There were many positives that Brian Snowden could take from his 2005 season. He posted his best-ever finish in the Bassmaster Tour points (27th), qualified for two Bassmaster Classics (2005-06) and gained a berth in the Cabela's Top Gun Championship, where he finished 8th.

The lowest point – in his estimation, anyway – would be impossible to identify with a glance at his tournament record. He was 2nd to Kevin VanDam at the Lewisville Bassmaster Elite 50, and he's haunted by the fact that he didn't catch one more fish on the final day to make that event his first tour-level win.



"I'm a little disappointed with that," the 33-year-old Missouri angler said. "I really need a win to boost my career and I tried so hard, but I came up one fish short."

Snowden weighed in only six fish over the final 2 days (four on day 3 and two on day 4) for a 17-00 total. VanDam caught limits both days and finished with 18-12.

"I really felt like I fished well," he said "I lost one fish, and I know Kevin lost one. He won because he made the right adjustments with a spinnerbait. I was catching quality fish, but I just wasn't getting enough bites."

He worked standing timber and caught his fish on jigs and crankbaits.

"My strategy was to make my fish count. I knew I'd get less bites, but they'd be bigger size. If I'd gotten one more 3- to 4-pound bite, I would have had it. I just never got that other bite, and my big problem was I didn't know what to do to generate more bites."

Tough Time at Classic

Snowden's appearance at the 2005 Classic (Pittsburgh) was the 2nd of his career. From a fishing standpoint, it won't elicit many fond memories as the years go by.

He caught quite a few fish, but not a single keeper. "I'd caught a few in practice and I thought I had a couple of places where I could go during the event, but all I could catch was short fish," he said. "I probably caught 18 to 20 fish, but not one of them would measure. I got plenty of bites, but there was just no size."

He fished the same bridge pilings that winner VanDam and runner-up Aaron Martens worked, so his gameplan was sound. The execution might have been a little bit off.

He probed the bottom with a finesse worm attached to a lead-head. "At about 1:30 (on day 2), I switched to swimming a grub along the pilings and I lost two keepers," he said. "That opened my eyes to what I'd missed — the fish were suspended instead of on the bottom. Unfortunately, I was a little too late in figuring that out.

"The good part about it was I know I wasn't doing anything wrong. I was fishing the same type of structure as the guys who did well."

Better Times Ahead

The 2006 Classic will be held at Florida's Lake Toho in February, and it's highly unlikely that Snowden will bring any empty bags to the scales. He hasn't had great success at Toho (63rd and 72nd in his last two events), but he's at least been there before and knows his way around.

"The nice thing about it is most of the guys who've been around for a few years are familiar with Toho and we know the basic layouts," he said. "It won't be a totally strange environment that you'll have to learn to navigate. You know where you are and what you're looking for."

He hasn't done much preparation for the tournament thus far, but that will change shortly after New Year's. "With all the changes in BASS, I've just been busy getting all my sponsorships and finances in order," he said. "After the first of the year, I'll start researching Internet reports and things like that."

Notable

> In addition to the Bassmaster Elite Series, Snowden will also fish the final two events of the new FLW Series next year. "The season's going to be spread out, and I think that's going to be better for me," he said. "I like fishing the summer and fall because I'm not as good of a sight-fisherman as some of the guys on tour. That's definitely one of my weaknesses. And anytime I get a couple of extra chances to fish for $100,000, I like that. I wish the schedules permitted fishing both of them full-time, but the tournament organizations have drawn a line in the sand."

> He filmed a Booyah commercial with Bill Dance this fall and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. "I'd met him a few times at shows, but I'd never gotten a chance to work with him before. He's one of the legends of the industry and it was great to work with him and his camera crew. We fished a private lake at a club he belongs to and we caught quite a few fish."

> He also hunted deer during the off-season, but his forays didn't result in any meat in the freezer. "I missed the only two I shot at, but that's okay because I enjoy being out there more than I do shooting."