The annual Allegheny River Bass Classic fishing tournament is scheduled for Sunday on the Allegheny River, launching out of Franklin, Pa., after boat check at 6:30 am.

The creel limit is four bass, at least 15 inches. Cash prizes will be based on the number of two-person team entries. A Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission survey in late August revealed the best smallmouth bass on record in the Allegheny between President and East Brady, with a catch rate of more than 111 fish per hour.

In 2005, 86 bass were caught per hour. The survey also set a record for the largest number of smallmouths more than 15 inches released. For more, e-mail tkresinski@oilregion.org or call 800-483-6264, ext. 110.

New York steelheads

Fishing guide Rich Zoog of Orchard View Angling will speak about steelhead fishing on New York's Cattaraugus River at the Penn's Woods West Trout Unlimited monthly meeting at 7 p.m. tomorrow at the Brentwood VFW on Route 51. Meetings are free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.pwwtu.org

Tyer featured

Fly tier Don Bastian, whose work is pictured in top angling magazines, will focus on central Pennsylvania's mountain free-stone streams as the featured speaker at Tri County Trout Club's monthly meeting Wednesday at Burrell Lake Community Park's Fisher Hall in Lower Burrell. The doors open at 7 p.m. and non-members over 12 years or age pay $5. For more, call Don Stanko at 724-337-1496.

More trout talk

Steelhead guide Jim Jankovic will cover brown trout fishing in western New York at the Chestnut Ridge Trout Unlimited meeting 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Knights of Columbus in Uniontown. For more, visit WWW.CRTU.org

Clean sweep

The Lake Erie shoreline and streams -- plagued this year by E-Coli bacteria -- recently yielded 7,700 pounds of trash in a three-hour sweep involving 584 volunteers. The Pennsylvania-Lake Erie International Coastal Cleanup picked up cigarette butts, food wrappers, plastic bottles, tires and other debris as well as a litter of kittens, an abandoned car and a message in a bottle at the Erie Bluffs.

Grim statistics

The recent boating accident in which two men died on the Ohio River brings to 24 the number of boating fatalities the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission has recorded this year, indicating it is twice the 10 year average.