Snowden's Tournament Journal

www.missouriangling.com

What: Citgo Bassmaster Tour

When: March 1-7, 2004

Where: Table Rock Lake, MO

Finish: 92nd

Winnings: $0.00


The first two days of practice were somewhat difficult for me. I spent the
first day in the mid-section of the lake mainly concentrating on boat docks and deep, suspended fish around submerged timber. The dock pattern only produced one 3 1/2 pound
largemouth. The fish was taken on a 5/16 oz., Booyah Boo Bug in green pumpkin with a YUM, 3 inch, green pumpkin, Big Claw. I also tried swimming a shad colored, 5 inch grub
along bluff ends and points with standing pole timber in 20-60 feet of water. This
produced a few fish, but most were just small ones. I did spend some time in the upper James
River trying to put together a jig and crankbait pattern. I worked the same jig along
channel swing banks. This produced a few short fish. I was able to catch one nice keeper on
a Golden Craw Wiggle ‘O’. After these two disappointing days of practice I moved to the
upper area of the White River. This moved helped me establish what I felt was a
great pattern. I fished bluff ends and pockets with cedar trees using a Smithwick Rogue in the
purple darter color. I caught seven keepers in the 3-3 1/2 pound range with one
weighing in at over 5 1/2 pounds!

As the tournament began I made my way back to these same areas, but due to
heavy rains the water had muddied up. The rogue pattern only produced two keepers, but
that put me in 55th place after day one of the tournament. For some reason on the second
day I decided to stay around the Highway 13 area and fish a jig around boat docks and
swim a grub on bluff ends. This decision was a mistake as it only produced one
keeper, and most of the people that caught fish were in the rivers.