Yoｇo Lake　（余呉湖） 

Yoko Lake found in Shiga-ken (滋賀県), just north of Japan`s largest lake Biwa　（琵琶湖）, is my favourite venue in Japan.  
The natural surroundings combined with some great fishing make it my first choice whenever I have some spare time.  
The main species in the lake are carp and hera buna, so first I will talk about these.

Carp

As camping and night fishing is allowed and as there are no turtles the lake is very popular with serious carp anglers.  
The carp are big and average over 10kg however Yogo Lake is very big and you can go days (or weeks) without a bite!  
The biggest fish I have seen caught is 17kg and I have seen numerous 10kg+ fish.
 

Modern methods such as bollies and method feeders are required.  
The carp are very strong and so 15lb mainline and 2.5 lb+ test curve rods are a must.  
The most popular areas are the `summer` bank near the netting, and the from the `spring` bank to the far end.
 

Obviously baits and methods will change but the Japanese anglers tend to avoid pellets as they attract hera buna.  
They also like to throw groundbait away from where they are fishing to try to attract the hera buna away from their hook baits.
 

Hera Buna
 
Whilst there are hera buna in the main lake they are few and far between.  
There is an area on the right hand bank which has been netted off from the main lake and was stocked with 10,000 hera buna in 2005/6.  
Whilst undoubtedly some of these fish have died or escaped into the main lake it is still possible to catch a few.

I tend to fish the peg to the left hand side of the big tree right in the middle of the section.  A
t around 5m there is around 3m of water although this does obviously depend on the water level which goes down in the summer.  
My best catch from this peg is 14 fish in 1 day averaging over 1kg each.  On other occasions i have caught between 0 and 6 fish!
 

There is another peg about 20 meters to the left of the tree which i have fished a couple of times 
and caught up to 4 fish.  I once caught 3 fish at the end of November from this peg using a small 
method feeder and sweet corn cast towards the netting in 4m of water.  A local Japanese angler 
sometimes fishes on top of the water inlet near the picnic table but I have never seen him catch 
anything.  Whilst I have not fished it for hera buna yet, I have seen a lot of hera jumping out of the
water towards the left hand end where the weed grows in the summer.
 
I like to throw a 1 or 2 kilos of pellets in the night before starting fishing and then fish with big lumps
of sticky gluten paste, feeding heavily with pellets every hour or so.  
The main problem with Yogo Lake is that there are millions of blue-gill which eat everything.  
It can be infuriating to try and fish through them but it is worth persevering even if it feels like you 
will never get a bait to the bottom!  They definitely like gluten less than anything else and you can 
try fishing further out as they seem to live close to the bank.  
A word of warning with the pellets - aside form attracting big carp, I once fed 5kg and it killed the 
peg completely and attracted even more blue-gill.
 
There are some big carp inside the netting and you will occasionally see them.  
I lost 6 in a day once on very strong pole gear and then lost 1 another day whilst using a 
strong rod as I just couldn`t control it.  My friend recently caught 3 carp in a weekend session at 
9kg, 10kg and 11kg from inside the netting, all of which put up a good fight on carp gear and all of 
which were returned to the main lake.  Interestingly, whilst carp fishing lots of hera can be seen 
jumping over the ground bait so I will certainly try throwing a few balls of carp mix in every couple 
of hours in the near future to see if it works better than pellets.
 
Info
Yogo Lake is located north of Biwa Lake.  
There is a JR train station nearby and this is probably the easiest landmark to set into your car navigation.

It costs 1000 yen per day to fish and you are limited to 2 rods but the bailiff never says anything if 
you have 3 or 4 rods out.  
Also, you are not supposed to use a rod & reel inside the netted area but again, the bailiff never says 
anything if you do.
 
There are excellent facilities around the lake including picnic areas and toilets.





There is also an abundance of wild life.  I have been attacked by a snake 
a couple of times (I don't think it was a poisonous one!) and have 
seen wild boars and foxes.  The foxes tend to be small and inquisitive 
but the boar I saw was huge and would have seen me running for the car 
if I hadn't already been in it.  I would guess there will also be a 
few bears in the thick woods which surround the lake so make sure you 
keep a clean campsite. 

Last updated 21st September 2009