Lane’s lead tightens after Day 2 of Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Stop 3 Presented by Suzuki Marine on Wheeler Lake
March 20, 2026 • MLF
DECATUR, Ala. – Day 2 of Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech Stop 3 Presented by Suzuki Marine on Wheeler Lake shook up the leaderboard, with four pros dropping out of the Top 10, and a lot of movement inside the cutline. Day 1 leader pro Cal Lane of Grant, Alabama, stayed on top, though, weighing 20 pounds, 4 ounces for a 46-6 total. Bass Pro Tour angler Matt Becker of Ten Mile, Tennessee, is in second with 44-14, Lebanon, Tennessee’s Drew Boggs tallied 41-7 for third, and three other pros are over the 40-pound mark and very much in striking distance.
Saturday’s Day 3 on MLFNOW! promises high drama and should showcase everything Wheeler Lake has to offer. From the current at the tailrace, to smallmouth on ‘Scope and flipping wood, it’s all going down on Championship Saturday.
Link to Photo of Day 2 Leader Cal Lane
Link to Morning Photo Gallery: Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit anglers blast off on Day 2 at Wheeler Lake
Link to Afternoon Photo Gallery: Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit anglers adjust to different current on Wheeler Lake
Link to Afternoon Photo Gallery: Measuring up after Day 2 on Wheeler Lake
Link to Video of Fish-Catch Highlights of Day 2 on Wheeler Lake
With four bass in the livewell for a long time, it looked like Lane would relinquish his lead at weigh-in (or, at least have it shrunk down to nothing). But the Alabama pro boated a 6-pound kicker late in the day to put himself back in control of the event.
“I’m excited to go tomorrow,’ Lane said. “I don’t know how many fish are left, but I’ve kind of got one option, and I’m going to stick to it.”
That option is the tailrace of the Guntersville Dam, and this week, Lane was really the only pro to make it work.
“I know the time of the year and what happens up there,” he said. “I practiced two days up there, and I hardly saw any boats. That kind of gave me my decision to go, because I didn’t see many guys at all.”
Fishing a few different current breaks, Lane lost two big fish on Day 2, and had his Day 1 bag of 26-2 quickly on Thursday. While it looks like he’s surviving by the skin of his teeth, appearances could be a little deceiving.
“Several bites I had today were the same cast as yesterday,” Lane said. “I feel like I’m realizing what’s dead and what’s productive. They’re there, 100%, the fish are there to win. It’s just if you can get them to bite. They have a continues buffet of shad, they’re not forced to eat when a bait comes past them – they’re sitting there constantly looking at bait coming past them.”
A master of the close call, Lane has been in position to win several times in the last year alone. This time, he’d like to close it out.
“I’m excited to go tomorrow,” he said. “I’m trying to keep coolheaded and go with the flow.”
Meanwhile, as seasoned as any pro in the field, Matt Becker is not a guy you want chasing you, especially if there are smallmouth bass to be caught. Fishing at the opposite end of the lake from Lane, Becker has stacked big fish on top of productive ‘Scope periods.
“I didn’t feel good about this tournament at all coming into it, it’s just pieced together as the tournament goes on,” he said. “I’m starting the morning targeting smallmouth, and catching a few largemouth mixed in, but mainly targeting smallmouth. I caught a few of them this morning, but I actually ended up weighing three I caught after my ‘Scope period. I don’t have a plan, I’m just piecing it together.”
His starting plan has been a jerkbait.
“It’s shallow, main lake flats, with little stumps and brush piles on them,” he said. “Today, it seemed like they were congregated in a little drain, and that’s where the bulk of the big smallmouth came from. But, really it’s a section of the lake, maybe 2 miles, that I’ve been hunkering down in during my ‘Scope period.”
From there, he’s doing at little bit of everything.
“I tried to fish for those fish without ‘Scope for a little bit, but it’s really hard to target them without ‘Scope,” he said. “I caught two big largemouth cranking, and I caught a smallmouth on a jig. I’m literally junk fishing, just going down the bank.”
The Top 20 pros after Day 2 on Wheeler Lake are:
1st: Cal Lane, Grant, Ala., 10 bass, 46-6
2nd: Matt Becker, Ten Mile, Tenn., 10 bass, 44-14
3rd: Drew Boggs, Lebanon, Tenn., 10 bass, 41-7
4th: Banks Shaw, Harrison, Tenn., 10 bass, 40-15
5th: Preston Kolisek, Loretto, Tenn., 10 bass, 40-11
6th: Kyle Austin, Ridgeville, S.C., 10 bass, 40-6
7th: Clint Knight, Russellville, Ky., 10 bass, 38-4
8th: Carter Nutt, Nashville, Tenn., 10 bass, 37-11
9th: Ryan Lachniet, Gum Spring, Va., 10 bass, 37-5
10th: Kyle Cortiana, Broken Arrow, Okla., 10 bass, 37-5
11th: Broderick Luckey, Lynchburg, Va., 10 bass, 36-14
12th: Caz Anderson, Haysville, N.C., nine bass, 35-14
13th: Connor Jacob, Peoria, Ill., 10 bass, 35-12
14th: Marshall Hughes, Hemphill, Texas, 10 bass, 35-8
15th: Ethan Fields, Breese, Ill., 10 bass, 35-6
16th: Hunter Mills, Mayfield, Ky., 10 bass, 35-5
17th: Colby Schrumpf, Highland, Ill., 10 bass, 35-3
18th: Brent Chapman, Lenexa, Kan., 10 bass, 35-1
19th: Tripp Berlinsky, Florence, Ala., 10 bass, 35-0
20th: Hayden O’Barr, Scottsboro, Ala., 10 bass, 34-15
To see all 50 anglers that advance to the final day of competition, plus complete results for the entire event, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, there were 587 bass weighing 1,583 pounds, 2 ounces caught by 129 pros Friday. The catch included 103 five-bass limits.
The Day 2 Berkley Big Bass award of $500 went to pro Louis Fernandes of Santa Maria, California, who weighed in a bass totaling 6 pounds, 12 ounces – the largest of the day – to earn the day’s award.
In Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit competition, the full field of pros competed 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, now 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 three hours of competition each day.
The final 50 pros will launch at 7 a.m. CT Saturday from Ingalls Harbor, located at 701 Market St. NW in Decatur, Alabama. The Championship weigh-in 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! livestream and coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech at Wheeler Lake Presented by Suzuki Marine is hosted by Decatur Morgan County Tourism.
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.
The MLFNOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee and Rob Newell will break down the extended action live on Championship Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. CT. MLFNOW! is live streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.
Television coverage of 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.