The fact that you can win a million dollars fishing is hard to believe. The fact that you can win a million dollars guessing who will win fishing tournaments is downright crazy.

But it is true.

FLW Outdoors' Forrest Wood Cup, the year's final, championship bass tournament, will be in town Thursday through Sunday along with its record-setting fantasy fishing competition.

FLW debuted its fantasy fishing in 2008. Bassmaster, an older tournament fishing organization, began its fantasy fishing in 2003 but has smaller prizes.

FLW Outdoors chairman Irwin L. Jacobs wanted to make his game the biggest and the best, and to do that he offered prizes unmatched by any other fantasy sports contest, including fantasy football: $7.3 million in overall prizes, $100,000 to the top player at the seven FLW tour stops and a one million dollar prize to the top overall player for the year.

"The prizes are very significant and that was the attraction from the get-go," Jeff McCoy, FLW's public relations director, said. "There are tons of significant prizes."

The game is simple and does not require you to move from your computer. Before each tournament, players pick from about 150 anglers and guess which will finish in the top 10. Players accumulate points for how accurate their selections are, and the player with the most points at the end of the tournament wins $100,000. The leader at the end of the season wins the million, which is paid out in $100,000 installments over 10 years.

In its first year, players from 123 countries participated. There is no fee to sign up. This year, McCoy said there was an increase in the number of players, and he speculated the record-setting prize had something to do with the jump.

"The large prize is a major factor," McCoy said. "A lot of people who played it last year spread the word by creating leagues. People have them at work and with their families."

You do not have to fish to sign up, and FLW does not have statistics on the breakdown between anglers and non-anglers. Donna Stalnaker, a 45-year-old grandmother from Kent, Ohio, won the $100,000 prize from last year's Forrest Wood Cup. Stalnaker has never caught a bass.

Robert Davis' story is similar. A 52-year-old flooring installer from Branson, Mo., he won the $100,000 prize from the Kentucky/Barkley Lakes tournament the June 11 weekend. He signed up earlier in the season at a tournament he and his wife were attending with free tickets they received from a former co-worker. Davis used the FLW Fantasy Fishing Quick Pick, in which FLW Fantasy Fishing automatically picks 10 pros on a player's behalf. Davis never changed his team and had all but forgotten about it until he got a call saying he had won.

"This is unbelievable. I don't really know anything about professional bass fishing, and this is the first time I've ever played a fantasy sports game," Davis said in a written statement.

Stalnaker and Davis may have won based on luck alone, but Michael Thompson, last year's million dollar winner, put more thought and effort into his picks. Thompson, an avid bass fisher, subscribed to an online tip service, Player's Advantage, offered by FLW Fantasy Fishing that provides players with statistics and expert advice. The service costs $10, which is nothing compared to Thompson's overall winnings, which he put toward a new house in St. Michael, Minn.

"I don't think you could win it without it," Thompson said. "It gives you angler information on how they do on particular lakes and stuff like that."

FLW's Fantasy fishing is making life different for the pro anglers too. Dave Lefebre, an angler on the FLW tour from Union City, Pa., is a seven-year veteran and has noticed more people at tournaments this year. He thinks it's great publicity for the sport and that it's the right time to try to get pro fishing to jump into the mainstream sporting world.

He does note, however, that it is somewhat mind boggling that someone at home can make more money by correctly guessing the results than the competitors who catch the fish. Lefebre has earned $1,042,558 in more than 100 tournaments -- Thompson earned almost that much in one year without competing in an event.

"Yeah, that's a lot of money," Lefebre said with a laugh. "We are struggling to try to make that much money as fishermen. Fishing is a lot of hard work. They just sit on their couch and earn as much as we do. It's kind of hard to believe.

"It has brought attention to our sport, it's helping it grow and it has brought a lot of awareness. It seems to be working."