PITTSBURGH - The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and the BASS Federation both have something to prove when the 2005 Citgo Bassmaster Classic comes to Pittsburgh next July.

BASS officials - and parent company ESPN - hope to show sponsors that TV ratings and attendance can be boosted by moving the Super Bowl of bass fishing to an urban setting. They're projecting 70,000 people will come to the city for the three-day event.

And the commission hopes the tournament will show the nation that the city's three rivers, the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio, are recovering nicely from decades of industrial pollution.

"Anglers are familiar with the rebirth of those rivers out there, but the general public is not as much. This is something that's really going to serve as a tool to help them realize that those rivers are alive with fish and fishing," said commission biologist Rick Lorson.

Attendance suffered the last time the BASS Federation held the tournament in an urban area - in Chicago on Lake Michigan in 2000. But that was a year before the all-sports cable TV giant bought BASS; created a division, ESPN Outdoors, to focus on such programming; and got Citgo Petroleum Corp. to sponsor the event.

"With Chicago, it's a different world for us than it was then," said Dean Kessel, vice president and general manager of BASS. "But I applaud the thinking that it was a smart move to explore new areas and take it out of your comfort zone - the Southeast (United States)."

"I liken it to how NASCAR grew their sport," Kessel said. "You've got to take your premier events and move them to new markets so people can experience them."

But while the event has grown in popularity under ESPN's watch - the 2003 tournament's viewership was 90 percent higher than in 2001 - Pennsylvania almost slammed shut its window of opportunity to snag the event.

Dennis Tubbs, a BASS member who also serves works for the Fish and Boat Commission, said the commission almost fired him when he suggested bringing the tournament to Pennsylvania several years ago.

"When they thought of bass tournaments, they thought of kill tournaments - like derbies - but we go to great lengths not to kill the fish," Tubbs said.

The 36-year-old BASS organization has championed the catch-and-release format. During the Bassmaster tournament, anglers keep their catch in aerated tanks and the fish are released after they are weighed. Contestants are penalized if fish die.

Now, the commission is working with BASS and will help the group choose the best river pools for competition.

Earlier this month, Lorson, the commission biologist, pulled 40 smallmouth bass from the Allegheny River near Sharpsburg, an unusually large catch given the river's high, muddy condition. Twelve of the fish were at least a foot long - the minimum size required for the tournament - and three were longer than 20 inches.

"I have been working on the rivers for the last 16 years ... and this group rivals any catch that I'd every had on the river in that time," Lorson said.

Gary Gmys, 51, a visitor from Ephrata in eastern Pennsylvania, was fishing on the Monongahela River on Wednesday afternoon. He grew up in Pittsburgh and says the fish are healthier than ever.

"Ever since the steel mills left, they've gotten better," Gmys said. "The fish are a lot cleaner."

Kessel said the tournament will spread that word - rapidly.

"It's a little bit different than NASCAR and stick-and-ball sports. Our members are participatory, they'll fish the same waters as the pros," Kessel said. "They want the knowledge. They're very interested in the hows and whys."