Zack Birge Dominates Lake Waco, Claims MLF Bass Pro Tour Stage 3 Victory
WACO, Texas – Armed with nothing but a promising Google Earth image and unwavering confidence, Zack Birge of Blanchard, Oklahoma, delivered a masterclass in adaptability this weekend, winning the MLF Bass Pro Tour Champion Teamwear Stage 3 Presented by MillerTech by a staggering 30-pound margin.
Birge’s three-day total of 75 pounds, 1 ounce on 27 scorable bass earned him his second career Bass Pro Tour victory and the $125,000 top prize. The win also propelled him to the top of the Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) standings, four points ahead of four-time AOY winner Jacob Wheeler and Spencer Shuffield, who are tied for second.
Google Earth Gamble Pays Off
What makes Birge’s victory remarkable is that he entered Lake Waco – the venue for Saturday’s Knockout Round and Sunday’s Championship Round – with zero prior experience. He’d spent all three official practice days on Lake Whitney, which hosted the two-day Qualifying Round. His only reconnaissance: studying satellite imagery.
“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.”
That pond – known locally as the “Atkinson Hole” – became the battleground where Birge and runner-up Edwin Evers of Talala, Oklahoma, waged war over two days. Evers finished with 44-12, more than 30 pounds behind Birge’s dominant total.
Saturday’s Knockout Rally
Birge’s path to victory required patience and persistence. When he finally reached his backwater honey hole midway through Saturday’s Knockout Round, he feared it might be too late. Evers had already staked a claim in the area, so Birge ceded it temporarily and struggled elsewhere.
To compound matters, Birge’s jack plate malfunctioned, forcing him to troll to the area rather than run at full speed. With just two hours remaining, he’d managed only 12-3 and sat nearly 7 pounds behind the Lucas Oil Cut Line.
Then, the floodgates opened.
“Once I got over there, I started catching them,” Birge recalled. “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 stacked 12 scorable bass for more than 30 pounds in the final two hours, finishing the round second – just 8 ounces behind Evers.
The Secret Sauce: Clean Water, Baitfish and Residents
The Atkinson Hole appealed to Birge immediately on Google Earth because it featured cleaner water than the rest of Lake Waco’s upper end and offered protection from the wind. Upon arrival, he discovered a perfect storm of bass-attracting elements: abundant baitfish, resident bass feeding on them, and spawning fish along the banks.
“I don’t know why it had so many fish, to be honest with you, but it had a bunch of them in there,” Birge 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.”
Sunday’s Statement Start
Despite sharing the pond with Evers, Birge entered Championship Sunday confident the area held winning fish. His only concern: whether it could withstand two days of intense pressure from two top-tier competitors.
Those worries evaporated within 30 minutes of lines in.
After navigating a maze of laydowns and debris to reach the pond – a process that consumed 20 minutes – Birge needed only 10 minutes to boat three scorable bass totaling 9-3, including his first of two 5-3s. Within half an hour, he had six for 17-4 and the top spot on SCORETRACKER®, which he would never relinquish.
“They hadn’t been pressured yet, so there were fresh fish swimming around,” Birge explained. “I knew the first pass would probably be pretty good. And thankfully, it was.”
Bait Selection: Swim Jig Dominance, Flipping Adjustment
Birge credited much of his success to committing to a ¼-ounce white swim jig with a matching trailer. His first 14 scorable bass all ate the same presentation, giving him a significant efficiency advantage as other anglers struggled to get Lake Waco’s largemouth to eat moving baits.
“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 conditions shifted – the sky slicked off, grew bright and warm – Birge adapted by picking up a Texas-rigged creature bait and flipping flooded bushes along the shallows. Using the same 7-foot-3 medium-heavy Alpha Angler Zilla rod with 8:1 gear-ratio reel and 40-pound Yo-Zuri SuperBraid, he was rewarded almost immediately with his 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,'” he said. “‘Let me just try to flip and slow down a little bit.'”
That fish pushed his total to 47-9 and extended his lead over Evers back to double digits, eventually prompting Evers to abandon the pond for a Hail Mary elsewhere. Birge added 12 more scorable bass to seal the victory.
Volume Separates Champion from Field
While other anglers landed heavier individual fish – Dustin Connell boated two over 8 pounds for the second consecutive day – no one matched Birge’s 27 scorable bass. His ability to avoid prolonged dry spells proved the difference.
Confidence Snowballs into AOY Lead
This marks Birge’s ninth Top 10 in 19 BPT events since the 2024 season began. Since his last victory (2024 on Oklahoma’s Lake Eufaula), he’d finished top five three times. Birge attributes his sustained success to good decision-making and growing confidence.
“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.”
Regarding his newly acquired AOY points lead, Birge remains focused on the present.
“The first one felt great,” he reflected. “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.”
Final Results – Top 10 Pros
1st: Zack Birge, Blanchard, Okla., 27 bass, 75-1, $125,000
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
Big Bass Honors
Dustin Connell claimed the final $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award of the week with a 9-1 largemouth caught on a Rapala Crush City Janitor worm during Sunday’s second period. Connell also won Saturday’s big bass award.
Event Notes
The 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 51 top professional anglers competing for a $600,000 purse.
The next Bass Pro Tour event is Suzuki Marine Stage 4 at O.H. Ivie and Lake Brownwood, March 26-29, in Early, Texas.
Television coverage of Champion Teamwear Stage 3 will premiere as a two-hour episode at 7 a.m. ET Saturday, Sept. 5, on Discovery, with re-airings on Outdoor Channel. Complete results are available at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Proud sponsors of the MLF Bass Pro Tour include: Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing Co., Bass Force, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, Black Buffalo, BUBBA, Cigars International, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, Grizzly, Lowrance, Mercury, MillerTech, NITRO Boats, OFF! Deep Woods, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Star brite, Suzuki Marine, Toyota, Yuengling and Zenni.
For complete details and updated information, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow MLF’s social media outlets at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
About Major League Fishing
Major League Fishing (MLF) is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, producing more than 250 events annually at some of the most prestigious fisheries in the world, while broadcasting to America’s living rooms on CBS, Discovery Channel, Outdoor Channel, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network and on demand on MyOutdoorTV (MOTV). Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, the MLF roster of bass anglers includes the world’s top pros and more than 30,000 competitors in all 50 states and 20 countries. Since its founding in 2011, MLF has advanced the sport of competitive fishing through its premier television broadcasts and livestreams and is dedicated to improving the quality of life for bass through research, education, fisheries enhancement and fish care.
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