“It’s been an amazing week,” said Cox, who earned his third career FLW Tour win and pushed his career earnings to more than $920k. “I didn’t think that one spot had enough fish in it to win, but it did. I’ve tried to get back in places like that in other Forrest Wood Cups to win, and it just didn’t work out. But this lake has so many of those little log-infested creeks, and I knew this would be a great opportunity to make it work, and it did.

Cox’s winning area was located way in the back of Cotaco Creek, seven miles back off of the main river. Cox said that it would take him more than 40 minutes each day to work his Crestliner aluminum boat to the back of the creek, plowing over logs and timber as he made his way to the honey hole.

“That spot was the third creek arm that I checked in practice,” Cox said. “There was layer of duckweed and it looked like a great area to throw a frog.”