Bass Fishing Oct 2017 | Page 44

ATKINS MAKES MAGIC ON MURRAY 27-year-old Tour rookie wins the Forrest Wood Cup 42 By Rob Newell ustin Atkins believes he was destined to be a professional bass angler. The Forrest Wood Cup is a world championship bass tournament that changes lives. In the second week of August 2017, those two forces – a young man’s unwavering belief in his own destiny, and the Cup’s life-changing capacity to fulfill that destiny – collided on South Carolina’s Lake Murray. The result of that dramatic impact not only vindicated Atkins’ belief in himself and affirmed the awesome power of the Cup to change lives, it transformed a fledgling FLW Tour rookie into an instant pro- fessional bass fishing star. FLWFISHING.COM I OCTOBER 2017