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Lake Shelbyville Guide

Crappie, Walleye & White Bass Guided Fishing Trips at Lake Shelbyville with Steve Welch

Lake Shelbyville Guide

Crappie, Walleye & White Bass Guided Fishing Trips at Lake Shelbyville with Steve Welch

Take a Guided Fishing Trip on Lake Shelbyville with Steve Welch

Come fish with Steve as he’s been guiding on Lake Shelbyville since 1994 and fished it for over forty years. He’s gotten 27 tournament wins and won several Crappie U.S.A. and Crappie Masters tourneys, both locally and regionally, finishing in the top ten against the top pros in the country. He was the Region Three thirteen-state champion in 2006 and placed in the top 15 in 3 of the 9 National Championships. He was picked by In-Fisherman magazine as one of the top guides in the entire Midwest.

Steve Welch’s writing has been featured in several national magazines including In-Fisherman, Walleye In-Sider & Field & Stream, as well as local publications such as Illinois Fish & Game, Heartland Outdoors and Adventure Sports Outdoors to name a few. He’s written hundreds of articles over the years and currently writes a monthly column in Adventure Sports Outdoors. He’s done seminar speaking at just about every in-state fishing show during the winter months, drawing huge crowds.

Since retiring from the tourney fishing, gone is the 70mph bass boat. Steve wanted a better boat suited for guiding and multi-specie fishing. In 2013 Bass Cat purchased a company in Minnesota called Yar-Craft, a walleye boat with a stellar reputation. They heard he was looking for a walleye boat and they reached out. He ended up with their first-ever 2095BTX tiller boat. It was in several magazines with pros demonstrating its’ usefulness. When he heard that it only had three hours on it, he jumped at the chance and has had it ever since. It has a Mercury four-stroke Verado that just purrs like a kitten and runs flawlessly. It’s a great boat with lots of room and you don’t see many 200hp tillers on the lake.

This year the boat has gone through an entire facelift. New carpet, all the pedestals bases painted, and most importantly a total transformation on the electronics. It’s been totally brought up to speed. Five new Garmin depth finders, all networked to talk to each other. Livescope that can now be seen at any depth finder in the boat. The latest and greatest side imaging–all in full color–as is the down imaging and regular sonar with the industry’s best mapping. We’ll be able to search new areas much more efficiently and see the Livescope and side imaging working side by side from either the front or rear of the boat.

This boat is like no other. Bass Cat asked to see it back at the factory so they could see all the improvements. Air lines have been run up inside the gunnel and quick-disconnect ports were installed to plug in your bait tank anywhere you want to sit. Two twelve-volt giant air pumps provide more air than any d-cell battery could. That way we can run three separate bait tanks so you don’t have to leave your seat. There is also a huge bait tank that both aerates and recirculates every five minutes through several filters and charcoal to ensure we have the best bait that can last for days.

Pedestals have been rigged up on the front so three of us can sit on the nose when we are vertical jig fishing. Nobody has to crowd on the front deck and stand all day. That way we can all fish the same brush pile–no advantage for the guide. Then once slip bobber season hits, about late April on through the summer and early fall, we turn the boat to the side and cast at structure. You are still in a nice sit-down seat that only a big wide-open tiller boat can provide.

Steve is a multi-species guide so we do a lot of walleye and white bass fishing as well as the crappie by pulling bouncers and spinners or casting jigs with crawlers along sheer drops or points. We try and give you a day on the water like no other. Crappie are easy to catch in great numbers so once we get our limit rather than go in we just switch it up and go catch another species. Clients love this.

Go to our Book a Trip section and pick out an open date shoot us an email. Don’t wait as they won’t last long!!

Availability for 2024 & 2025

These are the dates that I still have available:

Shelbyville – Crappie Weather permitting
November 20,23,24,25

Lot’s of clients have reached out asking “when are you going to start booking for next year?”… Well here goes…

Kentucky Lake – Big Sandy
March 25-27,31
April 7
Might open up March 20-24 as well.
These trips are in the wall-hanger timeframe & a must see Bucket List Opportunity.

Lake Shelbyville
Pre-Spawn-Spawn Crappie
April 19-24,30
May 1-3,5-11

Walleye/Crappie/White Bass – Pulling Spinners
May 12-16,21,22,24-29,31
June 1-12
Be aware for the later trips in June, if the walleye quit and I can’t give you a decent trip then I switch to post-spawn crappie.
June 12-28 Crappie/White Bass on slip bobbers

July 11-31 Crappie/White Bass Combo Trips. Slip Bobbers for crappie. Jigging Spoons for White Bass.
August 1-31
September 1-30
October 1-15
October 16-31 back to strictly Crappie

Back To Kentucky Lake Possible Dates October 16-31, November 1-23

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I am leaving for Kentucky Lake be back on the Ville November 20th. I have just a few dates left for what I call the best jig action this lake has to offer. 217-840-1221 ... See MoreSee Less

1 week ago

2 CommentsComment on Facebook

First day was run all around. Pull a nice one then leave. Looks like 10ft. Stake beds setting off to the side and throw slip bobber. Sound familiar works here too. I had one nice 15in. Black and close to a dozen 13in. Whites. Oh and a 20lb. Channel. Those Diamonds sure do bend. 18mph southwest tomorrow totally different game plan

Safe travels

Today I had Levi and his wife Jenna. Caught another big hybrid. Even caught a blackness. I leave Wednesday for Kentucky Lake but I still have prime trips on Shelbyville when I get back. November 20,21,24,25. 217-840-1221 ... See MoreSee Less

1 week ago
Today I had Levi and his wife Jenna. Caught another big hybrid. Even caught a blackness. I leave Wednesday for Kentucky Lake but I still have prime trips on Shelbyville when I get back. November 20,21,24,25. 217-840-1221Image attachmentImage attachment+1Image attachment

2 CommentsComment on Facebook

Some great fish.

Hello πŸ‘‹ handsome how are you doing? How was everything? I am trying to add you all my Facebook, but it is not add Please can you send me direct message or send me friend request or direct message 😍😍πŸ₯°πŸ₯°πŸ₯°πŸ’•πŸ’•πŸ’•πŸ’•β€οΈβ€οΈβ€οΈ

I had Ray and Tom back, frequent customers for years. I am off to Kentucky Lake on Wednesday until November 18th. I have November 20,21,23,24,25 open on Shelbyville for the best jig fishing there is on the Ville
Big fish come shallow
... See MoreSee Less

2 weeks ago
I had Ray and Tom back, frequent customers for years. I am off to Kentucky Lake on Wednesday until November 18th. I have November 20,21,23,24,25 open on Shelbyville for the best jig fishing there is on the Ville
 Big fish come shallowImage attachment

2 CommentsComment on Facebook

Hello handsome

Hello

I had Russ and his son Jake in the boat today and they were very easy to fish with and were in the trades like I was so we had plenty to talk about. They are planning on rigging a boat and wanted my input. We are still pushing minnows into stumps ... See MoreSee Less

2 weeks ago
I had Russ and his son Jake in the boat today and they were very easy to fish with and were in the trades like I was so we had plenty to talk about. They are planning on rigging a boat and wanted my input. We are still pushing minnows into stumps

12 CommentsComment on Facebook

Why did you keep so many fish I know you can eat only so many I have fished for over 70yrs and over fishing has caused many problems

Great catch and slabs

Nice catch good eating

Nice catch

Congratulations

Yum yum πŸ˜‹

Nice catch

Good catch.

Yummy

Nice mess

Nice

Lucky Devils.

View more comments

I had Mike Shoemaker and his two sons. They heard my interviews on Chauncey's Great Outdoors. I have been a regular on there for years. Everyone in Chicago tunes in. We caught some real pigs today drop shotting a minnow. Jigs have been working but not last two days. Ten more trips then off to Kentucky Lake for three weeks. ... See MoreSee Less

3 weeks ago
I had Mike Shoemaker and his two sons. They heard my interviews on Chaunceys Great Outdoors. I have been a regular on there for years. Everyone in Chicago tunes in. We caught some real pigs today drop shotting a minnow. Jigs have been working but not last two days. Ten more trips then off to Kentucky Lake for three weeks.Image attachmentImage attachment
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Guided Fishing Trips depart from the boat ramp at Forest Bo-Woods in Shelbyville, IL.

GPS N 39β€² 33.058β€² W 088β€² 37.498β€² or 39.550111, -88.624861

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