DECATUR, Ala. (March 10, 2026) – The third regular-season Major League Fishing (MLF) Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech event of 2026 is set to visit Decatur, Alabama, next week, March 19-21, for a tournament on Wheeler Lake – the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Stop 3 on Wheeler Lake Presented by Suzuki Marine.

The three-day Pro Circuit tournament, hosted by Decatur Morgan County Tourism, will feature up to 150 professional bass anglers competing for a top prize of up to $135,000. Anglers will take to Wheeler Lake to catch their five biggest bass each day, and the winner will be determined by the heaviest three-day cumulative total.

“Decatur looks forward to welcoming Major League Fishing (MLF) and the 2026 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Stop 3 Presented by Suzuki Marine,” said Don Dukemineer, Sports Programs and Tournament Manager for the City of Decatur – Decatur Parks and Recreation. “We anticipate that the typical March bite on Wheeler Lake and the Decatur Flats will offer a variety of interesting challenges each day. Decatur is a passionate fishing community, and we know that it will require the pros to exhibit passion, patience and power to adjust to the conditions that await. It will be an exciting few days to experience the action, and we can’t wait to watch every cast and see who walks away as tournament champion.”

With wins up and down the Tennessee River, pro Jimmy Washam of Stantonville, Tennessee, has seen a lot of nearly every reservoir on the chain. For this event at Wheeler Lake, he figures the bite will be good and that we could be in for a power-fishing slugfest.

“This far into March, generally you have some color in the water, more current, and what’s already a fishery that is prone to be shallow,” Washam outlined. “There’s going to be a ton of fish up shallow, there will be fish in the dirt. We won’t have the full-pool draw up yet, and depending on current flow, it will probably be about a foot below summer pool.

“There will be a lot of fish shallow,” he said. “There will be some spawners, and there will be a lot of fish up ready to chew. I think it will be really fun, a lot of shallow power fishing – this is going to be a fun event.”

According to Washam, the smallmouth could be spawning, or on either side of it. Meanwhile, he expects most of the largemouth in the lake to be prespawn.

“I fished an event there in early May a few years ago, and there were quite a few spawning largemouth,” he said. “If we have warm, stained water, the fish seem to run shallow. To me, on the Tennessee River, mid- to late-March is the best time to catch numbers and big largemouth that pull up and want to feed.”

Of course, because Wheeler is on the Tennessee River, “shallow” doesn’t have to mean the bank. There could be fish caught well off the bank, or fish caught in the tailrace of the Guntersville Dam. Regardless, look forward to a good event, at a time of year when the weights should be near their peak on Wheeler Lake.

Anglers will launch at 7 a.m. CT each day from Ingalls Harbor, located at 701 Market St. NW in Decatur, Alabama. Weigh-ins will also be held at Ingalls Harbor and will begin at 3 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all launch and weigh-in events and also encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLFNOW!® live stream and coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

The 2026 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech features a field of up to 150 professional anglers competing across six tournaments around the country, for a total purse of $3.8 million and valuable 7 Brew Angler of the Year (AOY) points to qualify for the Pro Circuit Championship, set for Sept. 18-20 on the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes in Kissimmee, Florida, and a coveted spot on the MLF Bass Pro Tour – the sport’s premier circuit.

In Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit competition, the full field of pros compete in the two-day opening round on Thursday and Friday in a five-fish, weigh-in format. Only the top 50 pros, based on their two-day cumulative weight, advance to the final round on Championship Saturday. The winner is determined by heaviest cumulative weight from all three days and they will be awarded the grand prize of up to $135,000. Forward-facing and/or 360-degree sonar is limited to only 3 hours of competition each day.

The MLFNOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee and Rob Newell will break down the extended action live all three days of competition from 7:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. CT. MLFNOW! will be live streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.

Television coverage of the MLF Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech Stop 3 on Wheeler Lake Presented by Suzuki Marine will air as a two-hour episode, premiering at 9 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Sept. 20 on Vice TV.

Proud sponsors of the 2026 MLF Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech include: 7 Brew, Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, Black Buffalo, BUBBA, Cigars International, Epic Baits, Grizzly, Mercury, MillerTech, OFF! Deep Woods, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Phoenix Boats, PirahnO2, Power-Pole, Precision Sonar, Suzuki Marine, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota, VOSKER, YETI and Yuengling.

For complete details and updated information, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the MLF5 social media outlets at Facebook, 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.