The aim of the game is quite simple: travel around the board, land on a peg and catch fish. There are two venues – a lake and a river – and by throwing dice and turning cards players compete to catch the species shown on the face of the fish card.
To get to the venue and peg, players move using throws of a traditional dice, picking up Bait & Float and Advantage cards as they go, at the same time avoiding the many hazards. The Bait & Float cards are required to catch fish, and you need the right bait and tackle combination to catch the selected species.
Once on a peg, you have to reach the icon identified on the fish card in one attempt. If you fail, you have to try again on your next turn. If successful, you next throw the Strike dice. Missed Bite means you have to try again on the next turn, Hazard requires you to pick up a card and follow the instructions, although an Advantage card nullifies the hazard.
If you throw Strike then you need to retrieve the fish by throwing the numbered dice and following the instructions on the fish card. Once you have landed the fish, you keep the card. The next fish card is then turned over and the game continues.
There are many ways to win the game – the most fish, the biggest weight or the most species after a chosen time period. You can, of course, make up your own rules about how to win the game. That’s one of the good things about it.
So how did I get on with playing it? I enlisted my partner’s two daughters, Olivia and Paige, to help me play, and after spending some time reading through the rules, we had a game.
It was slow at first, as I had to explain the game as we went along, but we soon got the hang of it. The hardest part was to get the right Bait & Float cards to match the species, and then throwing Strike so that the fish can be landed and claimed.
We played the game for an hour, and caught a few fish, but it was a bit slow for two highly energetic girls. They did say that it was fun, but in my opinion the game would suit dads and lads better. So when it’s tipping it down outside, the local pool is frozen solid, or you want a fishing fix but have completed every fishing game on the Playstation, give this a go.
Steve Martin
