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Fishing Tourney Guide: Dates, Fish Set Prizes, Tips, Strategy

The Fishing Tournament is a monthly recurring event in Animal Crossing: New Leaf taking place during the spring and winter months in-game. Catch the biggest fish you can for Chip to receive exclusive Fish Set event furniture!

Looking for Animal Crossing: New Horizons? Check out Fishing Tourney Event Guide with All Swag Prize Rewards and How To Get The Most Points here!

Fishing Tourney Dates and Types

There are two different types of Fishing Tourney events that can take place, depending on the month of the year. Either you will need to catch any type of fish in the game, or you will need to catch only one specific type of fish requested by Chip. Different prizes will be rewarded depending on the tourney type too.

Consult the table below to see when the Fishing Tourney happens and what type of tourney it will be:

How to Play the Fishing Tourney

On days when the Fishing Tourney is held, head to the town tree plaza from 9AM to 6PM to meet Chip the Beaver. (the closing ceremony takes places 6PM to 9PM) He’ll be standing next to a big blue tent!

Speak with Chip to receive his instructions on what type of fish he is looking for during this fishing tourney. No matter what fish he asks for, your goal during this event is to catch and submit the largest sized fish you can to Chip! After you submit a fish to Chip, he’ll measure the size to determine if you have set a new record for the biggest fish of the day.

If your newly submitted fish sets a new record for the day, you’ll receive a new piece of furniture — either from he exclusive Fish Set or a common item.

How to Win: Fishing Tourney Strategy and Tips

The best and most optimal way to play the Fishing Tourney is to set as many new fish size records as possible throughout the day. Every time you set a new record, Chip will reward you with a new piece of furniture, so being strategic with your fish submissions will lead to the best results.

In order to be strategic, pay attention and try to remember the fish size that is displayed in the text window after catching a fish! This size is exactly what Chip uses to measure your fish when you submit it.

Knowing that information, try to be smart about which fish you submit to Chip and what order you do so in. By trying to give him smaller sized fish first, followed by larger sized fish later after you have already broken or set smaller records, your prizes will be maximized! Whereas if you end up submitting one of your largest fish of the day right off the bat, your potential prizes will be greatly reduced.

It’s good to know that you can also place fish in your house’s drawer storage, or simply move them around your pocket inventory. This can be used to attempt to organize the fish into tiers of fish size for submitting to Chip later in the most strategic order.

Fish Set Furniture Rewards

Every time you give Chip a fish and set a new fish size record (your own record or a villager), he will reward you with a new furniture item! If the new record is above the average size for that fish, you will receive an item from the exclusive Fish Set. If the new record is below the average size, you will receive a random piece of furniture.

What item of furniture you may receive from the exclusive Fish Set event furniture depends on whether you are playing a Fishing Tourney accepting any fish or a specific type of fish. Consult the lists below to see the items you can get!

Any Fish Tourney Prizes

The following items are prizes during Any Fish tourneys during February, April, October, and December:

• Crab Clock
• Dab Table
• Footfall-Fish Lamp
• Sea-Anemone Bed
• Squid Chair
• Marine Pop Floor

Specific Fish Tourney Prizes

The following items are prizes during Specific Fish tourneys during January, March, May, and November:

• Flounder Table
• Jellyfish Lamp
• Octopus Chair
• Puffer-Fish TV
• Red-Snapper Chair
• Marine Pop Wall

The Fish Set items are completely exclusive to the Fishing Tourney events and cannot be obtained in any other way, including ordering through the catalog. Hang onto them if you can!

Fishing Tourney Closing Ceremony

After the Fishing Tourney concludes at 6PM, a closing ceremony for the winners will be held inside the blue tent next to Chip at the town tree plaza. During the ceremony, Chip will award gold, silver, and bronze trophies to the top players or villagers who place in the tourney!

Note that the closing ceremony is not mandatory to attend, but it’s a lot of fun if you can! If you don’t show up before the event ends at 9PM, your trophy will be sent to you in the mail the next day instead.