Shelbyville Walleye and Whites on the flats or how about a combo trip with Crappie

by Steve Welch

From about Memorial Day weekend until July fourth weekend is the best time frame to chase walleye on Shelbyville. Of course you can catch them until the end July but that is about it for me. Mainly because most of my chasing is done on the lakes expansive flats. The wind and the boat traffic have a lot to do with catching these fish in just a foot or so of water even in the middle of the day.

Walleye are one of the best hunters on the lake that like to attack from a mud line. They know that baitfish will get pushed up to them by the wind. But I bet you didn’t know that boat traffic could have the same effect. I have caught good fish in front of the Findley marina mid day when the boats are stirring up the water as they come and go.

Another good reason to work the flats during this time period is the white bass. Lake Shelbyville is one of your best white bass fisheries in the state. Just think a hard fighting fish that is just a ton of fun on a spinning outfit and easy to catch and easy to catch on so to speak. I tell my clients to come back in the summer and bring the kids. They love to cast and whites are plentiful and that is what a kid wants is plenty of action.

But as just like in the title it isn’t too late to get in on the last stragglers up in the creeks. Lake Shelbyville is a flood control lake and about mid May they raise the lake about six feet. This sends the crappie up the feeder creeks. They now have a good weed growth along the shore and this will actually get a foot or so of water in them. The fish will hide in them and any piece of wood you can find. It is not uncommon to get your limit of crappie by mid morning then hit the flats and catch the walleye and white bass action in the afternoon or you can flip flop it. Some years I have still got fish up in the creeks by July 4th but most of the time mid June is about your limit.

You can catch a few crappies on the main lake in June but it isn’t really worth it. The whites and walleye are easier to catch. I concentrate on the deep drop offs at the deepest edge of a flat. You need to locate wood and a rapid depth change.

The tackle that I use for the whites and the walleye are quite simple. I swear by the Charlie Brewer Slider grubs and use them in many different situations. I also like to use the gay blade. You can throw it a mile and it puts out a good deal of flash and commotion. I used to troll quite a bit because that is how I caught them at Clinton and it still works very well at Shelbyville. Now however I use my GPS waypoints and target the stumps along the edge of the many flats on the lake. I will get back about twenty feet and throw my eighth ounce weed less jig and slider grub tipped with a small piece of night crawler just past a stump that by now I have a marker buoy on. I let it fall right down to the bottom and reel it back through the roots of the stump. If any walleye is present he will nail it. This cuts down on trolling unproductive water. I catch a lot of whites this same way and largemouth too. I also use a two-jig rig and work a ton of water. These mimics a school of shad and the whites will hit it hard. Also you can catch two at a time and the kids love to see that.

For the last of the crappie we are using twelve-foot poles and running parallel to the bank looking for anything that will hold fish. You only need to have about two feet of line out. I am using tube bait in some sort of chartreuse and a sixteenth ounce jig. We also use a cork to cast to stumps so as not to spook the fish.

My new web-site has gotten me a ton of new clients and many compliments. I am starting to catch up with the huge demand on my services. Since most people use me for crappie. So I have openings for the white bass walleye combo trips. The white bass fishing just gets better as the summer progresses. So book something for you and your kid as a good summer get away.