BLUE BAY — The Mack Days fishing tournament, which has paid out nearly $1 million in cash and prizes since 2002, might be over after the spring contest — depending on the results of an environmental impact study.

The study, which was started in the spring of 2010, looks at management alternatives for invasive lake trout in Flathead Lake. Planned for release within a month, the study sets harvest targets and puts forth four management alternatives and the costs and benefits associated with each. Mack Days could be included in the final management decision. Community members can comment for 45 days after the draft’s release. Then, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council will make a final decision. After a management course is chosen, an action plan will be written.

It’s not that bi-annual Mack Days isn’t working, it’s just that it’s not working enough by itself, Hansen said.

“We are very pleased and encouraged by how popular they’ve been,” said Barry Hansen, a fisheries biologist with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. He added the tournament could continue in conjunction with other management tools. However, if people only want Mack Days, the cost won’t be worth the results and the tournament would end, he added.

Originally, the study was an environmental assessment and a way to gather input before moving to non-angler based management tools, Hansen said. Already, the Flathead Co-Management Plan existed with several non-angler options, but the plan specified angler-based solutions should be used first and called for public input before other tools were implemented. The process became an impact study to address the long-term time span of the management needs and to be as thorough as possible, added Hansen, who also is the lead biologist on the environmental impact study.

The management alternatives identified in the impact study include gill netting, something that has drawn criticism.

Ways exist to minimize netting’s impact on non-targeted species. Depending on the management alternative chosen, netting would only be used as a supplement to Mack Days to reach the target harvest number, Hansen said. Other alternatives include placing a bounty on fish; using a more-specific form of netting, called trap netting; and creating a commercial fishery for lake trout.

Population steady but too high

In 2002, Mack Days began through the Flathead Co-management Plan as a way to rid Flathead Lake of large numbers of lake trout in an effort to help native Bull trout and westslope cutthroat tout populations. Since then, the tournament has grown in both notoriety and productivity, with more than 70,000 lake trout harvested each year. Already, about 400 anglers have preregistered for the spring contest, set to begin March 15, said Cindy Bras-Benson, a fisheries specialist with the tribes who manages the tournament. Most people enjoy the tournament, she said, although some, such as commercial guides who rely on large lake trout to attract customers say the tournament has negatively impacted business.

Contestants take home roughly $300,000 between the fall and spring contests. Tagged fish worth up to $10,000 attract people, as do special contests, such as the bucket of fish days. On those days, contestants place their four largest fish in a bucket and the heaviest bucket wins for the day, Bras-Benson said.

But the tournament is only holding the lake trout population steady— and at a number too high to help the bull and westslope cutthroat trout populations expand, Hansen said.

“We’ve got to get bigger. We’ve got to get more,” Hansen said.

Part of that is education of anglers and attracting more to the tournament.

To place well in the tournament, anglers must commit to fishing for the fish, which like deep waters, Bras-Benson said.

“It’s a lot of work, they’re so deep,” she said.

To prevent people from becoming frustrated and to help anglers catch as many lake trout as possible, a DVD has been developed on different methods to catch the fish, she said. That instructional DVD will be handed out this tournament, she added.

Invasive lake trout hurt native trout

Lake trout are not new to Flathead Lake. They are, however, an invasive species, and one who’s population has boomed since the Mysis shrimp came to the lake after being dispersed in three lakes north of here.

The shrimp showed up in in Flathead Lake in 1981 and were intended to be a food source to boost the Kokanee salmon population. However, lake trout ate the shrimp and their population numbers quickly escalated and moved throughout the lake. Lake trout are cannibalistic and tend to control their own population by eating juveniles before they reach maturity. However, the shrimp food source increased the juvenile survival rate. Because lake trout eat other fish and there are more lake trout, other fish populations, including native bull trout and western cutthroat trout, became impacted, Hansen said.

Today, top-predator lake trout continue to be rampant at more than a million, he said.

“So basically, they’re chomping down on these native species,” he said.

Bull trout, which spawn in rivers and return to the lake to grow, have been hit hard by hungry lake trout.

“They’re consuming them pretty much as fast as they’re reproducing,” Hansen said.

Bull and western cutthroat trout impact more than just Flathead Lake because they migrate so far for spawning, he added.

“So it ties the whole watershed together.”

The native trouts also are part of Montana history and are iconic to the state, said Tom McDonald, division manager of Fish, Wildlife, Recreation and Conservation for the tribes.

People today have an obligation to make sure the native trouts endure, said Bras-Benson.

“What do we do, just stand there and watch?” she said.

Regardless of what management alternative is chosen, lake trout are here to stay, Hansen said.

Getting rid of all the lake trout would be too expensive and would ruin the lake trout fishery, he said. At the same time, more lake trout must be harvested to help native species thrive, he added.

Time to use other tools

Others say the tournament has reduced lake trout numbers enough and that it’s time to consider other management options.

Richard Zimmer, owner of Zimmer Tackle in Pablo, suggests ending the tournament and instead using the money to, at least initially, subsidize a commercial fishery, which would create jobs and keep lake trout numbers down.

While calling for its end, Zimmer also praised the tournament for involving a broad range of anglers, including women and children, and for giving fishermen a reason to learn how to fish for lake trout.

“On the plus side, it’s a great family adventure,” said Zimmer, an avid fisherman himself.

However, when he fishes, he’s seeing more bull trout and western cutthroat trout, he said.

Conversely, Zimmer said he’s seeing less lake trout in more shallow depths.

Lake trout are versatile, he said, but prefer to be in deep, cold water and that’s where they were before their population explosion that sent them in search of other food sources and more-shallow water. When the tournament began, fishermen were catching lake trout in 150-200 foot depths, Zimmer said. Now, the lake trout are much more prevalent closer to 250 to more than 300 feet, where he more commonly found them before the population boom.

“So, from our perspective, there are a lot fewer fish out there,” he said about lake trout numbers.

A commercial fishery is an option explored in the environmental impact study, Hansen said, but he warned that commercial fisheries require lots of things other than a boat and rod and reel, including a processor, buyer and consistency of product.

For more information about Mack Days, fisheries management, and for updates on the environmental impact study as well as information on how to comment, go to www.mackdays.com.