4 minute read
FLATHEAD LAKE // Area Intro & Highlights
This shimmering gem is the largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi, with almost 200 square miles of water and a 185-mile shoreline. The growing communities of Lakeside and Somers sit on the northwest shore of the lake; Polson, the commercial hub for the east shore’s cherry industry, anchors its southern tip.
Before any of these towns existed, untold generations of Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d’Oreille People traveled around Flathead Lake, camping its shores and fishing its prolific waters. The Kootenai even designed “sturgeonnosed” canoes, with the ends flared into underwater snouts, to better handle the sometimes-turbulent lake waters. Today, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes work with Montana agencies to manage and preserve the health of the lake, ensuring that countless future generations can continue to camp, fish, boat, and live on this beautiful body of water.
FLATHEAD LAKE
LAKESIDE
POLSON BIGFORK
FLATHEAD LAKE
The Fish Are Biting
Flathead Lake’s Mack Days Tournament
In a misguided attempt to improve kokanee salmon stocks in the Flathead watershed in the late 1960s, biologists introduced mysis shrimp, not realizing the shrimp would actually compete with the salmon for food. Another introduced species, lake trout, turned out to have a taste for both the shrimp and young salmon. The lake trout population exploded, edging out other native fish, including bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout. It’s estimated that over 1.6 million lake trout now prowl the waters of Flathead Lake.
Through this problem comes opportunity, in the form of the biannual Mack Days. Sponsored by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, the multi-week fishing tournament held each fall and spring offers big prize money to dedicated anglers. Lake trout can grow to monster sizes, often reaching 15 to 20 pounds or more, which makes for some really fun fishing. The lunkers tend to hide in the deepest parts of the lake, but you don’t have to own your own downriggers to have a shot at hooking a tremendous trout: local fishing charters know the best spots and tricks for reeling in a big one. For more information on Mack Days, visit www.mackdays.com
Hold Your Horses
Exploring Wild Horse Island
The largest island in Flathead Lake, Wild Horse Island, is home to song-birds, waterfowl, raptors, eagles, mule deer, bighorn sheep and, as its name suggests, wild horses. Early explorers originally heard stories of the local SalishKootenai People pasturing horses on the island to keep them safe from raids, though the handful that now live there are mustangs imported from wild herds in Utah. Because hunting is prohibited and the animals are accustomed to people, you might see an exceptionally large mule deer or get a close look at a bighorn ram as you hike. And it’s still good to be bear-aware: occasionally, a bear will swim out to the island for the apples and pears, remnants of orchards planted during the island’s homesteading era.
Except for a few private parcels, the 2,164-acre island is a state park, open to all for day use but accessible only by boat. Skeeko Bay, the most protected cove, is about a 90-minute paddle from Dayton, though you can land a boat almost anywhere around the island. Companies out of Somers, Lakeside, and Big Arm offer motor and human-powered boat rentals and guided trips to Wild Horse Island.
Welcome, Friends
Great ideas for guest houses
“Guest houses are an opportunity to tie in seamlessly to the architecture of the home, or to do something totally whimsical and fun that you wouldn’t do on your own home, but that you’re dying to do somewhere,” says Dave Radatti, co-owner of Mindful Designs, a Whitefish-based custom home builder.
An example of that might be a mountain modern home with a guest house that’s an updated take on a red barn, but still looks like a structure that could have been on the property for decades. Radatti’s partner Jason Pohlman says that another option, one which works especially well on lake properties, is building a larger guest house that serves as the main entertainment and hangout space for the property, then making the owner’s living quarters smaller and more private.
Owners might also consider creative ways to join the guest house to the main home, something that defines the separate spaces but also connects them. These can range from a simple covered patio breezeway to a small orchard or greenhouse, depending on the interests and personality of the homeowner. No matter what style you choose, though, the best thing about a guest house is the friends and family who fill it.
