diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index b51e385566..cca24a9ad1 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+1.0.9
+ * Only snapshot CF being compacted for snapshot_before_compaction 
+   (CASSANDRA-3803)
+
+
 1.0.8
  * Log active compactions in StatusLogger (CASSANDRA-3703)
  * Compute more accurate compaction score per level (CASSANDRA-3790)
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/ColumnFamilyStore.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/ColumnFamilyStore.java
index 7a1cd20b31..6f8392d19f 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/ColumnFamilyStore.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/ColumnFamilyStore.java
@@ -1389,7 +1389,7 @@ public class ColumnFamilyStore implements ColumnFamilyStoreMBean
         return metadata.comparator;
     }
 
-    private void snapshotWithoutFlush(String snapshotName)
+    public void snapshotWithoutFlush(String snapshotName)
     {
         for (ColumnFamilyStore cfs : concatWithIndexes())
         {
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/compaction/CompactionTask.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/compaction/CompactionTask.java
index a42b9ff5b9..ece5f19bea 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/compaction/CompactionTask.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/compaction/CompactionTask.java
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ public class CompactionTask extends AbstractCompactionTask
         }
 
         if (DatabaseDescriptor.isSnapshotBeforeCompaction())
-            cfs.table.snapshot(System.currentTimeMillis() + "-" + "compact-" + cfs.columnFamily);
+            cfs.snapshotWithoutFlush(System.currentTimeMillis() + "-" + "compact-" + cfs.columnFamily);
 
         // sanity check: all sstables must belong to the same cfs
         for (SSTableReader sstable : toCompact)