Fishing is a core part of the gameplay in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and is a rather fun activity once you perfect the method.
With 80 species of fish to catch and file in the Critterpedia. You can use fish as decorations in your home, sell them for Bells, or give them to Blathers to help grow the museum.
So, here’s everything that you need to know about fishing in New Horizons, including how to fish, how to get bait, and the list of sharks, eels, turtles, and fish that you can catch in ACNH.
How to get a fishing rod in New Horizons
The Flimsy Fishing Rod is one of the first tools that you learn to make in New Horizons.
After moving to the island, setting up your tent, and going to sleep, you’ll be able to talk to Tom Nook in Resident Services.
At this point, Tom will offer you the workbench and will give you the recipe for a Flimsy Fishing Rod.
Now that you have the recipe, you can build a Flimsy Fishing Rod with five tree branches. If your first fishing rod breaks, you can return to the workbench with five more tree branches to craft another.
Or, you could turn to Timmy, who also in Resident Services in the very early game. Timmy runs the store, with the fishing rod being for sale for 400 Bells.
Now that you have a rudimentary rod, you can approach any body of water on your island – be it a river, lake, waterfall, or the sea – and try to catch some fish.
How to Catch Fish in Animal Crossing
Fishing is very easy in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, once you get the hang of it, but one hasty press of the button could result in a potentially rare fish swimming away.
So, here’s a step-by-step guide on how to fish in Animal Crossing:
- Equip the fishing rod by going into your inventory (X) and selecting to Hold the item (A).
- Or, you can cycle through your tools until you get to the fishing rod by pressing Left or Right.
- You will need to make sure to never use the sprint button (hold B) around water because you’ll scare the fish away. Always approach the water at regular moving speed.
- Stand near water, not necessarily right on the edge of a bank, and then press A to cast your line.
- Whenever you cast the line, it casts to the same distance. So, standing a bit further back from the water’s edge will help you to cast the lure in front of fish that are swimming by the bank.
- When your lure is in the water, you can press A again to reel in your line and cast again (A).
- To catch a fish with the fishing rod in New Horizons, you’ll want to cast your lure close to the fish’s head or at least in front of the fish.
- The head of the fish is usually the larger, more spherical part of the silhouette.
- When your lure is in the water, you have to wait for the fish to come to the lure.
- Most of the time, the fish won’t hook on immediately: it will nibble the lure.
- If you press A again before the fish takes the bait, the fish will swim away.
- You have to watch and wait for the fish to pull the lure underwater. When this happens, press A to hook the fish, and then continue to press the A button as much as you can to battle the fish to shore.
Be sure to try out all of the different bodies of water on and around your island as different aquatic creatures live in different habitats.
How to make Fish Bait in New Horizons
Fish Bait is a very useful item if you want to farm fish from a preferred spot. To learn how to make the item, you’ll need a Shovel.
Early in the game, you’ll be asked to put down a tent for Blathers, who’s interested in the local fauna. The day after you’ve set-up Blathers’ tent, the owl museum curator will move to your island.
Speak to Blathers as soon as you can as they give you the crafting recipe for a Flimsy Shovel and the Vaulting Pole – which allows you to cross rivers.
Once you’ve crafted a Shovel, you’ll want to walk along the beaches in search of a spurt of water coming up from the sand, as shown below:
Even if the water spurt disappears, use your shovel (by pressing A) where it was coming from and around that area until you dig up a manila clam. After you’ve dug it up, your Animal Crossing character will have an idea for a DIY recipe.
Return to a workbench – either your own or Tom Nook’s workbench – find the Fish Bait recipe (found in the ‘Other’ section) and use the manila clam to craft some Fish Bait.
Fish Bait is very easy to use: once you’ve walked to the place where you’d like to fish, go into your inventory (X) and select to use the Fish Bait.
You’ll need to do this right next to the water, but once you’ve used the Fish Bait, a fish will suddenly appear for you to catch.
Understanding fish shadows in New Horizons
The fish shadows, or rather, the fish silhouettes, will appear in a very similar shape early in the game but will vary in size.
While the size of the silhouette does give you some hint as to the potential species – with shadow sizes appearing in the form of extra-large, large, medium, small, and extra-small – a bigger shadow doesn’t necessarily indicate a more valuable fish.
There are also some other fish shadow shapes in New Horizons. Those with a rounded front leading to a triangular tail are mostly species of standard fish, but there are also skinny, snake-like silhouettes, which are eels.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons also features sharks. You can catch sharks in the ocean, with the shark shadow being identified by the presence of a fin on the fish shadow.
Where you’re fishing, the hemisphere that you’re on, the season, and the time of day are all potential indicators of what fish you can see swimming around.
Best time to catch fish, best time to catch sharks in ACNH
As you’ll see below, some fish and sharks have specific time windows during which they’ll appear in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
The time windows tend to involve the fish either appearing All Day, between the hours of 4am and 9pm, and between the hours of 9pm and 4am. So, if you’ve been fishing for a while and have stopped catching new species, the best time to fish again would be within the next time window – after 4am or after 9pm.
How to catch a shark in ACNH
In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, anyone can catch a shark in the exact same way that you’d catch any other fish, as detailed above.
There are some key differences with sharks, though, with the main aspect being that the lure won’t be held down for as long before the shark disappears. So, when you’re fishing for a shark, you’ll need to be very quick to press A if you want to reel one onto the shore.
You can tell if the fish in the ocean is a shark by looking at the black silhouette. If it looks like a regular fish shadow, but with a fin, it’s going to be a shark on the line.
The only aspects which dictate the best way to catch sharks in New Horizons are the time of day and season according to your hemisphere.
You can catch four sharks in Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Hammerhead Shark, Great White Shark, Saw Shark, Whale Shark – so, here’s a cut-out from the table below to help you catch sharks in the new Animal Crossing game:
| Shark Species | Location | N. Hemisphere Seasonality | S. Hemisphere Seasonality | Time |
| Great White Shark | Ocean | June-September | December-March | 4pm-9am |
| Hammerhead Shark | Ocean | June-September | December-March | All Day |
| Saw Shark | Ocean | June-September | December-March | 4pm-9am |
| Whale Shark | Ocean | June-September | December-March | All Day |
If you’re looking for a certain fish to catch but can’t find it anywhere, it might be down to the season or the location: the table below can help with finding out the best times to catch fish, sharks, and other aquatic creatures in New Horizons.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons aquatic creatures fishing list
Whenever you catch a fish in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and give it to Blathers to examine and put in the museum, you’ll learn all of the key details about the fish (as you can see above).
So, you can always go back into your NookPhone (ZL) and consult the Critterpedia to find where and when to catch the aquatic creature again.
There are 80 species of fish to catch whether you’re in the Northern Hemisphere or Southern Hemisphere, but the seasonality of most fish is different between the regions.
| Aquatic Creature | Location | N. Hemisphere Seasonality | S. Hemisphere Seasonality | Time |
| Black Bass | River | All Year | All Year | All Day |
| Bluegill | River | All Year | All Year | 9am-4pm |
| Carp | River | All Year | All Year | All Day |
| Crucian Carp | River | All Year | All Year | All Day |
| Dace | River | All Year | All Year | 4pm-9am |
| Freshwater Goby | River | All Year | All Year | 4pm-9am |
| Pale Chub | River | All Year | All Year | 9am-4pm |
| Angelfish | River | May-October | November-April | 4pm-9am |
| Arapaima | River | June-September | December-March | 1am-9am |
| Arowana | River | June-September | December-March | 4pm-9am |
| Betta | River | May-October | November-April | 9am-4pm |
| Bitterling | River | November-March | May-September | All Day |
| Char | River |
March-June September-November |
March-May September-December | 4pm-9am |
| Dorado | River | June-September | December-March | 4am-9pm |
| Guppy | River | April-November | October-May | 9am-4pm |
| Loach | River | March-May | September-November | All Day |
| Mitten Crab | River | September-November | March-May | 4pm-9am |
| Neon Tetra | River | April-November | October-May | 4am-4pm |
| Nibble Fish | River | May-September | November-March | 9am-4pm |
| Pike | River | September-December | March-June | All Day |
| Piranha | River | June-September | December-March | 9am-4pm |
| Pond Smelt | River | December-February | June-August | All Day |
| Rainbow Fish | River | May-October | November-April | 9am-4pm |
| Saddled Bichir | River | December-September | June-March | 9pm-4am |
| Snapping Turtle | River | April-October | October-April | 9pm-4am |
| Soft-Shelled Turtle | River | August-September | February-March | 4pm-9am |
| Sweetfish | River | July-September | January-March | All Day |
| Tilapia | River | June-October | December-April | All Day |
| Yellow Perch | River | October-March | April-September | All Day |
| Stringfish | River Clifftop | December-March | Jun-September | 4pm-9am |
| Golden Trout | River Clifftop | March-May, September-November |
March-May September-November | 4pm-9am |
| Cherry Salmon | River Clifftop |
March-June September-November |
March-May September-December | All Day |
| Salmon | River Mouth | September | March | All Day |
| King Salmon | River Mouth | September | March | All Day |
| Sturgeon | River Mouth | September-March | March-September | All Day |
| Goldfish | Pond | All Year | All Year | All Day |
| Pop-Eyed Goldfish | Pond | All Year | All Year | 9am-4pm |
| Ranchu Goldfish | Pond | All Year | All Year | 9am-4pm |
| Koi | Pond | All Year | All Year | 4pm-9am |
| Killifish | Pond | All Year | All Year | 9am-4pm |
| Catfish | Pond | May-October | November-April | 4pm-9am |
| Gar | Pond | July-October | January-April | 4pm-9am |
| Giant Snakehead | Pond | June-September | December-March | 9am-4pm |
| Crawfish | Pond | April-September | October-March | All Day |
| Tadpole | Pond | March-July | September-January | All Day |
| Frog | Pond | May-August | November-February | All Day |
| Anchovy | Ocean | All Year | All Year | 4am-9pm |
| Barreleye | Ocean | All Year | All Year | 9pm-4am |
| Horse Mackerel | Ocean | All Year | All Year | All Day |
| Olive Flounder | Ocean | All Year | All Year | All Day |
| Red Snapper | Ocean | All Year | All Year | All Day |
| Sea Bass | Ocean | All Year | All Year | All Day |
| Barred Knifejaw | Ocean | March-November | September-May | All Day |
| Blowfish | Ocean | November-February | May-August | 9pm-4am |
| Butterfly Fish | Ocean | April-September | October-March | All Day |
| Clownfish | Ocean | April-September | October-March | All Day |
| Dab | Ocean | October-April | April-October | All Day |
| Football Fish | Ocean | November-March | May-September | 4pm-9am |
| Moray Eel | Ocean | August-October | February-April | All Day |
| Napoleonfish | Ocean | July-December | January-June | 4am-9pm |
| Oarfish | Ocean | December-May | June-November | All Day |
| Ocean Sunfish | Ocean | July-September | January-March | 4am-9pm |
| Puffer Fish | Ocean | July-September | January-March | All Day |
| Ray | Ocean | August-November | February-May | 4am-9pm |
| Ribbon Eel | Ocean | July-October | January-April | All Day |
| Sea Butterfly | Ocean | December-March | June-September | All Day |
| Seahorse | Ocean | April-November | October-May | All Day |
| Squid | Ocean | December-August | June-February | All Day |
| Suckerfish | Ocean | June-September | December-March | All Day |
| Surgeonfish | Ocean | April-September | October-March | All Day |
| Zebra Turkeyfish | Ocean |
April-May July-November |
January-May October-November | All Day |
| Great White Shark | Ocean | June-September | December-March | 4pm-9am |
| Hammerhead Shark | Ocean | June-September | December-March | All Day |
| Saw Shark | Ocean | June-September | December-March | 4pm-9am |
| Whale Shark | Ocean | June-September | December-March | All Day |
| Coelacanth | Ocean | All Year | All Year | All Day |
| Blue Marlin | Pier |
November-April July-September |
January-March May-October | All Day |
| Tuna | Pier | November-April | May-October | All Day |
| Mahi-Mahi | Pier | May-October | November-April | All Day |
| Giant Trevally | Pier | May-October | November-April | All Day |
New Horizons Fishing Tips
To increase your chances of catching the fish that you want in Animal Crossing, be sure to take these New Horizons fishing top tips on board.
Never sprint when trying to fish
In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you can sprint as well as just run around at the normal pace. However, if you want to go fishing, never sprint.
If you sprint by the water’s edge, you will scare all of the fish away. So, it’s best to keep your thumb off of the sprint button (hold B) whenever you want to go fishing.
Use bait if there aren’t any fish around
As detailed above, using bait is a great way to allow you to keep fishing in one place so that you can get the aquatic creature that you’re after from that habitat.
So, make sure that whenever you see the water spurt on the beach, you dig up the manila clam, craft it into Fish Bait, and take as much of it as you can on your fishing trip.
Location can be key for fishing
As you would assume, and probably saw in the table above, the habitat makes a big difference to what fish you can catch – but it can be much more specific than just ocean or river habitats.
Some have found that certain fish can only be caught in set weather conditions, such as when it’s raining, as well as the short wooden pier on your island being the only way to catch some other fish species.
So, be sure to fish at any body of water that you can find, using Fish Bait to draw out the local aquatic creatures.
Continue to progress in the story
While the Flimsy Fishing Rod does the job, be sure to keep progressing in the story, doing jobs for Blathers and the other residents, so that you can unlock better tools.
Always take two rods
You’ll find that, especially in the beginning, your fishing rod will break at the worst time. To make sure that you can capitalise on any fish silhouette, always take a second rod.
Early on, you should aim to fish until one fishing rod breaks and then head back to your house. This way, if you see another potential catch on the way back, you still have a rod to capitalise on the opportunity.
If a fish is out of season, change the season
As Animal Crossing: New Horizons progresses in real-time, many players look for ways to time travel.
As sleeping doesn’t work for this, outside of some storyline objectives, the best way to skip to the next day is to change the settings on your Switch.
To time travel in New Horizons, follow the steps below:
- Save your Animal Crossing: New Horizons game, press the ‘Home’ button to return to the Nintendo Switch home screen.
- Press X on the Animal Crossing: New Horizons tile and close the game.
- Go to the bottom bar and over to System Settings, and then press A to enter.
- In System Settings, scroll all the way down the left-hand side to the System option, and then press A.
- Within the System menu, select Date and Time by hovering over the option and pressing A.
- Here, you’ll see that the option to Synchronise Clock via Internet is switched to On. Press A here to unlock the option to change the Date and Time setting. If you’re offline, you can go down to Date and Time straight away.
- Go down to the Date and Time option and change the settings to the time and month of your choice, enabling you to time travel in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
- Once you’ve changed the date, back out of the settings menus, get back into the game, and go fishing.
That’s pretty much everything that you need to know about fishing in New Horizons; see if you can catch all 80 species of Animal Crossing’s aquatic creatures.
Looking for more Animal Crossing New Horizons Guides?
Animal Crossing New Horizons: How to Time Travel, Skip Days, and Change the Season
Animal Crossing New Horizons: Complete Controls Guide and Tips
Animal Crossing New Horizons: How to Cure a Wasp Sting and Make Medicine
Animal Crossing New Horizons: Complete Iron Nuggets Guide (How to Farm Iron Nuggets and Where to Find Them)
