Joel Willert’s quest to eventually fish from the front of the boat took a step forward when he won the co-angler crown at Lake Cumberland. That step became a leap after going back-to-back with his win at Smith.

The Minnesota co-angler weighed in limits of 12-10 and 11-10 to beat out the rest of the co-angler field in the FLW Tour event presented by T-H Marine on Lewis Smith Lake. For the win, Willert takes home $20,100.

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Along with taking over the lead in the Co-angler of the Year standings, Willert’s win makes him just the fifth co-angler to ever win back-to-back Tour events. The other four are:

Casey Martin (2011)
Alan Hults (2009)
Justin Lucas (2008)
Bobby Hendricks (2002)

“I could get used to this,” jokes Willert. “I’ve been super blessed the last three tournaments now. Things are really going my way.”

While this is his first year as a co-angler on Tour, he’s been a co-angler for years and actually has won on other circuits. So, he understands the importance of getting paired with the right pros. This week, those pros were Josh Douglas and Scott Martin.

While fishing with both, Willert said his main thing was always doing something a little different than both. That meant going smaller with his offerings. He chose smaller 2.8 and 3.3 Keitech Swing Impact FAT swimbaits on 3/16-ounce jig heads or he’d cut down a green pumpkin Zoom Trick Worm on a 3/16-ounce shaky head.

“Your pros have to be around a lot of fish to be successful, and mine were both days,” says Willert.

“I’ve been looking to eventually make a living fishing for a long time. Winning that last tournament and now this one should help make that happen.”