Steve Welch Fishing Report for September 1-15, 2010

Lake Shelbyville Best Bet... White Bass and Crappie

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The lake is now back to normal summer pool and I am back to my normal routine. Chasing whites on flats and with those whites are hungry walleye. We had eight just yesterday along with the usual hundred plus white bass. Biggest walleye was close to six pounds. A real brute and in less than two-feet of water.

Wind is the key to fishing like this. The flats get churned up with both wind and boat traffic and out of no where the whites converge and the walleye lay in wait under them for easy pickings.

Covering water until you find them is also the key. Hit one big white bass and throw on the brakes. He will have a ton of buddies and also look very closely for baitfish on the surface dimpling from time to time. Sometimes they are hard to see in wave action but you can if you look close.

Don’t give up on an area. I went to the flat where we got them the day before but I was very early and the wind hadn’t picked up. We never got a bite but I did see bait fish working the shallows. We returned an hour and a half later and put a hundred fish in the cooler.

Key in on warming trends. Watch your weather for the biggest jump in temperature and that will give you the strongest south wind. This shallow flats fishing is all about wind so you don’t want a calm day or a slight cold front as this will switch the wind direction back to the north.

For me fishing shallow means just a few baits. Everyone’s favorite is the two-jig rig but I prefer the Blue Fox Vibrax number three spinner or the 1/4oz. Big Dude which is a blade bait like a sonar or cicada. I like the extra flash in stained water and these baits get the walleye’s attention as well. If I am faced with little or no wind and forced to back up to the ledge then my Candy Stripers still get the nod. Just like before I like the blade spinning it gets a lot of attention. This will be my pattern for at least three weeks or until I see water temps fall into the low seventies. Right now it is about eighty degrees.

Once we get a big drop in surface temp to about seventy or even less the crappie will make a move. Right now they are out in deep basins chasing shad. The shad will make a big push into the front half of the biggest coves on the lake. Then you can hammer the crappie on what I call the pendulum pattern. Work a ton of standing trees by tossing a jig about six to eight feet past it and then pendulum it past the tree at about six-feet under the surface. There will only be a fish or two on a tree so keep moving is the game.

2010 Guided Fishing Trip Openings Please call or e-mail Steve Welch for availability! E-mail fish@lakeshelbyvilleguide.com Phone (217) 762-7257 Cell: (217) 840-1221

Deep down main lake trees will also start to come alive. I like to play the wind game on these as well. I have trees that you can murder them on when wind is blowing into them. I target these trees on certain wind directions because you can catch fish from deep to shallow on them. Out of the wind they tend to be just on the very end out in deep water.

Now that the lake has stabilized I am having a ball. The fishing is red hot and I am back cleaning close to a thousand whites a week but I have caught so many this year that they don’t excite me. It is the unexpected walleye that gets me out of bed each day with a fire lit under me. If we experience anything like we did back in May on the walleye the month of September will be one to put in the memory banks as Shelbyville is predicted to have the best walleye fishing in the state for 2011. I know the month of May was the best I have ever seen as I had multiple fifty fish days.

I have plenty of openings left for both fall crappie and white bass/ walleye combos so just give me a buzz and we will go get them.

Fishing Calendar

	Crappie	Walleye	White Bass	Muskie
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June	•	•	•	•
July		•	•	•
August			•	•
September	•		•	•
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November	•		•	•
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