Animal Crossing: Guide to Fishing Locations, Highest Value Fish, Upgrading your Fishing Pole, and General Fishing Help

Animal Crossing: Guide to Fishing Locations, Highest Value Fish, Upgrading your Fishing Pole, and General Fishing Help
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Animal Crossing: City Folk is one of my all-time favorite Wii games. My girlfriend and I play it so much, in fact, that I named it one of my top 5 Wii games for couples.

There are many ways to make bells in the game, and one of the most lucrative is selling the various fish you catch to Tom Nook for a profit. Fishing also allows you to catch specimens for donation to the museum, as well as new pets with which to decorate your house.

A big part of fishing is luck, you have to be at the right place at the right time to catch the big money fish, and they have to appear while you’re there, but there are some things you can do to maximize your moneymaking.

Check out some of our favorite fishing tips for Animal Crossing: City Folk

Upgrade your Fishing Pole

The normal fishing pole works just fine for beginners, but you really should upgrade to the silver model the first chance you get. It will randomly be available for purchase at Tom Nook’s store (after you upgrade to Nook n’ Go) and gives you a slightly better chance to succeed at fishing. It typically retails for 500 bells.

The ultimate upgrade is of course the golden fishing rod, but you have to catch every single fish in the game to obtain it. Afterward, you’ll have no problem reeling in even the toughest of fish to catch.

Know Your Fishing Locations

Coastal Fishing Area

There are six basic locations in any town where different fish appear: the river, holding ponds, waterfall, river mouth, ocean, and river pond.

The river is any point along the stream that flows through your town that isn’t a river pond or waterfall. The holding ponds are the small, landlocked bodies of water that appear around the town. The waterfall, obviously, is the area below where the water falls from the upper level of the town to the lower one.

The river mouth is the point where the river flows into the ocean, the ocean is the large body of water that borders the south end of your town, and the river pond is the point where the river widens slightly to create a large pool.

Different fish can be caught in each of these locations, so you’ll need to check them all when you’re out fishing.

Fishing Tips

Animal Crossing City Folk

  • Don’t run! Running near bodies of water is always a bad idea when you’re out fishing, as doing so will scare off any fish you come close to. Always walk if you’re looking to catch anything (Wearing a mask won’t necessarily help, but it may make you feel more stealthy).

  • Use the “fifth nibble trick.” While some fish will bite the lure right away, and others will take a few tries, they never seem to make more than five attempts at the bait. If a fish nibbles four times, you can be sure they are going to bite on the fifth. Use this knowledge to pull off a very quick catch as they hit it the fifth time.

  • The waterfall, river pond, and ocean tend to have the most lucrative fish. Be sure to fish them extensively when you’re trying to maximize the bells you make.

  • Remember to cast your bobber upstream of the fish you’re trying to catch. It will be caught by the current and head right toward them.

  • If you find yourself constantly reeling in too early in anticipation of a bite, try closing your eyes and just listening for the sound of the bobber dipping below the water. This way you can simply react, and don’t run the risk of an anticipatory reel in.

Lucrative Fishing

To make some great money, try fishing on a July or August evening. You can pull in some of the most lucrative fish in the game, including the Hammerhead, worth 8,000 bells, the Napoleonfish, worth 10,000 bells, the Red Snapper, worth 3,000 bells, and the Shark, worth a whopping 15,000 bells.

Another great season for fishing is Winter. You can catch the Red Snapper (he’s a perennial fish) for 3,000 bells, the String Fish for 15,000 bells, and the Tuna for 7,000 bells.

Other high-value fish to look out for:

  • Animal Crossing City Folk Fishing

    Giant Snakehead: 5,500 bells.

  • Arapaima: 10,000 bells.

  • Dorado: 15,000 bells.

  • Arowana: 10,000 bells.

  • Barred Knifejaw: 5,000 bells.

  • Blue Marlin: 10,000 bells.

  • Ray: 3,000 bells.

  • Sea Sunfish: 4,000 bells.

  • Coelacanth: 15,000 bells.

  • Gar: 6,000 bells.

Animal Crossing is one of the best games on the Nintendo Wii. Be mindful of these tips and you’ll be reeling in large sums of money in no time. For more great Animal Crossing: City Folk help, be sure to check out the other sections of the guide.