Animal Crossing New Horizons: How to Catch Fish

Animal Crossing: New Horizons lets you do all sorts of stuff. One of the activities that you can fill your day with is fishing in the various streams and rivers running through your island.

The only question is, how do you actually go fishing in Animal Crossing: New Horizons? It seems unintuitive when you first get into it, but it’s actually remarkably easy to figure out.

How to Catch Fish in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Before you can go fishing in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you’ll need some sort of fishing rod. Luckily, this is one of the first items you’ll come across in the game, making it really nothing special to obtain once you’re settled on your new island home.

You can either buy or craft your first fishing rod as soon as you’re set loose on the island.

Early on, you’ll get a DIY recipe for a flimsy fishing rod. It only costs five wooden branches to craft, meaning that you probably won’t run into any trouble finding what you need for it. Just go outside and shake some trees, or find the branches laying around on the ground.

Crafting a flimsy fishing rod is as easy as going to the DIY crafting bench inside of Tom Nook’s tent and selecting the menu option to craft the rod, then confirming your selection.

Alternatively, you can just buy a flimsy fishing rod from Timmy for 400 Bells.

Fishing Mechanic

Actually catching fish is a bit more confusing at first.

The way that fishing in Animal Crossing: New Horizons works is actually way simpler than it appears. All you need to do is walk up to a spot in the water where you see a silhouette hiding in the shallows, then press “A” (while holding the rod) to cast a line into the water.

You need to make sure that your bait is clearly in front of the fish’s line of sight, or they won’t go for the bait at all. Once they see it, they will swim toward it and nibble at it. Don’t reel your line at this moment! You’ll lose the fish unless they’ve fully taken the bait.

You’ll know they’ve fully taken the bait once the bait is underwater. At that moment, tap “A” once more to begin pulling in the fish. They’ll appear to put up a struggle, but don’t worry: you don’t need to do anything else at this point. Just watch the animation play, sit back, and enjoy your new fish.