How to play

Watch this short video where Matt Testoni explains how to play the game, or jump to the relevant section below to read more.

Setup

Gameplay

Round end

Game end

You can also download a PDF version of the rulebook here.

Setup

Shuffle all Fish Cards and Wild Cards together into the Draw Deck, deal each player 7 cards then place the Draw Deck in the middle of the play area. From the Draw Deck, draw cards equal to the number of players +2 and place them face-up in the middle of the play area. These are the Face-Up Cards.

Next take the Event Deck and set the “Fishing Season Closed” card to the side. Shuffle the remaining Event Cards. Take 4 Event Cards and put them to the side then shuffle the “Fishing Season Closed” card into the rest of the Event Deck. Next place the four removed Event Cards on top. Place the Event Deck in the centre of the play area. This setup means the game will end randomly at any time after the first 5 rounds.

Identify a large clear space in front of each player - this will be their Fishing Spot. At the start of the game each player places up to 3 fish from their hand into their Fishing Spot: 1 as a Big Fish, 1 as a Medium Fish and 1 as a Juvenile Fish. If the player does not have three fish in their hand, they must place the Big Fish first.

Each player then receives an Ice Box to store their caught fish, a Turn Order Card and a Scoring Card. The player to last catch a fish also receives the First Player Card.

Fish Size

The orientation of the Fish Cards in your Fishing Spot and Ice Box is crucial. All Fish Cards start as Larval Fish, then grow to Juveniles, Medium sized and then Big Fish. You get different points for catching different sized fish. Remember, in each turn a fish can only Grow by 1 size increment. It takes a while to bring back Big Fish.

Gameplay

Starting with the player who has the First Player Card, each player goes through the 5 steps below to make up their turn. Use the Turn Order Card to keep track of these steps.

  1. DRAW new cards equal to the number of Big Fish in your Fishing Spot. However, no more than 5 cards can be drawn. You can Draw these cards from the Face-up Cards, the Deck, or both. This means that you can Draw unknown cards from the deck or play it safe and take what you see (from the Face-up Cards). Check to see if you have any orange Draw Wild Cards in your Fishing Spot (not in your Hand) - these allow you to Draw extra cards.

  2. SPAWN new fish equal to the number of Big Fish you have in your Fishing Spot. This is done by placing cards from your Hand into your Fishing Spot in the Larval Fish orientation. Check to see if you have any purple Wild Cards in your Fishing Spot (not in your Hand) - these allow you to Spawn more fish.

Click on the image to zoom in!

  1. GROW 1 fish to the next size for every Big Fish present in your Fishing Spot, i.e. if you have 2 Big Fish you may Grow 2 fish to their next stage. Grow fish to their next stage by rotating them from Larval to Juvenile, from Juvenile to Medium, or from Medium to Big. Fish can only Grow by 1 size each turn (Larval to Juvenile, Medium to Big, etc), i.e. Larval and Juvenile Fish cannot become Big Fish in one round even if you have 3 Big Fish and can have 3 “growth steps”. Check to see if you have any green Wild Cards in your Fishing Spot (not in your Hand) – these allow you to Grow more fish.

  2. If you like, CATCH ONE 1 fish from your Fishing Spot. Catching is optional. You Catch fish by moving the fish from your Fishing Spot into your Ice Box whilst making sure the orientation (size) doesn’t change. Caught Big Fish no longer count as Big Fish in your Fishing Spot. Remember you can only Catch 1 fish per turn, unless you have yellow Wild Cards in your Fishing Spot (not in your Hand), such as fishing rod, SCUBA equipment or delicious bait. Remember, it is important to keep catching fish, because once the game ends the player who has the largest number of points from the caught fish will win. Catching Big Fish will give you more points, however, it will reduce the number of cards you can Draw, the number of fish you can Spawn or the number of Grow steps you can perform.

  3. If you like, PLAY 1 Wild Card from your Hand into your Fishing Spot. Wild Cards come in multiple colours that do different things. Coloured Wild Cards are played (placed) into your Fishing Spot to give you extra abilities or improve your Fishing Spot (these abilities activate on the player’s next turn during each corresponding turn step). They are permanent and apply each round. Black Wild Cards give one-off effects and must be discarded once they are played (with the exception of the Blue Groper).

Round end

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Once each player has had their turn, follow the round end steps to complete the round.

  1. Reveal the top Event Card and follow its directions. If this occurs at the end of round 5 or later, the Event Card might also be the game end card.

  2. Discard cards so no player has more than 7 cards in their Hand. This is rarely needed, but helps maintain the balance of the game.

  3. Reset the Face-Up Cards in the centre by moving them to the discard pile and setting up new Face-Up Cards from the Deck (Face-Up Cards equal the number of players + 2).

  4. Rotate the first player by passing the First Player Card clockwise. This ensures that the players get the choice of new Face-Up Cards equally.

Game end

Click on the image to zoom in!

The game ends randomly once the “Fishing Season Closed Card” is revealed. This can happen randomly any time after the end of round 5. Now count your points.

  1. First count the points displayed next to the size of each fish in your Ice Box. Make sure you keep the orientation of each fish in your Ice Box correct.

  2. Then count the points in your Fishing Spot; each Larval, Juvenile and Medium fish remaining in your Fishing Spot is worth 1 point and each Big Fish in your Fishing Spot is worth 2 points.

  3. Add your points together to get your total score.

The player with the most points wins Big Fish and is crowned the #1 Fisher!

Hard mode

For an extra challenge, once you have played through Big Fish, take note that some fish have a small Bag Icon next to their name. This means that they have a bag limit and therefore only 1 of these fish is allowed to be caught per player per game.