Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 2, 1994                   TAG: 9401020067
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

B.A.S.S. VOTE COSTS ANGLERS A HARD-WORKING LEADER

Peewee Powers, the blue-collar workhorse of the Virginia B.A.S.S. Federation, went to a meeting the other day expecting to be elected president of the organization for the seventh year. Instead, he was ousted by a 7-1 vote of the directors and vice president.

Other people saw it coming more clearly than Powers.

The federation president since 1988, Powers played a major role in luring three BASS Masters Classics, two Wrangler/B.A.S.S. Federation National Championships, four BP Top 100 Tournaments and five BASSMASTER Invitationals to the state in the past six years.

He probably wasn't far off when he estimated the tournaments resulted in a $100 million boost to the state's economy.

Short and stocky, his conversation laced with ain'ts and seens, Powers could maneuver the halls of the General Assembly as aptly as he could position his bass boat on a point. He was on a first-name basis with board members of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, and he was keyed to play a major role in that organization's funding drive.

He was the last to leave any national tournament that came to Virginia, rolling up his sleeves and laboring until the final piece of equipment had been disassembled. Powers wasn't just working, he was learning how the national pros put on a tournament, and he applied the techniques to state events.

"In a volunteer operation you will find very few people who will volunteer labor," he said. "They will volunteer mouth, but they won't volunteer labor. I will give you my mouth, but I also will give you my labor."

Under Powers' leadership, the federation membership rose from 800 to more than 2,000. Tournament purses went from hundreds of dollars to thousands.

But Powers labored most diligently to make the federation more than a tournament club.

"I actually got involved because I saw things going on that I didn't like," Powers said. "Things weren't being done to benefit fishermen, to benefit our sport and certainly not to benefit the environment."

There were cheers when Ray Scott, founder of B.A.S.S., presented Powers the prestigious Federation Man of the Year Award when the Classic went to Birmingham, Ala.

So what went wrong?

Powers puts a figure to his woes: 1777. That's the number of the bill in the 1993 General Assembly that allows the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to collect a $50 fee from anyone holding a bass tournament that involves 25 or more boats.

It was one of those pieces of legislation that snowballs as it rolls through the General Assembly, and Powers was there to suggest amendments he believed would benefit fishermen. The changes made the bill acceptable, he felt. If bass tournaments were going to be regulated, then fishermen should be the ones suggesting how that was to be done, he said.

"If tournaments are held, I think we need to know who the organizer is and what damage is being done," he said.

Powers saw the system as protection for B.A.S.S. When the public perceived something harmful about a tournament, it would be easy to determine whose tournament was at fault. In the past, the blame routinely went to B.A.S.S., he said.

State fish officials value the fee system as an opportunity to gather information for fisheries management.

Powers felt he had the support of the rank and file, but not the directors.

"I not bitter. My disappointment is that my leaders aren't following the wishes of the members," he said. "I know flat out that three of the regions voted against their membership and members in a fourth weren't given a choice."

The new president is Roger Fitchett, a 47-year-old retired interior decorator from Virginia Beach.

"Peewee wasn't voted out, I was voted in," Fitchett said.

Powers worked hard and did a good job, but there was a need for fresh leadership, he said.

Fitchett sees the fee system as being tough on small tournaments. He wants it limited to contests that attract 75 to 100 boats. A couple of directors are working with legislators in an effort to see that happen.