To increase grain yield (GY) in bread wheat, it has been very difficult to balance trade-off effects between major yield components, such as productive tillers per unit area (PTN), fertile spikelets per spike (fSNS), and thousand kernel weight (TKW). This study aimed to understand the genetic mechanism of the three yield components through QTL mapping in two double haploid (DH) mapping populations, which were derived from three high yielding adapted hard white spring wheat cultivars, UI Platinum, SY Capstone, and LCS Star. The two DH populations, UI Platinum x SY Capstone (PC) and UI Platinum x LCS Star (PS), were genotyped by wheat 90K SNP iSelect platform and assessed for the three yield components and grain yield in diverse field trials over three years. Using JMP genomics software, a total of 6 (4 for fSNS and 2 for PTN) and 13 QTL (5 fSNS, 3 PTN, 5 TKW) were identified in PC and PS populations, respectively. The three parents all contributed positive and negative alleles to QTLs of the three yield components in ten chromosomal regions, showing prospects to improve yield components through genetic recombination and pyramiding using molecular markers. However, three chromosomes (4A, 6A, and 7D) each have a region residing multiple QTL for two to three negatively correlated yield components, which were either tightly linked or single QTL with pleiotropic effects. To overcome these challenges we are fine-mapping and dissecting these QTLs in the near iso-genic lines derived from the same three parents. KASP markers associated with the major QTL have been used in selecting high yield lines. This study suggests that selecting yield component architectures is better than selecting individual component and such selection should be considered in specific production environments.