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Fishings Wild

A Freshwater Fishing Card Game
2–4 Players  •  Ages 8+  •  20–40 Minutes  •  Version 1.0

I.Object of the Game

Be the first angler to land all 5 freshwater species and fill your stringer. Collect them in order, filling each limit before moving on.

#CatchTypeLimit
1 Bluegill Panfish 4
2 Crappie Panfish 3
3 Perch Sportfish 2
4 Bass Sportfish 1
5 Muskie Sportfish 1

II.Setup

  1. Remove the Help cards from the deck.
  2. For 2 or 3 players, remove cards per the table below.
  3. Shuffle and deal 6 cards to each player.
  4. Place the rest face down as the draw pile.
  5. Turn the top card face up beside it to start the discard pile.
  6. Play starts with the player to the dealer's left and passes left.

The deal rotates one player to the left after each game.

Deck scaling

4 players use the full deck (114). 3 players (88) remove Bluegill 5, Crappie 4, Perch 3, Bass 2, Muskie 2, Sunrise 2, Clear Skies 1, Fish Finder 1, Small Tackle 2, Big Tackle 2, Fishing License 2. 2 players (62) remove double each of those.

Troubles, Safe cards and Golden Hook are never removed.

III.On Your Turn

Draw one, then do one thing

  1. Draw one card from the draw pile or take the face-up top card of the discard pile.
  2. Play one card face up into your tackle setup, or against another player.
  3. If you cannot play, or choose not to, discard one card.

One card in, one card out. Your turn then passes to the left.

IV.Taking a Catch

Before you may take any catch you need all three of these face up, and no Trouble on you:

Sunrisealways
Fishing LicenseLocal Guide also counts
Small Tackle / Big Tacklematch the type
  • Small Tackle for Panfish, Big Tackle for Sportfish, Tackle Box for either. Only one type out at a time.
  • Fill each limit before advancing, and clear any Trouble first.

V.Trouble Cards (red)

Play one against another player to stop them. They must clear it before continuing.

Only one Trouble may sit on a player at a time. Targeted while you already have one? Say so and refuse the play: the card returns to their hand and they do something else.

TroubleCleared bySafe card
Nightfall Sunrise —
Storm Clear Skies Rain Gear
No Fish Here Fish Finder Local Guide
Broken Tackle Small Tackle or Big Tackle Tackle Box
Lose License Fishing License Local Guide

VI.Safe Cards (blue)

Play them any time, even before you need them. There is no restriction on when a Safe card may be played. One sitting face up blocks its Trouble outright.

“Fish On!” Trouble played at you while the matching Safe card is in your hand? You must call it and play the Safe. Not optional, no hiding it. The Trouble turns back on the attacker and your Safe stays face up. If the attacker already has a Trouble, discard it instead.

The table above shows which Safe card covers which Trouble. Tackle Box also counts as either Small Tackle or Big Tackle. Local Guide also counts as your Fishing License.

VII.Golden Hook (gold)

  • Take any one catch from any player, or the top discard if it is a catch. You choose both.
  • It ignores everything else: nothing need be face up, it works with a Trouble on you, and you may take one you do not need, even past its limit.
  • Once used it goes straight to the discard pile. It may never be picked up from there, but it returns to play when the discard pile is reshuffled into a new draw pile.

VIII.Days & Victory

When the draw pile runs out, shuffle the whole discard pile, Golden Hook included, and turn it over as the new draw pile. A new day begins.

The first player to complete all 5 catches wins immediately.

Optional: the Reverse Rule

Agree before the deal. Golden Hook may be played as a Reverse instead of taking a catch: play changes direction until someone reverses again. For three or more players.