This time last year, the CITGO Bassmaster pros were preparing to sweat through one of their toughest Classics on Western Pennsylvania rivers.

Their practice week at the end of June would give them a preview of the tough fishing they would face on the Allegheny, Monongahela, Ohio and Beaver rivers a month later, when the winning three-day weight was under 13 pounds and a 2-pound bass was considered a lunker.

"Too bad those guys aren't here this year. They'd see an altogether different fishery," said Don Wagner of Shaler and tournament director of the Keystone Bass Buddy Circuit, the largest buddy tournament organization in Pennsylvania.

"It's just awesome ... phenomenal ... the best the river's been since I moved here from North Carolina seven years ago," agreed Monte Misplay of Waynesburg and the tournament director of PA BASS Federation Nation Region 1, which includes about 25 clubs. His group held its state team championship on the Monongahela's Ten Mile pool this weekend, and will host the Three Rivers Regatta tournament out of Pittsburgh's South Side launch Saturday.

"Most years, you can catch 25, 30 fish and that's a good day. I've been going down to the Mon after work and catching almost that many in three hours," Misplay said.

Anglers on the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio report high catch rates of quality bass. "The other day on the Allegheny, I had four or five bass in the 2-pound range on back-to-back casts," Wagner said. "All we were doing was running the shoreline. Most of them were smallmouths, but I had three spots, and they were big chunky fish. You got to wonder. Where'd these fish come from?"

They were the 13- and 14-inch bass that stayed deep in last summer's record high water temperatures, according to Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission biologist Rick Lorson, who didn't get many big bass, either, in his post-Classic electro-fishing at Tarentum and Freeport on the Allegheny.

"A 13- or 14-inch bass has enough reserves to go without food for a while. Younger fish need to forage more, which is why the pros were getting the smaller bass in really tough conditions," he said.

Lorson said the same fish survived this past winter because of balmy temperatures and a bounty of baitfish. "We didn't have the mortality from starvation and other factors associated with ice-over winter," he said.

With bass season just a week old, fish are in a heavy post-spawn feeding mode and not especially picky about angler offerings.

"Anywhere you see bait fish, you'll see bass. And they'll take just about anything right now," Wagner said. "I don't fish a lot of crankbaits but we caught them on crankbaits the other day. They're biting spinnerbaits, topwaters, tubes, flukes. You just fish something 'til it runs out, then move on to something else."

Although the bite is bound to taper off when water surpasses 80 degrees, if flow is good, big fish might remain more active.

"You'll see them feeding more, and coming shallower to feed, although it probably won't be like it is right now, because fish scatter and go deeper in the peak of summer," Lorson said.

"The warmer it gets, the deeper they go," Misplay said. "They get finicky, so you've got to finesse them. Mornings and evenings, the bigger fish will feed in shallow water, although if they have to feed deep, they may never move up."

Creek mouths and the water below locks are productive areas in summer, he said. "The locks is where the 11-pound stringer from last year's Regatta tournament came from. Fish will also turn on when a barge locks through. The water will start moving, and they'll start feeding. It's a good time to catch them."

Anglers can expect competition from big numbers of baitfish. Low steady water levels the past two springs made for an excellent spawn of emerald shiners and gizzard shad -- the main forage in all three rivers.

"There are two good year classes of baitfish in the rivers," Lorson said.

There are also plenty of crayfish in the Mon, according to Larry Freeman, president of the Greene County Bassmasters and a member of his club team that competed in this weekend's championship.

Practice fishing last week for the championship, Greene averaged five fish a day of more than 11 pounds, catching them in six to eight feet of water near the Route 21 Bridge on tubes and Senko worms in green pumpkinseed, and pearl white flukes.

"First thing in the morning, I'd fish a fluke or a Pop-R, then go to a Senko or a tube or a Chatterbait," he said. Chatterbaits are jigs with blades that cause a wobbling action.

"Soft plastic is the thing to do right now, but, later this summer, I'll Carolina-rig a lot to get down deep," Greene said. "I try to hit the mouths of the creeks -- they're very productive in summer -- or fish deep, in 12 to 14 feet."

The Mon has more structure than people think, Greene said. "There's ledges, drop-offs, and humps. I found some of my fish [last week] off weedbeds. Weeds are coming up and shiners are swimming above them."