How to play
Big Catch
Cast at the fish you want, hook it when it bites, and spin the stick to reel it in. Most points at the bell wins.
At a glance
- Players
- 1–4 at once
- Ages
- 4 and up
- Round
- About thirty seconds
- In the packs
- Party
Controls
This one uses the stick and the big button, nothing else.
| What you press | What it does |
|---|---|
| Stick | aim the cast; in a fight, roll it round and round to reel |
| Button 1 — the big button | hold to pick how far, let go to cast; press when the fish bites to set the hook |
How a round goes
Everyone fishes from one dock into one pond, and the fish are right there under the water, in their colours and at their size. Aim with the stick, hold button 1 to slide the landing ring out along your line, and let go to cast. Land the bobber right on a fish for a NICE CAST and it comes at once; a patch of bubbles hides a better fish; an old boot or a tin can on the bottom gets hooked too, and the room laughs.
A fish nibbles once, twice, maybe three times — wait, a press now scares it off — and then it bites. Press button 1 straight away to set the hook. Then roll the stick round the gate, either way: one turn of the stick is one turn of the reel, and a wiggle counts for nothing.
The fish rests and then runs. A ring round it fills green, amber, red, with REEL! or WAIT! beside it; WAIT! comes half a second before the run, so stop spinning. Keep reeling through a run and the line snaps. Reel the fish to the dock and it flies up into your hands for a trophy photo, then into your bucket.
The round is seventy-five seconds. Once a round a golden koi swims in and everybody goes for it. The last fifteen seconds are a feeding frenzy: every fish bites at once and is worth double. A fish still on the line at the bell gets eight more seconds. With four children the setup card's ▲▼ row offers TEAMS: the first and third child against the second and fourth, each side's points added up.
Scoring and winning
A minnow is 1 point, a sunfish 2, a bass or a trout 3, a pike or a catfish 5, the golden koi 10. A BIG fish is worth half again and a GIANT double. Most points wins; level on points, most fish.
After the bell comes the weigh-in: each child's heaviest fish on a card above them, and BIGGEST FISH for the heaviest of all. Alone, your score goes to the leaderboard.
Tips
- Stop spinning the moment WAIT! comes up, and start again on REEL! — the snap is almost always a hand that kept going.
- A Little Kids seat reels on any shake of the stick, never snaps and never scares a fish off.
- On a Big Kids seat, rolling the stick the other way gives line: the tension eases and the fish takes a little back, which can save a tight line in a run.