Fishing can be one of the fastest ways to make bells in Animal Crossing: City Folk. Our guide walks you through the best fish-catching strategies, and will help you find the most lucrative fish to earn bells as fast as possible.
Animal Crossing: City Folk is one of my all-time favorite Wii games. My girlfriend and I play it so much, in fact, that I named it one of my top 5 Wii games for couples.
There are many ways to make bells in the game, and one of the most lucrative is selling the various fish you catch to Tom Nook for a profit. Fishing also allows you to catch specimens for donation to the museum, as well as new pets with which to decorate your house.
A big part of fishing is luck, you have to be at the right place at the right time to catch the big money fish, and they have to appear while you're there, but there are some things you can do to maximize your moneymaking.
Check out some of our favorite fishing tips for Animal Crossing: City Folk
Upgrade your Fishing Pole
The normal fishing pole works just fine for beginners, but you really should upgrade to the silver model the first chance you get. It will randomly be available for purchase at Tom Nook's store (after you upgrade to Nook n' Go) and gives you a slightly better chance to succeed at fishing. It typically retails for 500 bells.
The ultimate upgrade is of course the golden fishing rod, but you have to catch every single fish in the game to obtain it. Afterward, you'll have no problem reeling in even the toughest of fish to catch.
Know Your Fishing Locations
There are six basic locations in any town where different fish appear: the river, holding ponds, waterfall, river mouth, ocean, and river pond.
The river is any point along the stream that flows through your town that isn't a river pond or waterfall. The holding ponds are the small, landlocked bodies of water that appear around the town. The waterfall, obviously, is the area below where the water falls from the upper level of the town to the lower one.
The river mouth is the point where the river flows into the ocean, the ocean is the large body of water that borders the south end of your town, and the river pond is the point where the river widens slightly to create a large pool.
Different fish can be caught in each of these locations, so you'll need to check them all when you're out fishing.
Check out page two for some great fishing tips and a list of the most expensive fish in the game.
Animal Crossing City Folk for the Wii: Hints and Tips
Our series of Animal Crossing: City Folk guides will show you the best ways to catch fish, arrange your house according to HRA standards, catch the most profitable bugs, and make sure you don't miss out on any of the game's fantastic holidays.