If anyone thought professional bass fishing was just a niche sport with few followers, the FLW Tour proved that wrong this week by handing out $1 million to a fan of the tour's fantasy fishing league.

If you add the $1 million given to angler Michael Bennett of Lincoln, near Sacramento, last Sunday for winning the Forrest Wood Cup, the tour's championship, that's $2 million in winnings plus many thousands in cash and prizes given out in a four-day span.

This time, another Michael, Michael Thompson of St. Michael, Minn., a 33-year-old stay-at-home dad, became the latest instant millionaire in bass fishing, and he never got into a bass boat, never had to wet a line to do it. Thompson scored a narrow victory in the FLW Fantasy Fishing competition and earned $1 million. He barely beat James Brown of Lodi, but had enough to win because he picked the other Michael, that being Michael Bennett, to win the Forrest Wood Cup.

“This is unbelievable, I simply can't believe it. It's a dream come true,” said Thompson, who, when he's not taking care of his family is an avid bass fisherman. “I simply started playing FLW Fantasy Fishing because I love fishing and because it was fun. We have a lot of dreams and this will help us make many of them come true.”

One of the first things Thompson said he's going to do is pay off his Ranger Z20 bass boat. Then he plans to buy his wife, Penny, a new car, and following that, there's talk of building a new home on a chunk of land they've dreamed of purchasing for years.

In all, the FLW Fantasy Fishing game paid out, in addition to the $1 million to Thompson, seven checks at $100,000 each.

Irwin Jacobs, the chairman of FLW Outdoors, knew the game would take off when he started it.

“When we started FLW Outdoors,” Jacobs said, “I dreamed about the biggest payday in bass fishing, when the champion of the Forrest Wood Cup could claim the first $1 million prize in bass fishing. Fifteen years later, we achieved my personal goal of awarding $1 million to our Forrest Wood Cup champion, not once, but as of last Sunday, two years in a row.”

In addition to the $1 million each handed to the Forrest Wood Cup champ and the Fantasy Fishing league champ, the Fantasy Fishing league paid out much more in cash and prizes.

James Brown, 26, of Lodi won a new Ranger boat and Yamaha engine package valued at $52,000. Earlier in the season, Brown won a $5,000 Wal-Mart gift card.

All in all, there were 13 other winners in the finals.

Here's the list and what they won:

3rd: Steve Reed, Davis, Chevy Silverado truck, valued at $40,000.

4th: Carl Trussell, Orange, Texas, Ranger Reata boat and Evinrude Engine, valued at $36,000.

5th: Steve Braun, Hartland, Wis., $25,000 Wal-Mart Gift Card.

6th: Tim Potoczny, Gurnee, Ill., $20,000 U.S. Savings Bond.

7th: Jim Stallard, Wilmington, N.C., $20,000 BP Gas Card.

8th: Dixie Canterbury, Odenville, Ala., $15,000 Wal-Mart Gift Card.

9th: Jeff Nelson, New Brighton, Minn., $10,000 Wal-Mart Gift Card.

10th: Madge Austin, Elmhurst, Pa., $10,000 Wal-Mart Gift Card.

11th: Peyote Perryman, Raleigh, N.C., $10,000 Wal-Mart Gift Card.

12th: Gary McMullin, Overland Park, Kan., $10,000 Wal-Mart Gift Card.

13th: Ron James, Oshawa, Ontario, $8,000 U.S. Bank Cashier's Check.

14th: Brent Meyer, Crawfordville, Fla., Yahama Grizzly 450 Hunter All-Terrain Vehicle, valued at $8,000.

15th: Ken Sessions, Pace, Fla., Can-Am Outlander 400 All-Terrain Vehicle, valued at $8,000.
Speed Records: As expected, Scott Williamson and Tattoo Joe Kisner set a record for a Pacific Crest Trail hike without a support team by finishing it in 71 days, 2 hours, 41 minutes. They beat Joe's 2007 record of 79 days, 21 hours, 42 minutes by 8 days, 19 hours, 1 minute. Reinhold Metzger of Point Loma, who once held the speed mark on the John Muir Trail, reported that they departed Campo on a hot, sunny day, on June 8, at 12:45 p.m. and arrived at Manning Park, Canada on a rainy day on Aug. 18, at 3:26 p.m. Tattoo Joe lost about 50 pounds, but Williamson didn't lose much at all. They celebrated with a big dinner in Seattle before parting company. A friend who picked them up at the Canada-U.S. border said they stopped at every restaurant along the way.

“Seventy-one days in the wilderness, without a stove, cranking 40 miles a day, amazing, truly amazing,” Metzger wrote in a e-mail. “They are truly two of America's premier backpackers.”

And this just in: In early August, Michael Popov reportedly broke Metzger's unsupported hiking record on the John Muir Trail by completing it in 4 days, 5 hours, 25 minutes.