Nearly half the number of anglers as were registered for the spring event caught almost twice as many fish. Anglers harvested 14,415 lake trout during Fall Mack Days, which concluded Sunday - several thousand more than biologists with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes expected.
“To say we're pleased would be an understatement,” said Barry Hansen, a CSKT biologist. “We're delighted.”
But when more than 800 anglers turned in just 7,904 mackinaws last spring, organizers were worried. The spring event typically produces not only more fish, but more fishermen - more anglers are anxious to get out on the water after being cooped up all winter.
But there's no cabin fever in place for the fall event, which also competes with hunting and football seasons.
“After last spring, we were worried that the numbers were stalling out,” Hansen said. “Our fall numbers are usually smaller than spring, and our goal was to get to 8,000 by the fall of 2008. We obviously shattered that, and did it a year early.”
The tribes, in conjunction with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, are trying to restore a balance to the Flathead fishery by reducing the number of the non-native and predacious lake trout. Fewer macks make room for more bull and Westslope cutthroat trout, fish that are native to Flathead.
Now, Hansen said, the question becomes whether the two fishing tournaments, coupled with the 40,000 lake trout the public is believed to catch during the rest of the year, is enough to start knocking back the estimated 350,000 lake trout in Flathead.
“People think you catch a lot of fish, you've reduced the population by that number, but that's not true,” he said. “They're always reproducing. You have to catch a lot, and you have to catch more than they can reproduce before you can begin to bring that number down.”
The goal, he said, is to rely on anglers to accomplish that, rather than resort to gill netting or commercial fishing.
Authorities use gill netting on Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho and Yellowstone Lake in Wyoming to reduce lake trout numbers. Gill netting is the capture of fish in a stationary fabric mesh that is too small for the fish to swim through, then traps them on their gills when they try to back out.
The tournament itself lacked much drama.
Mike Benson, girls' basketball coach at Hot Springs High School, could have gone fish-less on the last three-day weekend of Fall Mack Days and still taken first.
Benson had a 174-fish lead over Don Schaffer of Columbia Falls after six weeks of the seven-week tournament, which has 50-fish-a-day limits.
As it was, Benson added 100 macks to his total and finished with 847 to claim first place.
Schaffer was second at 723, followed by Brandt Hammernick of Missoula (651), Rod Belcher of Kalispell (608) and Bernd Albrecht of Polson (556).
Stephen Naethe, the home-schooled 14-year-old from Pablo who fishes from a one-person pontoon float tube and who led all anglers after two weeks of the tourney, missed his goal of 501 fish - which was worth $500 to anyone who caught that many - by just three. His 498 was still good for sixth place, and earned him a $475 check.
In addition to his $500 for catching more than 500, Benson earned $500 for being the top angler, and caught a tagged fish worth $100 during the tourney.
Top angler prizes were awarded based on an angler's 12 best days of the 21-day event - one of the rule changes instituted in an effort to hook more fisherman who might also want to spend some of their weekends hunting or attending football games.
Benson, by the way, limited out a dozen days during the tourney, and Schaffer did it 10 times.
In addition to the $500 each earned for catching more than 500 lake trout, Schaffer received $400 for finishing second, Hammernick earned $300, Belcher $200 and Albrecht $100.
The rest of the top 10, behind Naethe, were Paul Lebert of Kalispell (491), Robert Parot Sr. of Polson (457), Kevin Sparks of Thompson Falls (447) and Marty Noyd of Missoula (431).
Hansen said one reason numbers are up are that anglers are getting better at catching mackinaws.
“There's definitely a learning curve, but anglers are figuring it out,” Hansen said. “The fishery is not old in terms of a period of abundant lake trout, and they're continually learning new techniques. And this event lasted long enough that fish moved from deep water to shallow, and anglers had to adjust during the contest.”
In the women's division, Nicole Peters of Missoula shot from third to first over the last weekend and finished with 205 lake trout. She edged out the contest's other 14-year-old making waves, Heidi Hereford of Missoula, who had 203.
Ten-year-old Mikayla Lebert of Kalispell was third at 167, followed by Aubree Benson of Lolo (145) and Dolly Fleck of Bigfork (136).
Naethe picked up $200 for winning the youth division, and Hereford received $150 for finishing second there. Mikayla Lebert was third, followed by Brett Hereford of Missoula (138) and Maura Soukup of Ronan (61).
None of 10 tagged fish worth $5,000 apiece was turned in.
Dave Sparks of Thompson Falls caught a tagged fish worth $500, and Benson was one of five anglers who caught $100 tagged fish.
Reporter Vince Devlin can be reached at 1-800-366-7816 or at vdevlin@missoulian.com.
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