2009 How We Dole Out The Money

The biggest question we get is how the daily optional jackpots work and how the money is paid out. "I mean, how do you win?" is a common question, which means, there's total confusion. 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.

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!

Cash/Prize Payouts

The basic team entry fee (teams can consist of up to 4 anglers and 2 crewmen and two guests) is $800, with two days of five optional daily jackpots totaling $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.

Remember, these are optional jackpots. You can enter none, or one, or some of them, or all of them. And each day, the optionals start over -- unless no one brings in a qualifying fish. Then that money will be rolled over to the next day. If no one catches a qualifying fish the second day, it rolls backward to the first day. If no one has a backup fish weighed in, the money is paid back to each jackpot team. In the 11 years, all of these scenarios have occurred, but this past year all qualifying weights were dropped from 40 to 30 pounds. Even so, this past year the Picante Express won both days of the $10,000 optional with a first day fish.

The payback to anglers

There is $400 payback on the $800 entry fee and there's an 80 percent payback on all daily jackpots. Of the total amount available, $400 of the $800 Overall Jackpot entry fee and 20 percent of the optional money goes to Western Outdoors Publications to pay for putting on the event, and paying for all the gifts and dinners. $100 a person doesn't go far when you factor in two dinners (Thursday, Saturday), a hat, a bag, shirt and other gifts.

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:

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.

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

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