Fishing Tourney

Catch fish and win prizes by participating in the Fishing Tourney on your island.

Fishing Tourney Schedule

The Fishing Tourney takes place on the second Saturday of January, April, July, and October.

About the Fishing Tourney

Between 9AM and 6PM, you can enter the tourney by talking to C.J. You can enter as many times as you want. The first entry is free, but there is a fee of 500 bells to enter each time after that.

After you enter, you will have 3 minutes to catch as many fish as possible. During the countdown, all fish that you catch will automatically go into the cooler in the tent on the plaza.

After the time is up, talk to C.J. to find out how many points you got. You get one point per fish, plus 2 bonus points if you caught at least three fish.

Sell or Take your Fish

Talk to C.J. afterward and he will ask if you want to sell him the fish that you caught. He will pay 50% more than the shop. Or, if you want to keep any of the fish that you caught during the tourney, you can open the cooler under the tent in the plaza to take whichever fish you want to keep.

You will need to sell any remaining fish in the cooler before you can enter the tourney again.

You can also sell C.J. fish without entering the tourney. Just talk to C.J. and say "there's something else", then ask to sell your fish.

Get Swag

Your points will be added to a points pool every time you earn points in the tourney. Keep entering the tourney to add more points to your points pool. You can exchange these points for fishing tourney swag. Each item costs 10 points. When you talk to C.J., say "there's something else", and then choose the option to swap points for swag. Here is a list of all of the items that you can get for fishing tourney points. C.J. will always give you one that you haven't gotten before, and after you get all 13, he will give you a random one from the list.

  • marine pop wall
  • fish wand
  • tackle bag
  • fish-print tee
  • fish pochette
  • fish print
  • fish rug
  • fish doorplate
  • fishing-rod stand
  • anchor statue
  • fish-drying rack
  • fish umbrella
  • fresh cooler

Trophies

After you pass a certain number of points, C.J. will tell you that he will send you something special in the mail. The points carry over from all the previous fishing tourneys that you have participated in, and if you already got prizes in the mail after previous fishing tourneys, you won't get them again. You will get the Bronze Trophy if you get at least 100 cumulative points. You will get the Silver Trophy if you get at least 200 cumulative points. You will get the Gold Trophy if you get at least 300 cumulative points. You will get multiple trophies in the mail if you pass more than one of these point thresholds in a single tourney.