For the third year in a row, the Ratman of Baltimore grabbed his fishing rod and stepped out of the Yellow Rose Saloon into the camera lights and played pied piper to a throng of reporters, gawkers and animal rights activists, leading them down a dark alley where wafts of urine mixed with the smell of sizzling fried chicken.

Even before Chuck Ochlech, the self-proclaimed 45-year-old Ratman, cast his peanut butter-baited glue trap, he had his catch: publicity. As creator and master of ceremonies of the Third Annual Ratfishing Tournament, Mr. Ochlech was not just after vermin, which are caught on glue pads, reeled in and beaten to death with bats. He was bent on drawing attention to the erosion of his East Baltimore neighborhood: the rats, the trash, the flagrant drug dealing and the overall neglect.

"It's not one of the best neighborhoods in the world, but we got to live here, and we're doing what we can," Mr. Ochlech said.

The Baltimore Association of Rat Fisherpersons, which meets at the Yellow Rose, sells "rat fishing licenses" for $3 each. Any profits from the event are donated to charities. The winner of the two-day annual contest is the person who lands the heftiest rodent. This year the winning entry weighed 1 pound 7 1/2 ounces. In all, seven rats were killed, but three of them were brought in too late for the judging.