I have been playing this game for about 2 weeks now and have 41 hours in it.
Quick bit of background I’m from the UK so we don’t do the massive lake / bass fishing stuff over here. I have done coarse fishing (Carp, Tench, Roach, Bream, Perch, Pike) since I was a teenager (now 48) but stopped about 12 years ago when the kids came along as it’s a real time sink. In real life I am also a lazy fisherman, I like to set up a ledger rig of 2 or 3 rods on bite alarms and snooze the day away waiting on bite alarms, was always a nice getaway from the stresses of the real world.
Anyways saw this game was on sale at £10 only normally £15 and comes with 6 lakes or so. 3 carp/coarse and 3 Bass/ USA fish. Also there are some DLC, I picked the 4 pack up for £12 on a sale as well.
You start off with a basic set of coarse rods and tackle and the same with Bass rigs. As you level up you earn Tackle Points which you can spend on more varied baits, lures, rods, line etc. You also get a free boat but can upgrade them too.
As a coarse fisherman that’s where i started, Waldsee has some decent size fish and a good choice of species to fish for. Each lake has up to 11 different species and up to 25 or 30 trophy fish. These are named fish you can if lucky catch in the lakes, for example there is 183lb Catfish called Megelodon and a 80lb Carp called Fudgies. This does add to the challenge and spice things up as you get the fish in.
The mechanics are actually very good. There are 2 skill levels for casting, beginner (not actually tried advanced) which is right click to set cast and left click and hold for 0-100% the bigger the rod the further the cast, you can also cast under arm or over. Secondly there is a full hud with bite alarms or larger float indicators which can all be switched off to increase realism and difficulty. You get 4 rods 3 to cast and a spod rod to bait the area
I normally have 2 ledgering rods and 1 float rod. If you get a bite on the float rod you need to strike quick or it gets off and you either get a poor, good or perfect strike. On ledger they seem to self hook which is great and the the battle begins, you have a tension indicator which if goes to the red top for too long you line snaps and you can free move the rod keeping the tension on until you bring the fish in. There is no netting which I prefer once the fish is beaten and in close you auto net it and it swaps to a picture of you holding the fish giving weight, type, size and a name if it’s a trophy catch. My largest Carp is 65lb, Catfish is 83lb but some great smaller fish around the 10lb mark.
Now initially I was not too interested in the bass side of it but boy was I wrong, it’s great fun. The lakes are massive, get out on your speedboat, with fish finder and find some fish. Your boat can do trolling if you like or straight lure fishing off the boat or the side if you prefer. Different types of lures from surface to sinking to diving.
Cast out and wind in, speed can be from 1 - 5 then bang you get a bass on and it leaps out of the water barreling and rolling around and shooting off like a rocket. It’s very cool and exciting and sometimes tough to keep them on the line. I think my largest is around 10lb. Additionally you can fish for crappie, muskie and pike or zander all put up a great fight.
You can fish early, afternoon or evening as well as sunny, cloudy or dynamic.
Things it needs to do or add, float fishing is poor, no depth change whch is rubbish, it’s all 2ft down only. Also catapults to get baiting close in easily. Each part of the day does not change so morning does not become afternoon which is a shame as different fish feed at different times and this would add another strategic layer instead of quitting and rejoining at a different time of day. More bait variances would be good as well as more floats. Finally sometimes there are too many bites and having 2 or 3 rods going at the same time is a pain as you can only manage 1, it would be good if the stopped bites on the other line outside fo online play.
I don’t often post about games but I am really enjoing it this, it’s great for a quick 10 or 15 minutes or a big stretch for targeting specific fish /swims, sometimes the big fish can take 5/10 minutes to get in.
My son and 1 are hitting the real lakes this summer since playing this and to me that means it has to be pretty good.
