join you!! I'll certainly let you know when I'm in the area.
An advantage of fishing during Mack Days is that you can learn a lot about where the lake trout are by watching the motorboat anglers, a lot of whom are way better at catching lake trout than I'll ever be.
This time of year, the weather can be a bit brisk. It isn't unusual to be fishing in snow squalls. But it'll be getting warmer soon, and the lake trout fishing is great all summer long. And I enjoy showing visiting kayak anglers around on Flathead Lake.
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The Spring 2021 Mack Days fishing derby started today (March 19) on Flathead Lake, and will continue until May 16. If you want to get paid to go fishing, this is where to do it. Check out the Mack Days website at https://mackdays.com/.
Those sneaky lake trout had deserted my favorite fishing spots, but I found a herd of them elsewhere and pulled in 22 before heading for home in the early afternoon.
Great pictures! Beautiful up there. Love the patches of snow......... I imagine the water temperatures are quite frosty.
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Great pictures! Beautiful up there. Love the patches of snow......... I imagine the water temperatures are quite frosty.
The water temperature at the surface has been about 33 degrees in the morning, and a few degrees warmer in the afternoon. Here's what it looked like when I launched on March 16.
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Today snow squalls scurried across Flathead Lake while I fished. I found a crayfish on the shore where I launched. It wasn't scurrying; it was dead. It was probably brown when alive, but changed color after being exposed to sunlight and cold weather by dropping water levels.
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I went lake trout fishing with Brian Jahner from Missoula (green kayak) and Phil Huck from Minnesota (red kayak) on Flathead Lake today. The lake has been pretty windy in the last couple of weeks, but this was the calmest day we've had in quite a while.
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I love the Clearwater chain of lakes NE of Missoula. I “discovered” this area on a camping/canoe-fishing trip with my two children in the late summer of 2018, and managed to catch a few kokanee out of Lake Inez.
I went back last July, to meet a friend/fellow firefighter-paramedic from Albuquerque, NM, in order to do some kayak fishing/camping on Lindbergh Lake.
At this point, I had a fully rigged Hobie PA14, along with lots of rods/reels, and tackle, and was ready to slay some lakers.
I only ended up catching 4 small-to-medium sized lake trout over the same number of days, but I definitely caught the laker fever.
Would love to get back in the summer with someone who knew what they were doing!
BTW: I now live in Portland, OR, so it’s definitely a commitment to get out there.
Cheers!
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Getting there from Minnesota (Phil) is quite a drive.
I was born and raised in MN, until I joined the USAF, went overseas, and have hence made my home in the SW, and now PNW US.
Lake trout on Flathead Lake, MT, and Lahontan cutthroat trout on Pyramid Lake, NV are definitely on my kayak-fishing bucket list!
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It was cool and calm on Flathead Lake today, and I caught 24 lake trout.
One of the Macks was 33 inches long (the first picture below), so under the Mack Days rules it won't count towards my fish total. This rule is to prevent favoring anglers who fish on the south half of the lake on the Flathead Reservation over anglers who fish on the north half of the lake outside the reservation, because on the reservation you can keep lake trout of any size, but on the north half of the lake you can't keep fish from 30"-36", and can only keep one fish per day over 36".
On both halves of the lake, the daily limit for lake trout is one hundred (100) lake trout.
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Nicely done, Pete!
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Here are pictures of a 29" and a 31" lake trout which I caught today on Flathead Lake. I released a larger Mack, probably 36"-38", but didn't manage to get a picture of it.
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such a marvelous fishery. Well done, Pete!
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Nice Macs. I noticed you finder was registering 180'. What jig weight were you using to go that deep.
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I generally run 2-5 oz jigs... the main concern for me is the wind... and positioning. but also i try to start at 3oz when targeting deeper than 100'
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I generally run 2-5 oz jigs... the main concern for me is the wind... and positioning. but also i try to start at 3oz when targeting deeper than 100'
I have been upgrading my lake trout jig arsenal for deeper water moving to heavier weights. I have a new 7 oz that I am dying to try. I agree about the wind. It's not like we have "spot lock".......
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Nice Macs. I noticed you finder was registering 180'. What jig weight were you using to go that deep.
In Flathead Lake, for much of the year the most productive depth for jigging is on the bottom in 170-240 feet of water. In the fall the lake trout come into shallower water to spawn. I use a 1.5 oz. lure to jig for lake trout, but keep a couple of 2 oz lures in my tackle box for windy days.
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During the last two or three weeks of the Spring 2021 Mack Days, lake trout disappeared from their usual places in the south half of Flathead Lake, and my daily catch numbers were low. I know a motorboat angler who got skunked for four days in a row, despite buzzing all over the south half of the lake in search of lake trout.
Now that the Spring Mack Days is over, the fishing has improved. I caught 14 lake trout today by noon, including this chunky 34" fish. I'm going to smoke most of the other fish.
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Very nice! I got to spend four days at Flaming Gorge but only managed to pick up four Kokanee and one laker. I did get a really nice hook up on a 2 oz bucktail in 100 ft of water but he broke me off. It was a fun couple of minutes.
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I see each of you has a wind "sock" up front. Help me out with why your group utilizes them?
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I see each of you has a wind "sock" up front. Help me out with why your group utilizes them?
It's a wind direction indicator, to help us pedal directly into the wind so we can stay stationary over the bottom when jigging, with the assistance of the GPS track on our fish finders. See https://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=18212.msg195603#msg195603.
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It's a wind direction indicator, to help us pedal directly into the wind so we can stay stationary over the bottom when jigging, with the assistance of the GPS track on our fish finders. See https://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=18212.msg195603#msg195603.
Thanks for the explanation and the link! This is why I love the NWKA. So many people sharing their knowledge.