Animal Crossing: City Folk Winter Fishing Guide

Fishing is the quickest, easiest way to make money in Animal Crossing: City Folk

Courtesy of Nintendo

Fishing is by far the easiest way to make Bells in Animal Crossing, but unfortunately, winter doesn't offer the best fish to catch. Still, here are some fishing tips followed by a price guide for winter fish.

Tips

The size of the fish doesn't necessarily show you what it's worth. Some big fish (like sea bass) aren't worth a lot, while some small fish (like bitterlings or goldfish) bring in a lot of money.

Though each town is a bit different, each town should have one of the following great fishing areas: Two waterfalls (fish may be hard to see at the bottom of them), a pond area where the river widens out a bit, and a long coastline. The ocean coast tends to have the most valuable fish.

Don't run while fishing! You can walk as fast as you like, but the moment you press down B or Z to run, fish will get scared off.

You should usually cast your bobber upstream of the fish. That way, it will float down toward the fish eventually. In the ocean, your bobber tends to just float away from the coastline, so you'll have to recast a lot if you don't catch the fish's attention.

There are a couple of uses for your caught fish. You can sell them to Tom Nook for the prices listed below, you can store them in small aquariums inside your house, or you can donate them to the museum. Only one of each type of fish can be donated to the museum, so you may feel like always giving your first catch to them.

Winter Fish Prices

Fish	Worth in Bells	River or Ocean	Notes
Bluegill	120	River	-
Crucian Carp	120	River	-
Horse Mackerel	150	Ocean	-
Barbel Steed	200	River	-
Dace	200	River	-
Freshwater Goby	200	River	-
Pale Chub	200	River	-
Sea Bass	200	Ocean	-
Yellow Perch	240	River	-
Black Bass	300	River	-
Carp	300	River	-
Dab	300	Ocean	-
Pond Smelt	300	River	-
Squid	400	Ocean	-
Octopus	500	Ocean	-
Olive Flounder	800	Ocean	-
Bitterling	900	River	-
Sea Butterfly	1000	Ocean	-
Goldfish	1200	River	-
Popeyed Goldfish	1300	River	Daytime only
Football Fish	2500	Ocean	4 PM – 9 AM only
Lobster	2500	Ocean	-
Red Snapper	3000	Ocean	-
Koi	4000	River	4 PM – 9 AM only
Tuna	7000	Ocean	-
Coelacanth	15000	Ocean	Rain or Snow and 4 PM – 9 AM only
Stringfish	15000	River	-