Zack Birge Wins MLF Bass Pro Tour Champion Teamwear Stage 3 Presented by MillerTech at Lake Whitney and Lake Waco

WACO, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 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.

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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 Hi-Res Photo of Champion Teamwear Stage 3 Presented by MillerTech Winner Zack Birge
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

The top 10 pros at the Champion Teamwear Stage 3 Presented by MillerTech on Lake Whitney and Lake Waco finished:

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.

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 on Major League Fishing and the Bass Pro Tour, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow MLF’s social media outlets at Facebook, X, 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, Outdoor Channel, VICE, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network, RFD-TV, Game & Fish TV and Rumble, 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.

Blanchard, Oklahoma pro Zack Birge caught 27 scorable bass weighing 75 pounds, 1 ounce to win by a 30-pound, 5-ounce margin and earn his second career BPT victory and the top prize of $125,000 at the Champion Teamwear Stage 3 Presented by MillerTech at Lake Whitney and Lake Waco in Waco, Texas.

LONDON (AP) — Former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams was accused in a London court Monday of being a leader in the Irish Republican Army responsible for three of the paramilitary group’s suspected bombings in England.

Adams is being sued in London's High Court for allegedly being directly responsible and complicit for decisions by the Provisional IRA to detonate bombs in England in 1973 and 1996.

“The defendant carefully draws a distinction between being a member of ‘the Army’ and being a member of Sinn Féin," attorney Anne Studd said. “That was a distinction without a difference.”

Studd represents three men wounded in the bombings.

The allegation against Adams is an old one, but this is the first time a court is being asked to decide if it's true.

Adams is one of the most influential figures of Northern Ireland ’s decades of conflict. He led the IRA-linked political party Sinn Féin between 1983 and 2018 and helped broker the 1998 Good Friday peace accord. He has always denied being an IRA member, though some former colleagues have said he was one of its leaders.

“The only thing that I am guilty of is being an Irish republican committed to ending British rule in our country and seeking to unite the people of Ireland on the basis of freedom, equality, peace and solidarity,” Adams said after the opening day of the trial.

The claimants are seeking vindication — not money. Adams is being sued for the nominal sum of 1 pound ($1.33).

The trio claims Adams was a member of the IRA's decision-making Army Council and was as responsible as the men who planted the explosives during “the Troubles,” the three decades of violence involving Irish republican and British loyalist militants and U.K. soldiers. Some 3,600 people were killed, most in Northern Ireland, though the IRA also set off bombs in England.

John Clark, a police officer, had shrapnel lodged in his head and hand from the 1973 Old Bailey courthouse bombing in London. Jonathan Ganesh suffered psychologically from the 1996 London Docklands bombing. Barry Laycock was left 50% disabled, suffered emotionally and struggled financially from the 1996 Arndale shopping center bombing in Manchester.

“There is no doubt that the defendant contributed to the peace in Northern Ireland, but the claimants say that on the evidence, he also contributed to the war,” Studd said.

Adams, who is expected to testify in his defense during the nonjury trial due to conclude next week, “emphatically, unequivocally and categorically denies that he was ever a member of the IRA,” attorney Edward Craven said.

Adams was never charged with the bombings or even arrested on suspicion of being connected to them, Craven said.

The 77-year-old was charged with being an IRA member in 1978, but the case was later dropped because of a lack of evidence.

Adams won a 100,000 ($116,000) libel verdict last year against the BBC over a claim in a television documentary that he authorized the killing of an informant inside the Irish republican movement.

Craven said the claimants had a mountain to climb to prove their case and they had not even arrived at the foothills.

He said that Adams sympathized with and shared the IRA’s goals and sought to justify their actions, though he didn't support all those acts.

“That makes him, in the eyes of some people, a deeply controversial figure,” Craven said. "It does not mean he was factually responsible for the bombings.”

Claimant Barry Laycock poses for a photo outside the Royal Courts of Justice, where a civil claim is being brought against former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams by three men who were injured in Provisional IRA bombings on the UK mainland in the 1970s and 1990s, in London, Monday March 9, 2026. (James Manning/PA via AP)

Former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams, center, arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice, where a civil claim is being brought against him, in London, Monday March 9, 2026. ( James Manning/PA via AP)

Claimant Barry Laycock poses for a photo outside the Royal Courts of Justice, where a civil claim is being brought against former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams by three men who were injured in Provisional IRA bombings on the UK mainland in the 1970s and 1990s, in London, Monday March 9, 2026. (James Manning/PA via AP)

Former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice, where a civil claim is being brought against him, in London, Monday March 9, 2026. ( James Manning/PA via AP)