Pittsburgh knows its fair share about sports. But the City of Champions, with its life-long sports fans, may not know as much about fishing.

The city has seen a few major angling tournaments in its waters over the past few years, including this weekend's $2 million Forrest L. Wood Cup bass fishing tournament. But angling's history in Pittsburgh is not as long and developed as, say, football, baseball and hockey. So what should Pittsburghers know about fishing and its loyal supporters?

Fishing is a communal sport, a sport that kids grow up with and, once they're adults, teach their young ones. Seven-year fisherwoman and angling fan Kyong Kim, 31, of West Friendship, Md., became interested in fishing after she met her husband, 36-year-old tournament angler Moo Bae. They now bring their girls along on fishing trips in Maryland. Four-year-old Mabi and 3-year-old Lily have been fishing since they were 2.

And fishing is by no means an easy sport -- even for the fans.

For this tournament, the anglers start fishing at 7 a.m. and stay out until the late afternoon. They move constantly to find the best spots for the largest fish.

Trailing these players is difficult for the audience, especially in rainy conditions, like those forecast for this weekend. In general, fans come to the end-of-day event of tournaments, the weigh-in, to determine how large and heavy the catch was, and they watch favorite players throughout the day on TV or online.

But for devoted spectators, trailing and watching the famous bass anglers -- such as Kevin VanDam, who was named the ESPN Outdoor Sportsman of the Year in 2002 and has won many fishing awards unknown to most Pittsburghers -- requires binoculars and a boat.

There are no laid-out rules for the hard-core fishing fans to follow. But there is an unspoken code of conduct:

Stay at least 100 feet away from the tournament players, preferably 150. Be polite and applaud when the player finds a keeper -- the fish that are large and fat and will help the angler at the weigh-in. Use steady and relatively quiet motors, so that the fish do not flee in terror.

And holy mackerel, do not fish during the event.

Roger Bonifield, 60, of Penn Hills, remembered a boat spectator in Pittsburgh about four years ago catching a 2-pounder (which is skimpy in many lakes but pretty good in these parts, anglers said) and waving it at the tournament players.

"And I thought, 'He's a jerk,' " Mr. Bonifield said at the tournament's Family Fun Zone in David L. Lawrence Convention Center yesterday, before he scurried off to see the various events on site.

At the event, tables were set up by fishing organizations, Walmart, the Boy Scouts of America and the National Guard. The event was dominated by things piscatorial.

• Fish tanks.

• Fish bait: PowerBait, Red Eye Shad, Sexy Swimmer, Bass Magic and Shadalicious.

• Fish video games, on Xbox, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii.

• Fish samples, fried with spices.

• And fishing: Kids and parents alike flocked to a tank on the northwest side of the convention center.

As her 5-year-old son, Connor, fished at the tank, Connie Garbade, 41, of Steubenville, Ohio, said her husband is a fishing fan who has nurtured Connor and 15-year-old Brittany to love it, too. (Meanwhile, Connor caught a fish in three minutes.)

"My son loves it," Ms. Garbade said of the family event. "My daughter's a little bored."

She said she brought Connor to help him realize that fishing is popular around the nation. He thought it was just something "that Uncle Bob did, and dad sometimes," she said.

But now he is even more hooked. Connor ran by, jumping in joy and screaming "Come daddy! Come on!" as he went to another booth.

Has he ever been excited like this for anything else? "Yeah," Ms. Garbade said. "For the Pirates."

The event lasted throughout the afternoon, but as the hours went by and the weigh-in drew closer, dozens of fans took a trolley up to Mellon Arena to the main event of the night.

By 5 p.m., the fans, more than 500 of them, attentively watched the arena stage. Amid colorful motorboats, the top 40 fishermen of the tournament came up to the stage one by one. The more famous ones -- the ones with winnings in the millions of dollars -- received a smattering of applause.

But the audience members seemed more attentive to the item in the center of the stage: the scale, where tournament officials placed bags full of bass to weigh.

For the fans, after all, it is all about the fish.