For the third straight time, 17-year-old Stephen Naethe has won the Mack Days fishing tournament on Flathead Lake. The event ended on May 23. Naethe, of Pablo, caught a total of 1,356 fish, hauling in the maximum count of 50 fish per day over his 15 best days out of 32. Steven Benson of Columbia Falls finished just behind Naethe with 1,202 total fish and an average of 49.8 lake trout over his 15 best days.
Naethe, who also won the 2009 spring and fall Mack Days, won the $700 prize for first place and $4,125 in bonus payouts for total fish caught. To better understand how the rules work and how close the race between Naethe and Benson was, check out this Missoulian story.
Following Naethe and Benson were David McDaniels of Polson in third place with 990 fish (47.4 average) and Benson’s brother Michael Benson of Lonepine in fourth with 1,026 (46.1). Nicole Peters of Missoula won the lady anglers’ category with 356 entries, followed by Laurie Randall of St. Ignatius with 264, Debbie O’Hara of St. Ignatius with 211 and Deana Knipe of Polson with 173.
Garett Vaughan of Charlo won the 12 and under category with 252 entries, followed by Tanner Murry of Columbia Falls with 140. In total, a record 34,637 lake trout were entered for the competition by 1,160 anglers.
With 1,160 anglers, for the same kid to yet again win this competition is pretty amazing. Congratulations to Stephen Naethe, your 2010 Mack Days champion. Here’s a story I wrote about Naethe last spring when he was still dominating the youth category but had yet to take over the adults. Since then, nobody in any category has been able to beat him.