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Lake Shelbyville Guide

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

Steve holding his catch of Crappie for the day at Lake Shelbyville

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!!

Fishing Trip Date Availability as of May 19, 2023

Give me a call at 217-840-1221. These are my plans for 2023 since I am back guiding full-time

July 1-14,16-19,23-25,27,28,30,31
August 2-7, 9-31
September 1-30
October 1-11,13-20,22-31
Combo crappie and white bass on Shelbyville

November 6-11,13,14,18 Kentucky Lake
Big Crappie on shallow stakebeds “Really Good Fishing”

Season Done

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Day 2 with this crew!!!They were the walleye whisperers today went home with a mess of crappie and 17 walleye. Had 34 on the clicker for the day.

Hope to see you guys again soon. Thanks for the fellowship.
... See MoreSee Less

1 day ago
Day 2 with this crew!!!They were the walleye whisperers today went home with a mess of crappie and 17 walleye. Had 34 on the clicker for the day. 

Hope to see you guys again soon. Thanks for the fellowship.

Debbie and Charlie Threlkeld with the 7 walleye, a bunch of white bass and crappie that were caught on the Ville on 05/30. ... See MoreSee Less

2 days ago
Debbie and Charlie Threlkeld with the 7 walleye, a bunch of white bass and crappie that were caught on the Ville on 05/30.

Debbie and Patrick Threlkeld and 7 walleye, along with a bunch of white bass, crappie and a couple channel cats(not pictured as were still in the livewell). ... See MoreSee Less

2 days ago
Debbie and Patrick Threlkeld and 7 walleye, along with a bunch of white bass, crappie and a couple channel cats(not pictured as were still in the livewell).

Glenn, friend of Paul Miller, and their catch of 7 walleye, a channel cat and the rest whites and crappie from the Ville on 05/29. ... See MoreSee Less

3 days ago
Glenn, friend of Paul Miller, and their catch of 7 walleye, a channel cat and the rest whites and crappie from the Ville on 05/29.

Jamie Malcolm and Todd Hall, customers since 2003, with their catch of 10 walleye and a bunch of crappie and white bass from the Ville on 05/28. ... See MoreSee Less

3 days ago
Jamie Malcolm and Todd Hall, customers since 2003, with their catch of 10 walleye and a bunch of crappie and white bass from the Ville on 05/28.

Todd Stambaugh caught our old buddy Elmer again. Makes for the 3rd time this year! 05/27 ... See MoreSee Less

3 days ago
Todd Stambaugh caught our old buddy Elmer again.  Makes for the 3rd time this year! 05/27

Comment on Facebook

Elmer is stupid.

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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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