pmmpete:
On September 20, the first day of the Mack Days fishing derby on Flathead Lake, I caught 15 lake trout, including two tagged fish, each of which was worth $100. That'll pay for my gas! Now I want to catch some of the bigger value tagged fish, which include $500, $1,000, $5,000, and one $10,000 tagged fish.
For information about Mack Days and the prizes available to participants, see https://www.mackdays.com/. There's plenty of time to get in on the fun - the Fall Mack Days runs from September 20 until November 10, and there's a similar Mack Days in the spring.
You can turn all your lake trout in to the Tribes if you want. They process them and give them to food banks. But I usually take home a couple.
One of the lake trout I caught on September 20 was 31 inches long. That fish doesn't count towards my Mack Days total. You can keep any lake trout which you catch in the south half of Flathead Lake, which is in the Flathead Reservation, but you can't keep 30"-36" lake trout in the north half of Flathead Lake. I believe that the Mack Days rule which doesn't count lake trout over 30 inches is to avoid giving anglers who fish on the reservation an advantage over anglers who fish in the north half of the lake.
Mojo Jojo:
Nice fish Pete, congratulations on the $$$ that always helps offset gas! You missed the link insert. Edit: edited as I typed ;)
Helium Head:
Almost every time you post I look up Flathead Lake to see how far it is from Portland. It hasn’t moved closer.
bb2fish:
--- Quote from: Helium Head on September 24, 2019, 01:02:51 PM ---Almost every time you post I look up Flathead Lake to see how far it is from Portland. It hasn’t moved closer.
--- End quote --- It's not that bad of a drive. I've done it many times.
Rc4jw:
That is an awesome catch! I have always been curious how the fishing is in that lake. Growing up on the shore of Lake Pend Orielle and being surrounded by a lot of good fishing I never ventured out of my home state to fish at all. When we get moved back up there permanently next year I may have to head over there for weekend and give it a try.