2008 How We Dole Out The Money

Indeed, it can look a little confusing at first, so for those who are not familiar with jackpot tournaments with optional daily payouts, here's a quick primer.

Cash/Prize Payouts

The basic team entry fee (teams can consist of up to 4 anglers and 2 crewmen) is $700, with two days of five optional daily jackpots totalling $500, $1,000, $2,000 and $3,000, and $5,000 and new this year, $10,000. Plus there's the wahoo/dorado optional jackpot of $1,000 introduced last year that paid out over $70,000!

Remember, these are optional jackpots. You can enter none, or one, or some of them, or all of them.

The payback to anglers

There is $400 payback on the $700 entry fee and there's an 80 percent payback on all daily jackpots. Of the total amount available, $300 of the $700 Overall Jackpot entry fee and 20 percent of the optional money goes to Western Outdoors Publications. What exactly can you win? It all depends, of course, on the number of teams and how many paid into the optional jackpots. This is how it breaks down:

TEAM KATUISHA caught a 189-0 yellowfin to win Overall Big Tuna money, plus took the Day 1 jackpots of $500, $1,000 and $2,000 jackpots. The team was made up of John Schue, Robert Mclntyre, Eligio Baron. Their total winnings: $126,360!

The team/captain that catches the biggest tuna over two days wins 85 percent of the total cash available in the overall pool among all teams. If 200 teams enter at $700 that cash total will be $80,000. That's $400 X 200 teams = $80,000.

The team/captain that catches the second largest tuna wins 10 percent of the Overall Jackpot cash. Third biggest tuna over two days wins 5 percent.

Now we go to the optionals. It's where the bigger money is won. Each day is a new day to win. The biggest tuna caught wins in each pool.

In optional jackpots, the winning team takes all cash in the pot that day. There's two days of optionals. If the boat has been chartered, the charter captain will be paid out 10 percent of the winnings. And if you don't win cash, there's the $150,000 in prizes given away in free drawings, plus the giveaways for each team when they sign in.

Remember, you are subject to Mexican income taxes, which will be deducted from your team's total amount. If you bring the money into the U.S. you must declare it on your taxes.

Last year there were 125 teams and 469 anglers with SEVEN teams splitting $519,200 in cash payouts, plus prizes estimated value at $200,000 for a total of $675,000 cash/prizes. Five fish were weighed in over 100 pounds.

Look on the website at www.loscabostunajackpot.com for the new dates, rules and signup sheets.