FLATHEAD RESERVATION — 2026 Fall Mack Days Fishing Event on Flathead Lake is sponsored by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes is underway. The nine-week long event began September 10th and will end on November 8th. The first week’s lake trout total was 1,827, combined with week two totals of 2,156, for an overall total of 3,983 lake trout turned in to date.
Mack Days events are used as a tool to reduce numbers of non-native lake trout in Flathead Lake. Preserving and protecting the native fish populations of bull trout and westslope cutthroat in the lake is important to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and Montana anglers. Efforts made now will make a difference for the future of these fish. It is difficult for some to understand the importance of stepping up and helping to preserve the native fish that have been here for thousands of years. Declining native fish populations everywhere happen very easily and quickly when non-native fish like lake trout are introduced into a system where they outcompete the resident fish for food and territory. This fish conservation effort is part of the fisheries management plan for Flathead Lake and is a tool that will continue...