What if players in a pick-up football game at Schenley Park had a shot at advancing to the Super Bowl?

In professional bass fishing, it's just that cool.

Next Sunday, the rock stars of the bass pro world will make their final casts into Lake Champlain in New York in the last semifinal event leading to the Forrest Wood Cup, the world's highest-paying bass tournament, which will be held in Pittsburgh July 30-Aug. 2. They'll compete against hopeful semi-pros and weekend anglers who have advanced through parallel circuits for the chance to cast for the biggest paycheck in competitive fishing.

First prize in the 2009 Forrest Wood Cup is $1 million. Runners-up from second to 77th place split another million.

Getting to Pittsburgh is more than a day at the lake. Some 50,000 anglers from across the United States entered five parallel circuits leading to the final, but only 77 will make it to the Three Rivers.

"The idea is, we want to cover all of bass fishing," said Charlie Evans, one of the founders of FLW Outdoors, the organization behind the Forrest Wood Cup. "This is the crown jewel of the sport of fishing. Here, everybody who competes has a chance."

In 2005, Pittsburgh hosted the CITGO Bassmaster Classic, a nationally televised event marked by low water, small fish, an exciting conclusion and the spectacle of winner Kevin Van Dam of Kalamazoo, Mich., hoisting his trophy for the cameras.

An estimated 100,000 spectators lined the rivers that week to watch. Millions more saw spectacular views of a clean, thriving Pittsburgh in ESPN coverage, and city and state government considered it a victory with regional economic impact in excess of $40 million.

Before the TV trucks had pulled out of town, Bassmaster and its high-spending rival FLW Outdoors were talking about doing it again.

Mr. Evans equates the two competing bass fishing organizations to the National Football League and the upstart American Football League in the 1960s before the NFL merger in 1970.

"Someday, hopefully, we'll come together for a Super Bowl of bass fishing," he said. "I think it's inevitable."

Organizers at both companies said they hope their contests will help to increase participation in fishing, but Bassmaster and FLW approach tournament angling with different business plans. And there's no doubt it is big business.

Established in 1967, Montgomery, Ala.-based B.A.S.S. Inc. is a fishing club with about 600,000 members and nearly 3,000 chapters in 47 states and five countries. It publishes the national magazine Bassmaster, operates several pro angling circuits and has interests in television distribution and the Internet.

ESPN purchased the B.A.S.S. empire in 2001. At the recent 2009 Bassmaster Classic in February on the Red River in Louisiana, winner Skeet Reese of California pocketed $500,000.

That's half the top prize offered at the Forrest Wood Cup.

FLW Outdoors, of Gilbertsville, Ky., was founded in 1979 as Operation Bass. In 1996 it was purchased by entrepreneur Irwin Jacobs, board chairman of Genmar Holdings, the manufacturer of Ranger Boats. FLW's Forrest Wood Cup, named for Ranger founder Forrest L. Wood, is sponsored by Wal-Mart.

Mr. Evans said Ranger's association with the high-profile fishing series has paid off. Before the Forrest Wood Cup, Ranger made 14 percent of the bass boats sold in America. It now claims 50 percent of the market.

Rules differ slightly in Bassmaster and FLW competition, but both finals are fed by several parallel circuits. Entry to the pro fields requires previous tournament victories and hefty entry fees, but weekend anglers and regional fishing club members can get in by winning local fishing contests and working their way up to the final.

"I think they're trying to give everybody a chance," said Dave Lefebre, 38, of Union City, Erie County, who placed second and won $100,000 in last year's Forrest Wood Cup held on Lake Murray in South Carolina.

Mr. Lefebre was a musician playing up and down the East Coast before entering his first fishing tournament on Pymatuning Lake in 1991. He got involved in the FLW circuits as an amateur and fished for two years to rise to his current level.

"This is a dream-come-true lifestyle and a lot of people want to take a crack at it," he said. "They've been dreaming about it since they were little boys. In other sports, when you're starting out, you really can't compete with the big guys. But in our sport, local guys get a chance to get in and fish" against top winners.

Now that he's a contender, Mr. Lefebre said he considers the newcomers as competition.

"Some of the younger guys getting in are good," he said. "They deserve to be there; I guess it's good. If I were on the outside getting in, I'd think it's good."

The winners of five parallel circuits converge at the Forrest Wood Cup. Thirty-seven of 77 finalists have already been determined:

• Independent "weekend anglers" will be represented by one finalist from open competitions in 28 divisions of the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League.

• One finalist will represent The Bass Federation championship, which is fed from 20,000 anglers from local fishing clubs in every state.

• Five anglers were chosen from the semi-pro Stren Series.

• Thirty bass pros from East and West divisions came from the FLW Series.

• Mr. Lefebre is among top pros who will compete Thursday through next Sunday at Lake Champlain in the last semifinal event of the FLW Tour. The 40 finalists there will qualify to advance to Pittsburgh.

The Forrest Wood Cup will bring a four-day spectacle of high-power bass boats tearing out of the North Shore's Steelers Quay marina and speeding up and down the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers.

The event includes two other tournaments: a two-day national juniors championship and a "co-angler" contest among nonprofessionals seated in each boat with the Forrest Wood Cup competitors.

Also expect rock-show stage production at daily 5 p.m. weigh-ins at Mellon Arena, and family-oriented concessions, boat-simulator rides and an outdoors merchandise show at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.