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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 2025

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

Ice out Crappie on Shelbyville
March 10-22 weather dependent

Kentucky Lake – Big Sandy
No Availability

Lake Shelbyville
Pre-Spawn-Spawn Crappie
No Availability

Walleye/Crappie/White Bass – Pulling Spinners
No Availability

Crappie/White Bass on slip bobbers
June 16,19-29

Crappie/White Bass Combo Trips – Slip Bobbers for crappie. Jigging Spoons for White Bass.
July 1,2,6-31
August 1-14,16-22,24-31
September 1-30
October 1-15

Back to strictly Crappie
October 16-31
November 1-12

Back To Kentucky Lake – Big Sandy
November 17-20,23-30
December 1-11

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As most you know my spring trips are about gone. I have started a list for March 9-17,19,20 for early trips but weather plays a big part so I am leaving them tentatively. These are crappie only on Shelbyville with my new line of small hair jigs. Give me a call to get on the list. These trips really show how to use your electronics. I leave for Kentucky Lake after these for a month doing trips down there. Once I get back my Shelbyville openings are May 11, June 15,16,19-29. My phone is 217-840-1221 ... See MoreSee Less

3 days ago

We are set up and ready at QCCA in Quad Cities. Looks like a nice show loaded with tackle. Show starts at 4pm and runs through Sunday. We have brought all kinds of hair jigs to go along with all our Deep Ledge Jigs, Brushpile Plastics and our Jigging Spoons that everyone has been buying this year. ... See MoreSee Less

3 days ago
We are set up and ready at QCCA in Quad Cities. Looks like a nice show loaded with tackle. Show starts at 4pm and runs through Sunday. We have brought all kinds of hair jigs to go along with all our Deep Ledge Jigs, Brushpile Plastics and our Jigging Spoons that everyone has been buying this year.

1 CommentComment on Facebook

Sell lots!

Mama Bear passed. 102 years young. Can't wait to see our new version of the Bears ... See MoreSee Less

1 week ago

Went down to get hair jigs for next show was surprised the lake is open at Coalshaft and most of the lake. Checked level 595.75 or 1.75 until winter pool. Current will stack up crappie on channel bends and pull them out to the front of the coves since they are dropping the lake. Hopefully I get my boat back from fiberglass repair in a couple weeks and I will be doing a few winter trips with our line of tiny hair jigs from Andy's jigs. We use a 1/4oz. trolling sinker tied a foot above a tiny 1/32oz. hair jig. This gets this rig down the 15-20 plus feet you need for schooling winter fish. I only fish this rig in winter otherwise my heavier,larger Deep Ledge Jigs and Brushpile Plastics works fine. Right now they want small bug like baits. We will be taking several with us to QCCA Show next week in the Quad Cities and will have them at the Crappiefest next month ... See MoreSee Less

1 week ago

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Hello

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Guided Fishing Trips depart from the boat ramp at Forest Bo-Woods in Shelbyville, IL.

GPS N 39′ 33.058′ W 088′ 37.498′ or 39.550111, -88.624861

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