Deepest you've caught perch/walleye?

[gwebb]

I'm heading out to test the ice tomorrow on a lake I've never fished before. Summerville Lake, it is drawn down to winter pool but is still a very deep lake. The bay I'm planning on trying has pretty steep sides and bottoms out at over 50-60 feet. I have fished for and caught perch in the 40 foot range before. I was just wondering if it may be productive to fish the deeper water or head farther back in the bay to 30-40 foot range?

[Markenum]

I've caught both perch and walleye in just under 60 feet of water. Mostly small eyes and perch but some bigens too. It's really hard to say without knowing much about the lake but I would say there should be shallow and deep patterns for perch. In the lake I fish the larger schools of perch are out in the basin mid winter but you can get on smaller schools of 5-6 in the shallow areas 8-20 feet. Typically in most lakes I fish deeper perch will bite better on a sunny day. Also typically the deeper perch will be smaller on average because if your a small perch you can go to deep water find food, and safety from the majority of the other game fish in the lake.

[Super-ice-bird]

I've caught them in 50 fow.

[Kyle_J]

40fow is usually the deepest i fish for perch.

[Mr.Seaguar]

I saw a guy fishing 110' for perch. They looked like they had swallowed a firecracker

[missoulafish]

Deep enough that it's it ethical to fish for them because none of them will go back down the hole do to barotrauma.

[lipripr]

I've caught perch in 55-60 feet in one lake I fish. No worries about releasing them, all keepers.

[Bucket Brigade]

I would have called anybody a liar if they told me they were below 50' until my buddy and I went to a different lake.  We fished shallow water,  anywhere from 15-30'. We noticed a guy catching fish and I was certain it was salmon. After he left I wandered over there and put my Vex in...58' and the bottom was hopping! Caught some nice 12"ers. Moved around to test other open holes and the deepest was 83' and caught just a couple of keepers.

[lefty2053]

Caught perch at 60 Feet down.

[Whopper Stopper]

I saw a guy fishing 110' for perch. They looked like they had swallowed a firecracker

 

picturesque speech! I can visualize what you are talking about 

              WS

[SLAYERFISH]

Deepest perch were from 69-74 feet.   Deepest walleye from the same spot.  Limit was 50 each and they were all 10"+.

[massNtrash]

This year I've caught perch and sauger out of the same hole in 65 fow

[eriksat1]

I never fish deeper than about 35 feet, mainly because it is just hard to fish real deep. I have read where Al Linder says he has caught walleye as deep as 90 ft of water before.

[fishin machine]

70' of water, deepest hole in the lake, nothing but jumbos.

[gwebb]

Made it out and fished for around five hours today. It was more or less a recon mission to check the lake out. The info I got on depth on that part of the lake was way off, only 25 feet deep. Marked very few fish but ended up with two 20+" walleye and one 12" spotted bass. I'm going to have to head out there again real soon. I'm not smart enough to post a pic with my phone or I would.

[hesseltine32]

If you have a smart phone you can go it if you download the photobucket app

[perch chacer]

The Northeastern end of Lake Erie in New York runs 50' - 60',  4-5 miles out off Sturgeon Point state launch.  This is where most of the jumbo perch are caught at this location and walleyes are always mixed in.

Perch Chacer

[gwebb]

[gil_lunkage]

40ft for both deepest for me.  I have caught walleye deeper in open water trolling for trout.

[RIVERRAT2]

35 to 40ft deepest for me
 
RAT

[merkleyb]

70' of water, deepest hole in the lake, nothing but jumbos.

I'd like to see a perch that lives in 70 fow. It must be the size of a walrus.

[Gimper]

I'd like to see a perch that lives in 70 fow. It must be the size of a walrus.

Back in the '70's we used to fish for Perch in waters up to 80ft. We had rigs made of wire coat hangers for weight above small jigs tipped with Wigglers. The coat hanger weights would be 15-20 inches long with a small loop bent on each end. A leader would be tied to the bottom loop shorter than the wire as to not foul on the main line above. We called them Mendota Rigs even tho we lived more than 200 miles north of Lake Mendota and never fished there. We caught Perch, some were big, some were small, but we kept them all cause they looked like blow up dolls by the time we got them on the ice and we knew they weren't gonna make it.

[masoneddie]

Have taken perch in depths up to 60' of water on a local lake, however our normal target range is 15-35'.

[taxi1]

I took in a lake trout to mount from Lake Michigan that was caught out of 100 feet of water. The lake trout had a fresh 6 inch yellow perch in it's GI tract. Whether the perch was down there in 100 feet of water or the lake trout came up after the perch is not known.

I did meet a charter captain over there that said he felt the perch numbers weren't down. He felt the perch went deeper and was catching them in deeper water than previously.

[tricohatch]

35-40 FOW around here!

[TheMainah]

60 fow