Fish Trapping
Instead of using a fishing pole, you can now catch fish by using Fish Traps. You will learn about Fish Traps on Spring 20 when you walk from the village area to the river area. Dunhill will greet you, explain how to trap fish, and give you 5 Fish Traps. This tutorial event will only happen if your rucksack isn't full because you'll need the space in your bag to receive the Fish Traps from him.
There are four fish trapping spots in the game. Three of them are in the river area and the fourth is the at Southern Island area, which requires you to use the Travel Agency to reach it. Fish Trap Spot #1 is to the right of the bridge that leads to the village, Fish Trap Spot #2 is between the two bridges (northwest of Spot #1), and Fish Trap Spot #3 is north of the rocks that lead to Aaron and Alice's musical tree stumps.
To use a Fish Trap, remove it from your rucksack and place it into the water at one of the trap locations. Then you wait 30 minutes until the trap begins to wiggle. Once you see activity inside the Fish Trap, press the A button to pick up the item that was caught inside. That's all you have to do! Fish Traps are not permanent once you place them into the water. You can pick a trap out of the water by standing next to it and pressing the A button.
The advantage to using Fish Traps over regular reel-fishing is that you get multiples of the item that you pick up. You can get a maximum of 5 of whatever you collect from within the trap.
Fish Traps are not the sturdiest of tools and have a chance of breaking. There is a 20% chance that the trap will break when you pick it up before 30 minutes has elapsed from the time something is caught in the trap. If you wait between 30 minutes and 2 hours, then there is a 50% chance that the trap will break. If you allow the trapped object to thrash around inside the trap for 2 hours or more, the Fish Trap will always break when you collect the item from the trap.
There are two ways to get more Fish Traps. The first way is to make them yourself at your farmland workshop. Buy the blueprint from Rebecca's Architect shop for 800 G after you build her house sometime around Spring 25. Each Fish Trap will require 5 Small Lumber. The second way is to buy them for 150 G each from Kosaboro after he sets up shop inside Hana's General Store. The fisherman is unlocked once Hana has 30,000 friendship points and you have reached Winter of your first year or later.
Duplicate Names
Some of the fish share the same name in the North American English version of the game. The way to tell them apart is by the (sometimes) unique description on each fish and the position of the fish on the Picture Book data sheet inside your farmhouse bookshelf:
- Trout #1 (JP name = Masu), listed after Tuna, caught when rod fishing.
Fish you can catch in various places. A little bit different from salmon. - Small Trout #1 (JP name = Chibi Masu), listed after the above Trout, caught when fish trapping.
Fish you can catch in rivers. Can catch in a fish trap. Small but splendid trout. - Trout #2 (JP name = Yamame), listed after Killifish, caught when rod fishing.
Fish you can catch in rivers or waterfalls. Has a graceful beauty. - Small Trout #2 (JP name = Chibi Yamame), listed after the above Trout, caught when fish trapping.
Fish you can catch in rivers. Can catch in a fish trap. Small but splendid trout.
In the European version the duplication was corrected, but I don't know what the names were replaced with, sorry.
Fish List
| Fish Name | Spot #1 | Spot #2 | Spot #3 | Beach | Profit (1 Star to 5 Star) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small Sweetfish | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 30 G | 40 G | 50 G | 60 G | 70 G |
| Small Char | No | No | Yes | No | 30 G | 40 G | 50 G | 60 G | 70 G |
| Small Carp | No | Yes | No | No | 30 G | 40 G | 50 G | 60 G | 70 G |
| Small Shishamo | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 30 G | 40 G | 50 G | 60 G | 70 G |
| Icefish | Yes | No | No | No | 84 G | 112 G | 140 G | 168 G | 196 G |
| Small Loach | No | Yes | No | No | 30 G | 40 G | 50 G | 60 G | 70 G |
| Small Goby | Yes | No | No | No | 30 G | 40 G | 50 G | 60 G | 70 G |
| Small Funa | No | Yes | No | No | 30 G | 40 G | 50 G | 60 G | 70 G |
| Small Trout #1 | No | Yes | Yes | No | 30 G | 40 G | 50 G | 60 G | 70 G |
| Killifish | No | Yes | No | No | 24 G | 32 G | 40 G | 48 G | 56 G |
| Small Trout #2 | No | No | Yes | No | 30 G | 40 G | 50 G | 60 G | 70 G |
| Octopus | No | No | No | Yes | 600 G | 800 G | 1000 G | 1200 G | 1400 G |
| Red Crab | No | No | Yes | No | 24 G | 32 G | 40 G | 48 G | 56 G |
| Blue Crab | No | No | Yes | No | 36 G | 48 G | 60 G | 72 G | 84 G |
| Tiger Prawn | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 360 G | 480 G | 600 G | 720 G | 840 G |
| Lake Prawn | No | Yes | No | No | 24 G | 32 G | 40 G | 48 G | 56 G |
| Freshwater Prawn | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | 60 G | 80 G | 100 G | 120 G | 140 G |
| Marsh Shrimp | No | No | Yes | No | 108 G | 144 G | 180 G | 216 G | 252 G |
| Steamer Clam | Yes | No | No | Yes | 96 G | 128 G | 160 G | 192 G | 224 G |
| Horned Turban | No | No | No | Yes | 264 G | 352 G | 440 G | 528 G | 616 G |
| Basket Clams | Yes | No | Yes | No | 36 G | 48 G | 60 G | 72 G | 84 G |
| Hamaguri | No | No | No | Yes | 180 G | 240 G | 300 G | 360 G | 420 G |
| King Fish | |||||
| Softshell Turtle | No | No | Yes | No | 480 G | 640 G | 800 G | 960 G | 1120 G |
| Mitten Crab | No | Yes | No | No | 420 G | 560 G | 700 G | 840 G | 980 G |
| Eel | Yes | No | No | No | 840 G | 1120 G | 1400 G | 1680 G | 1960 G |
| Red King Crab | No | No | No | Yes | 1104 G | 1472 G | 1840 G | 2208 G | 2576 G |
There isn't a brand associated with shipped fish.
Besides fish, you can collect various other items inside of a Fish Trap. In all of the trapping spots you can find Bottle, Can, Fish Bones, Old Boot, Small Rock, Rock, Black Rock, Small Branch, Branch, Black Branch, Coin, Old Coin, and Shiny Coin. When using a Fish Trap at the Southern Island, you can also find Coral, Pearl, and Sea Urchin.
Blueprints
Besides fish and fished-up items, you can find blueprints inside of a Fish Trap. There are 7 blueprints and 3 fragment pieces that can be discovered. The items are grouped together, so once you find all of the items from a group, the next group and its items can be found.
Your Fish Trap Degree needs to be at "Skilled Trapper" rank before you can start to find the items from Group 1. To reach "Skilled Trapper", catch 50 items from the Fish Traps. After you've found all blueprints from Group 1, you can start finding the Group 2 blueprints if you have the "Star Trapper" rank or higher, which requires you to catch 200 items from the Fish Traps.
| Group 1 Req. "Skilled Trapper" rank River area only | Boot Pot, Crimson Fragment |
| Group 2 Req. "Star Trapper" rank River area only | Purple Flower Basket, Chained Poles, Chained Poles Curved, White Flower Basket |
| Group 3 Beach area only | Azure Fragment |
| Group 4 Beach area only After game ending | Royal Wood, Emerald Fragment, Yellow Stars |