Steve Welch Fishing Report for July 2009

Lake Shelbyville Best Bet...White Bass, Walleye

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The lake has finally crested at nearly 615 or 15 feet over summer pool. The high water ramps are in effect. The beaches all closed. The lake is up on the turnarounds and all the normal ramps are flooded. The watercolor is quite good though and the fish are buried in the willows.

The water temps are in the mid eighties and we are in your typical summer pattern. Not really. Since the water is so high you just fish anywhere you see clumps of flooded willows. The huge flats like point five, point six, point three all have thousands or should I say tens of thousands of hungry White Bass thrashing on the surface. Not just a bust here or there for a few minutes but three to four hours of getting the boat smack dab in the middle of thousands and fish every cast, or in my case two of them. We tie two jigs on about a foot apart and get two on every cast.

Under these White Bass are hungry Walleye. They follow the Whites as long as there is sufficient oxygen to stay shallow the fish will remain in this pattern. They have tons of cover to hide in since the lake is so high. Crawlers have really helped with the Walleye, tipped on the back of a jig.

The bigger White Bass are suspended just off these big flats down about fourteen feet in anywhere from fifteen to forty feet. Trolling has been very effective at getting these bigger fish as with the Walleye.

The Crappie are just now starting to show up along side the standing timber back in the mid lake larger coves. Last year we experienced these same high water conditions and this standing timber pattern was deadly all through August and September.

For me the tackle I am carrying is three ultra light poles rigged with six-pound and a two-jig rig and white twisters or an eighth ounce Gay blade in chrome and blue. Three bait casters rigged with twenty-pound line and all three rigged with seven-eights ounce Bomber Slab spoons with a hair dressed treble tied a foot above the spoon. We get everything on this rig. Big and I mean big, pushing thirty pounds Buffalo also hang out under the Whites and they love this two bait presentation. I also get Walleye, Channel Catfish, Bass and even a Muskie. Anything that hangs out under the Whites. This looks like falling bait to them so they jump on it. I am also carrying three poles to fish the standing timber pattern for the Crappie rigged with eighth ounce jig and light colored tube such as pearl white or light blue.

The Corp will start dropping the lake as soon as possible, usually about a foot and a half a week so these patterns should work for the entire month of July. If the rain ever stops.

Fishing Calendar

	Crappie	Walleye	White Bass	Muskie
January	•
February	•
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April	•	•	•	•
May	•	•	•	•
June	•	•	•	•
July		•	•	•
August			•	•
September	•		•	•
October	•		•	•
November	•		•	•
December	•