About Steve Welch

Steve Welch has been fishing on Lake Shelbyville since its inception and guiding since 1994. He’s an accomplished writer and has written for Adventure Sports Outdoor, Heartland Magazine, the Decatur Herald & Review and Ilfishing.com. He’s been quoted and written about in the Bloomington Pantagraph, Peoria Journal Star, Effingham Daily News, Illinois Fish & Game Finder Magazine, North American Crappie, and Field & Stream’s ‘Best Fishing Spots in the Midwest’.

Fishing Report September 1-15

Lake Level is 599.62. Normal summer pool is 599.7 so almost normal. Water temps are running around 77 and lake is gin clear due to very little rain fall. I have given the crappie a small break and been concentrating on white bass. I can still catch plenty of crappie but the white bass love the heat and bunch up on points and early in the morning actually bust the surface. I love chasing them since wind directions move them and you must figure out the puzzle every day. Once found you can catch a hundred from an anchored position. [...]

By |2023-08-31T15:00:07-05:00August 31, 2023|Fishing Report|

Fishing Report August 15-31

The lake level is still at summer pool or very near it. 599.81 and the water temps are running around 75. The lake is very clear from one end to the other. The bait has started to migrate into coves with a small feeder creek like Wolfe, Sand, Oppossum. Usually see this in September but everything seams to be ahead of schedule. This has moved a lot of the crappie and since they are gorging on bait optimal times to hit them are daylight and dark. After that they bury down to the bottom since they are in such shallow [...]

By |2023-08-14T09:53:56-05:00August 14, 2023|Fishing Report|

Fishing Report August 1-15

The lake level is 599.82 or right at summer pool. Water temps have bounced up to 85 earlier this past week with the heat and now dropped back to 80. This has put the crappie in summer locations which mean channel banks, points on main lake and mouths of coves. All on timber weather it is lying down or vertical. I am starting to see a thermocline on my Livescope at about 18-20ft. This will put the crappie in very predictable areas. I am using a slip bobber and minnow and my Livescope tells me what depth the crappie are [...]

By |2023-07-30T18:29:03-05:00July 30, 2023|Fishing Report|

Fishing Report July 15-31

Water temps. are bouncing around 80 and the lake is very clear on the south end and stained on the north. Has dropped a couple inches nothing major. The best thing I have seen the last few days we got that algae bloom I was talking about on the last report. I have seen the north end covered in a green slime. The bait fish are all over the surface feeding on it so that has got the white bass fired up. I have been fishing edges of flats with wind pushing white bass up out of the deep water [...]

By |2023-07-14T16:32:24-05:00July 14, 2023|Fishing Report|

Fishing Report July 1-15

Water temps are around 76 and gin clear. Lake Level is at summer pool. I have been just crappie fishing for a week now and catching close to a hundred a day. It takes that many due to the small fish being so numerous. We have still been able to get three and even four limits each day by moving around a bunch. Two or three over ten inches and twenty under ten per spot so we move every 10-15 minutes. This is why a guide is very helpful plenty of spots, no time wasted. We are tight lining minnows [...]

By |2023-06-30T08:01:06-05:00June 30, 2023|Fishing Report|

Fishing Report June 15-30

The lake is at summer pool and gin clear. Water temps. today were 75. Man do we need some rain. The walleye like every year have changed up their feeding habits and switched to nights. I have some buddies fishing from 7pm to 4am. I cannot due to a guide trip next day which runs from 7am to 3pm. I have been pulling bottom bouncers and spinner rigs with pretty good success in 21 guide trips counting walleye both over fourteen inches and shorts we have boated well over 200 walleye with four being 24in.or larger. But they have drastically [...]

By |2023-06-19T20:18:39-05:00June 19, 2023|Fishing Report|

Fishing Report June 1-15

The lake is at 600.8 or just barely above normal summer pool. Water color is very clear due to almost no rain. Water temps. about 75. As most of you know I am full into walleye fishing for the next few weeks. Once we get closer to very hot summer like weather and tons of pleasure boats I tend to switch back to crappie/ white bass combo trip. Simply because the walleye tend to start feeding more at night and I can't do those trips and day trips as well. We have been having pretty good success on the walleye [...]

By |2023-06-04T18:56:02-05:00June 4, 2023|Fishing Report|

Fishing Report May 15-31

The lake has risen over two-feet in the last several days and water temps. have spiked to 70-75 depending on where you are. For me that spells walleye time. My strictly crappie trips will resume in July. We are casting for the most part a 1/4oz. Deep Ledge Jig and a 3-inch Powerbait Ribbontail Firetiger twistertail. Staying back off very shallow stumps in 2-4ft. and crawling this jig as slow as you can go keeping it on bottom. We are doing this early in the morning then switching over to pulling bottom bouncers and spinner rigs tipped with a minnow [...]

By |2023-05-14T17:07:31-05:00May 14, 2023|Fishing Report|

Fishing Report May 1-15

Water temps are bouncing around with the weather. High as 64 low as 56. The lake level is 596.3 and still dropping. They won't change the rule curve for a few more weeks. So the lake is about four-foot low. Be extremely careful south of the RR bridge, The buoyed off island east of the Coalshaft bridge, Point six and Point five. Give all flats a wide berth. Crappie are pulling up and backing off but a lot of the spawn is done or in the works. Females with bulged up bellies I have not seen as of late so [...]

By |2023-04-30T16:39:48-05:00April 30, 2023|Fishing Report|

Fishing Report April 15-30

The lake level is 596.81 and they are still allowing fall for a few more weeks. They like to stay at 596 until mid May then allow it to come up to summer pool at 599.97. Water temps have been all over the place. as of today April 20th they were 59 on the north end. They have been as high as 65 and the crappie spawn was in full bore but just like every April the temps bounce all over the place. At about 58 the males will get up on nests and around 62 the females will show [...]

By |2023-04-20T19:01:48-05:00April 20, 2023|Fishing Report|
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