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One angler who stuck around Pittsburgh after the recent practice week ended for this month's CITGO Bassmasters Classic was Gerry Jooste. Going home is just too far.

Jooste, 47, lives in Harare, Zimbabwe. He is the only angler living abroad to have qualified for the Classic, having done so in the Federation national championship in April at Disney World.

Four other Federation, or club, anglers who led their regional divisions also qualified for the Classic, including Ed Cowan of Greeley, Pa. Cowan won his second national title in 15 years. Just five Federation anglers are selected to fish in the Classic against 40 or more pros. A club competitor has won a Classic just once in its 35 year history. That was Bryan Kerchal in 1994.

Still, Jooste is not deterred.

"A Federation guy's going to win it again," he said. "It's time."

This year's $700,000 Classic, launching July 29 from Point State Park, will be Jooste's fourth. It represents not just another fishing milestone but a personal one, too, since he spent much of 2002 in a wheelchair recovering from a devastating automobile accident.

"I fished as soon as I could, even out of my wheelchair," said Jooste. "It made me even more determined."

A boat manufacturer, Jooste belongs to the Renegades, one of several Federation-affiliated clubs in Zimbabwe and neighboring South Africa. There are no natural lakes, only impoundments, in Zimbabwe. But since the importation of Florida largemouth in 1981, bass angling has spiraled in popularity. The other popular gamefish Zimbabweans have to target are tiger fish, Jooste said.

"They're big and beautifully shaped and known for their teeth, which is how they got their name," he said. "Fly fishermen like them. Other than that, bass are pretty much it."

As panfish go, there are many types of tilapia, which make up the forage base in Zimbabwe's many lakes, and are exported as table fare to America and other countries. There's also a catfish-like species called vundu, Jooste said, that can grow to 135 pounds.

Until Ray Scott, the founder of BASS, shipped Florida lunkers to the African nation, the big bass record was 7 pounds. The infusion of the Florida largemouth, though, changed everything.

"That early record kept getting broken. It now stands at 18 1/2 pounds," Jooste said. It was boated on Jooste's home water, Lake Darwendale, on a Senko worm a year ago this month, and hangs in a local tackle shop.

Jooste said his best catch was the five-fish, 42-pound total he weighed two days in a row on Lake Mteri in Zimbabwe.

The BASS record for heaviest largemouth catch belongs to Dean Rojas, of Lake Saline, Texas, and a current Classic competitor, who landed five largemouth totaling 45 pounds, 2 ounces on Lake Tohopekaliga in Florida four years ago.

Smallmouth are another story. Zimbabwe's only river, the Zambezi, although clean, contains no smallmouth bass, and neither do Zimbabwe's many impoundments. But he is optimistic about the river fishing here for the Classic later this month.

"I did a lot of reading about river fishing before I came here," said Jooste, who said the low clear conditions of recent weeks in the area worked to his advantage. "I'm happy with the way my practice went. My best day was 10, 11 pounds. My worst was three."

On the last day, he said, he went into Pittsburgh to see how boat traffic looked, and ended up doing well in the urban pool.

"I think it will be a mental strength that wins the Classic," he said. "Some anglers have probably already lost this tournament because they think there are no fish here. It's a good way for me to get my confidence up.

"What will hurt me," said Jooste, "is if water flow and intensity increase. Low water I understand, but I'm not used to swifter current. I'm not sure I'll know how to handle it."

Better flow is what other Classic competitors, such as Ish Monroe of Modesto, Calif., are hoping for.

"I'd like to see a big rain come in and fire these fish up," Monroe said. "Give me two more feet of water two weeks before we come back here and I'll be fine."

Though 24-time Classic veteran George Cochran of Little Rock, Ark., said he was getting small numbers and sizes of fish, the best one-day weights were about 11 pounds, which Kevin Wirth of Crestwood, Ky., and 2003 Classic champ Mike Iaconelli, reported. Wirth also caught a 4 1/2 pound smallmouth that surprised even him.

"It might be the only lunker in the rivers," Wirth said. Eleven-plus pounds was the winning weight, and by far the biggest, in last weekend's Three Rivers Regatta tournament, and the lunker was a 4 1/2 pound smallmouth.

Jooste attended the tournament, since he is staying close to Pittsburgh. He's not allowed to seek advice from locals or go out onto the water until July 27, which is a final practice day for the Classic. But he is free to seek information from the Internet and other public sources. That is easier to access here in the states, he said, than in Zimbabwe, where the country's economic problems and political unrest make communication unreliable.

A good friend in Springfield, Mo., helped him borrow a boat for the recent practice week, and he has a rented a car so he and his wife can visit friends. He also plans to do more exploring here in Pittsburgh.

"Everyone said it's a steel industry town so I thought it would be black and murky but it's been the opposite," Jooste said. "And the people have been absolutely wonderful."

The only thing he isn't used to, he said, is the attention that BASS anglers receive in America, especially on the water.

"In Zimbabe, we don't have celebrities," he said. "We respect people who do well at things, but we're in the bush, we're farmers and hunters. We've never produced an actor or entertainer, although (golfer) Nick Price comes from Zimbabwe. But if Nick Price were to come back and go to a shopping center, nobody would ask for his autograph."