Gone fishin': Attack of the Spring Mack Days

By Maggie Plummer

BLUE BAY — "Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught."
    ~Author Unknown

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. All of those magnificently huge, fat macks that somehow unhooked themselves from the end of my line on a recent Saturday were potential prizewinners in the current Spring Mack Days tournament on Flathead Lake.

No, really. I have the excuse of being an absolute rooky in the art of angling.

Maybe I was too relaxed: I love bobbing around in a boat on the big lake, engine off, gazing at the water and sky, watching birds fly overhead, and daydreaming. I probably didn't pull up fast enough to hook those big ones.

Dang it.

Something was biting every now and then.

I did manage to land one small one - enough to get me in the running for a prize. My fingers are crossed.

The idea of Mack Days is to reduce the number of mackinaws in the lake, because they eat way too many native fish. Numbers of native bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout have shown an alarming decline for years.

This year's Spring Mack Days has 845 anglers signed up. Its promise of a total $57,000 in prizes has attracted hopeful fishermen and fisherwomen from near and far, including Colorado and Utah.

The first weekend brought in a total of 2,481, and the second weekend resulted in a harvest of 1,986 macks. This past weekend brought in 1,356.

That adds up to some 5,844 macks caught so far in this tournament, up from last year's 3,789.

Tribal fisheries specialist Cindy Bras thinks the fish numbers would be even better if the weather would cooperate. It's been cold in the mornings, windy, choppy, and hard for anglers to stay anchored, she said.

As of Monday, the big-money tagged fish were still out there somewhere in the lake, she added. Two of the $100 lake trout have been caught already.

Now, Paul Haines of Ronan is in first place, with a total of 265 fish caught; Marty Noyd is second with 238 fish; in the kids' category, Stephen Naethe of Pablo has 79 and Keegan Noyd has 52. The largest fish is still Dave Hobeck of Arlee, at 37 and a half inches, weighing 20 pounds, one ounce; smallest are Dick Zimmer and Paul Soukup of Ronan - Paul's is 191 millimeters (seven and a half inches); Dick's is 188 millimeters (seven and a quarter inches).

According to Cindy, more than $4,300 in prizes will go to people who are not in the top 10 angler categories - like me, with my one little mack.

I tagged along with tribal member Bob Parot, the only commercial fishing guide on the Flathead Reservation. His favorite motto is this:

    "Early to bed,
    Early to rise,
    Fish all day
    And make up lies."

It's not original, he readily admits.

He came in as the number four angler in the Fall 2006 Mack Days, catching a total of 168 fish.

Bob is new on the reservation, having moved here last year from Lapwai, Idaho.

His 20-foot aluminum jet boat is the "U Katchum," based at the Flathead Raft Company in Polson.

Bob likes running a jet boat: "It's nice because it can go in six inches of water," he remarked as we sped across the lake.

By fishermen's standards, it was shamefully late when we hit the water at Blue Bay. (My fault: it was a Saturday and I wanted to sleep in.) The bay was calm and glassy, the sky overcast, and Bob had already caught three respectable macks just off the shore.

He headed for the Bird Islands area north of Finley Point for some jigging.

What the heck, you might ask, is "jigging?"

It's a fishing technique involving lifting and dropping the lure at intervals. Bob says jigging is the best way to catch nice big lake trout.

When jigging, it's up to the angler to figure out the best lure action to produce a strike. That's where the "art of angling" comes in.

When jigging, anglers set the boat's anchor and throw leaded glowing baited hooks to the bottom, jigging just above the bottom.

Bob likes to use a type of rod called the Ugly Stik. "It's the best mid-priced pole," he said as he re-baited his hooks. He uses scent oil on his bait.

Even on the slow-fishing Saturday I went out, super-angler Marty Noyd of Missoula somehow landed 43 lake trout. We heard he camps right there at Blue Bay, is out on the water by 6 a.m., and stays out until about 6:30 p.m.

Another popular technique for mack fishing is trolling. According to Bob, the best way to troll for macks is at about 60 or 70 feet of water in the spring, and at 30 to 50 feet of water in the fall.

The first day of the current Spring Mack Days, Bob caught 36 macks.

The Bird Islands area was too slow for Bob, so he headed over to the highly popular spot just north of Rocky Point's tip. There were macks in roughly 200 feet of water, and a dozen other boats there.

When setting the anchor, Bob had to judge how far the hefty breeze would blow us. The idea is to not get too close to the other boats, and to avoid getting tangled in other boats' anchor lines.

It was pretty slow, but it was good just being out on the lake. It's nice and quiet when you anchor. Even though a pretty cold breeze blew at times, it was peaceful watching the weather out there.

We visited with angler Billy Swaney, who was in his boat next to us. We shared lunch, jigged and jigged, hung out, and tried to stay warm in the March wind that was coming off that cold water.

Bob moved over here from Idaho to be closer to his parents, he told me. He grew up on the Nez Perce Reservation, and his grandparents lived over here. His folks worked for the BIA and moved the family around.

"I stayed at Lapwai," he explained. That's where he went to high school.

Bob spent many, many years working at the Potlach Corporation paper mill in Lewiston, Idaho - the whole time wishing he were out fishing instead.

He had a knee replacement and was later granted a medical retirement.

He and his son built his and his wife's dream retirement home along the base of the Missions east of Pablo.

Bob is grateful to Flathead Raft Company owners Tammy and Sean Fragua for helping him get his fishing charter business going. "Thanks to them I'm fulfilling my dream," he said. "I'll never get tired of it."

He's thinking of sharing his passion for fishing with some deserving local seventh and eighth graders, by taking them out fishing. "It would be a 'Take a Kid Fishing' type of thing," he commented. "Maybe I could take honor roll students..."

But back to our fishing trip:

even though the fishfinder indicated plenty of fish underneath us, it was as if the macks were on to the fact that a tournament was going on. They just weren't biting, it seemed, for anyone.

Bob thinks that Rocky Point spot has probably been hit too hard.

We went back across the lake to Skidoo Bay and trolled along the east shore.

Bob stays out till an hour before dark.

At the end of the day we turned our fish in to the Tribal Fisheries folks at Blue Bay, and reported how many we'd caught.

The fillet-ers were busy doing their rapid work with electric knives. Then into the deep freeze the fillets go.

The tournament's website (mackdays.com) includes lots of detailed fishing advice for mack anglers.

My advice is more basic: wear lots of warm layers; bring something hot to drink; have rain gear handy; crossword puzzles, a good novel, and/or some crochet projects might be good; and be prepared to stay out there all day long.

After April 1 Bob will be available for charter trips, he said. During Fall Mack Days he takes paying customers, and people can reserve trips now for that September tournament.

He can take up to four customers on charters. Bob supplies the gear, and recommends half-day trips - preferably 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. Half-day trips run $125 per adult and $80 for children 12 and under; full-day trips run $200 per adult and $150 for children 12 and under.

For more information or to make a reservation, call Flathead Raft Company at 883-5838.

And, for more on Spring Mack Days, the people to call are Cindy Bras-Benson or Germaine White, 883-2888.