What a difference a year and a half made at Missouri's Table Rock Lake.
Nine of the anglers who made the Top 12 at the recent Table Rock Bassmaster Elite Series also competed in the event that concluded the Bassmaster regular season there in the spring of 2005. Their average finish then was 71st place.
Edwin Evers (pictured at right) made the biggest turnaround – from 111th to 2nd. He couldn't possibly have duplicated his '05 finish since there were only 101 pro anglers in the field this time (there were 141 last year). The same goes for local favorite Brian Snowden, who was 9th this time but 106th last year.
Todd Faircloth, this year's winner, was 79th in '05. Kevin Short, who finished 3rd, was 48th last year. Skeet Reese went from 70th to 10th, John Murray went from 91st to 11th and Shaw Grigsby went from 68th to 12th.
Ish Monroe (7th this year) and Tommy Biffle (8th) were the only Top 12 finishers who had decent showings in '05 – they finished 32nd and 33rd, respectively.
There were eight members of the '05 Top 12 who fished at Table Rock this year, and their average place was 50th. Here's a rundown of those anglers:
Greg Hackney (1st to 32nd), Aaron Martens (2nd to 14th), Brent Chapman (3rd to 62nd), Kevin VanDam (4th to 13th), Jeff Reynolds (5th to 70th), Pete Ponds (6th to 86th), Tim Horton (8th to 88th) and Dave Wolak (10th to 38th).
Andre Moore, Stacey King, Jay Yelas and Dion Hibdon also made the Top 12 in '05, but they were FLW-only pros this year.
This year's Top 12 included tour-level rookies Bill Lowen (4th) and Jon Bondy (5th), along with William Smith Jr. (6th), a former FLW pro who fished the Bassmaster's top tour for the first time.
