Blanchard, Oklahoma pro catches 27 scorable bass weighing 75 pounds, 1 ounce to win by 30-pound, 5-ounce margin and earn second career BPT victory and top prize of $125,000
WACO, Texas (March 8, 2026) – When he launched his boat onto Lake Waco for Saturday’s Knockout Round at Champion Teamwear Stage 3 Presented by MillerTech, pro Zack Birge of Blanchard, Oklahoma , knew next to nothing about the fishery. He’d never competed there before, and he spent all three days of official practice prior to the event on Lake Whitney, which hosted the two-day Qualifying Round.
All Birge knew was that he’d spotted a juicy-looking backwater pond on the north end of the lake on Google Earth. His game plan in a nutshell: head there and hope for the best.
“I didn’t even come over here in practice; I just looked at Google Earth and thought this looked good,” Birge said following Sunday’s Championship Round. “I literally told my official yesterday, I showed it to him on Google Earth, and I said, ‘Man, this pond back here looks good.’
“Little did I know. I know now, though.”
Birge used the area not only to qualify for the Championship Round but to win it in dominant fashion. He spent all day Sunday in the spot known to locals as the “Atkinson Hole” and totaled 75 pounds, 1 ounce on 27 scorable bass. That topped runner-up Edwin Evers of Talala, Oklahoma, by more than 30 pounds and represented the biggest single-day total of the event by more than 20.
Birge’s second career Bass Pro Tour victory earned him $125,000. He also took over the lead in the Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) standings. Four points behind him, four-time AOY winner Jacob Wheeler and Spencer Shuffield are tied for second.
Link to Day 4 Photo Gallery: Stage 3 Championship Round underway on Lake Waco
Link to HD Video of Highlights from Day 4 Championship Round Competition
As excited as Birge was about the backwater area, he didn’t actually reach it until midway through the competition Saturday – and by then, he worried it was too late.
Evers, too, started the Knockout Round by running right to the old pond. Seeing that, Birge let him have it first and spent the first period fishing a different creek on the upper end of the fishery – without much success. Then, his jack plate got stuck, so he couldn’t run to the area; instead, he had to troll all the way there. By the time he made it, the competition day was already more than halfway over.
Still, Birge knew that Evers had fared well in the area, so he stayed positive. With two hours left in the Knockout Round, Birge had amassed just 12-3 and found himself nearly 7 pounds back of the Lucas Oil Cut Line. He proceeded to stack up 12 scorable bass for more than 30 pounds to finish the round in second, just 8 ounces back of Evers.
“Once I got over there, I started catching them,” Birge said. “It just took me a while to get over there and get rolling. And then once I got in there, I saw (Evers) to the left; I just went to the right. I knew he had caught some fish, so it kind of gave me a positive mindset moving forward.”
Birge said the backwater pond leapt out at him on Google Earth because it had clean water compared to the rest of the upper end of Lake Waco and because it would be sheltered from the wind. He found it loaded with baitfish, resident bass that were feeding on them and other bass on spawning beds.
“I don’t know why it had so many fish, to be honest with you, but it had a bunch of them in there,” he said. “It had a little bit of a shad spawn that was going on in the middle of the day. I’m sure there were some spawning fish in there I couldn’t see. It kind of seemed like a place that may just have a lot of resident fish in it, too. So, I think there was a whole lot of a little bit of everything going on.”
The honey hole produced the bulk of the weight for both Birge and Evers on Saturday and Sunday – they finished first and second on SCORETRACKER® both days. After his Knockout Round rally, Birge knew it held the winning fish. His only concern was whether it could withstand two days of pressure from both him and Evers.
“I just didn’t know if him or I could have the opportunity to win because we were both in there,” he said. “That was the only thing that kind of worried me.”
To reach the backwater pond, Birge had to navigate his boat around and over a maze of laydowns and other debris. It took until about 20 minutes after lines in on Sunday for him to start making casts.
This time, he didn’t take long to assert himself. Within 10 minutes, he’d boated three scorable bass totaling 9-3, including his first of two 5-3s on the day. In less than 30 minutes, he had six for 17-4.
“They hadn’t been pressured yet, so there were fresh fish swimming around,” Birge said. “I knew the first pass would probably be pretty good. And thankfully, it was.”
That gave Birge the top spot on SCORETRACKER®, which he would never relinquish. It also put Evers on the defensive. Evers hadn’t yet caught a scorable bass at that point. While he eventually gained his footing, a couple times pulling within 10 pounds of Birge, he could never quite dig out of the early hole.
Birge credited his strong start in part to his bait selection. His first 14 scorable bass all ate a ¼-ounce white swim jig with a matching trailer. With most of the field struggling to get Lake Waco’s largemouth to eat moving baits, that boosted Birge’s efficiency.
“I just figured a swim jig would be good,” Birge said. “I had caught some over at Whitney on it. I kind of tried different baits throughout (Saturday) morning, and I kind of got a few more bites with the swim jig, so I kept throwing that more. And then once I got in there and got around those fish, they were eating it like crazy. So, I locked it in my hand yesterday and went with it, and I locked it in my hand for a long time today, too.”
As the day progressed and conditions changed, Birge adjusted by picking up a Texas-rigged creature bait and flipping the flooded bushes that lined the shallows. He used the same tackle setup as his swim jig: A 7-foot-3, medium-heavy Alpha Angler Zilla rod with an 8:1 gear-ratio reel and 40-pound Yo-Zuri SuperBraid. Within minutes, he was rewarded with a second 5-3.
“It just slicked off and got real bright and warm, and I thought, ‘Man, they might swim back into the edge of these bushes again,’” Birge explained. “‘Let me just try to flip and slow down a little bit.’”
That fish brought Birge’s total to 47-9 and all but sealed the win. It extended his lead over Evers back to double digits. Not long afterward, Evers decided to leave the loaded backwater area in a Hail Mary attempt to catch Birge.
Birge went on to add another 12 scorable bass to keep it from ever getting too suspenseful again. His ability to avoid a long lull between bites separated him from the rest of the field. Other anglers caught bigger bass (including Dustin Connell, who landed two over 8 pounds for the second day in a row), but no one came close to matching Birge’s tally of 27 scorable bass caught.
Birge said he didn’t see this victory coming. After all, he had zero prior experience on the fishery hosting the Knockout and Championship Rounds. However, given how many times he’s put himself in contention in recent years, it also seemed inevitable.
This marked Birge’s ninth Top 10 in 19 BPT events since the start of the 2024 season. Since his last victory, in 2024 on Oklahoma’s Lake Eufaula, he’d finished in the top five three times. Birge attributed the hot streak to good decision making and confidence, which has only increased with each strong finish.
“The confidence is everything,” he said. “When you’re making good decisions and everything is happening the right way, it just seems like it snowballs.”
Birge said winning his first career AOY title is “of course” a goal now that he’s leading the points, but he hasn’t given it much thought yet. For now, he’s focused on celebrating the win. He knows as well as anyone that they don’t come easy.
“The first one felt great,” he said. “I think it made me even more hungry for another win. And of course, we’ve been close a few times since then. It feels really good to win one.”
The top 10 pros at the Champion Teamwear Stage 3 Presented by MillerTech on Lake Whitney and Lake Waco finished:
1st: Zack Birge, Blanchard, Okla., 27 bass, 75-1
2nd: Edwin Evers, Talala, Okla., 15 bass, 44-12
3rd: Dustin Connell, Clanton, Ala., 10 bass, 43-10
4th: Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., 11 bass, 31-3
5th: Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 14 bass, 27-13
6th: Chris Lane, Guntersville, Ala., nine bass, 23-12
7th: Nick LeBrun, Bossier City, La., seven bass, 22-4
8th: Mark Davis, Mount Ida, Ark., eight bass, 20-13
9th: Jesse Wiggins, Logan, Ala., six bass, 17-3
10th: Justin Lucas, Guntersville, Ala., six bass, 12-3
A complete list of results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, there were 113 bass caught weighing 318 pounds, 10 ounces, caught by the final 10 Bass Pro Tour anglers on Sunday.
The final $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award of the week went to pro Dustin Connell, who also won in Saturday’s Knockout Round. On Sunday, Connell boated a 9-pound, 1-ounce largemouth during the second period on a Rapala Crush City Janitor worm. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day.
The four-day Champion Teamwear Stage 3 at Lake Whitney and Lake Waco Presented by MillerTech was hosted by the City of Waco, the Greater Waco Sports Commission and the Waco Tourism Public Improvement District (TPID). The event featured a field of 51 of the top professional anglers in the world competing for a $125,000 top prize and their share of the $600,000 purse, along with valuable Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) points in hopes of qualifying for the MLF Heavy Hitters all-star event and REDCREST 2027, the Bass Pro Tour championship.
The next event for Bass Pro Tour anglers will be Suzuki Marine Stage 4 at O.H. Ivie and Lake Brownwood, March 26-29, in Early, Texas.
The 2026 Bass Pro Tour features a field of 51 of the best professional anglers in the world, competing across seven regular-season tournaments around the country for millions of dollars and valuable points to qualify for the annual Heavy Hitters all-star event and the REDCREST 2027 championship.
Television coverage of Champion Teamwear Stage 3 at Lake Whitney and Lake Waco Presented by MillerTech will premiere as a two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. ET Saturday, Sept. 5, on Discovery. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on Outdoor Channel.