Big Catch Bass Fishing: Slot Overview

Picture a person whose only experience of fish comes from online casinos. Now imagine them heading to the coast and seeing an angler haul a fish from the water. Would they assume a cash prize is coming their way? Maybe, maybe not—but a fisherman symbol paying out the money values attached to the fish he lands is essentially what Big Catch Bass Fishing from Blueprint Gaming is built around. Not exactly a groundbreaking concept, and Big Catch Bass Fishing isn’t the most inventive slot overall either, as it feels strikingly similar to Blueprint Gaming’s Fishin’ Frenzy The Big Splash. Looking closer, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that Big Catch Bass Fishing is effectively a reskin. If you’re fine with that, then hop aboard as we bait the hook and head out again.

The clearest difference between Big Catch Bass Fishing and Fishin’ Frenzy The Big Splash is presentation—this one looks more like a contemporary online title. The old-school Fishin’ Frenzy vibe is swapped out for mountains, trees, and plenty of water. Lake, river, sea—hard to say. Since there are saltwater bass and freshwater bass, the setting is left open to interpretation. Maybe that flexibility is why bass are such a favourite with slot designers; they can drop them into almost any backdrop. Here, the scenery is pleasantly peaceful and as good a spot as any to try and reel in money symbols.

Before casting in, players choose a stake of 10 p/c to $/€100 and can either use the feature buy or wait for the bonus to arrive naturally—like a patient angler would. With medium/high volatile gameplay, Big Catch Bass Fishing comes in two RTP versions, with the top model set at 95%, and that rate stays unchanged whether the bonus is purchased or triggered normally. The game runs on a 5-reel, 3-row layout with 10 paylines. In short, it’s familiar territory.

Every paying symbol awards wins from 3 of a kind or more, except for the top-value boat symbol, which pays from 2 and up. At the lower end are 10 to A card ranks, returning 5-10x the bet, followed by any mix of fish symbols paying 20x the bet. The premium set—tackle box, dragonfly, rod, and boat—pays 50 to 200 times the bet for a 5 OAK hit. Wilds can land on all five reels and substitute for any standard paying symbol. When forming wins on their own, wilds pay the same as the boat symbol.

Big Catch Bass Fishing: Slot Features

One key detail: the wild symbol won’t show up until the bonus round is activated. The feature triggers when 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols land, awarding 10, 15, or 20 free spins in that order.

Pick A Fish

Before the free spins begin, players enter the Pick A Fish feature by choosing 1 of the fish shown on-screen. The selected fish reveals an upgrade that carries into the free spins round, which may be:

• A Cash Tag added to one of the non-card royal symbol types.
• +Fish – additional Fisherman symbols are added to the reels.
• +Collect – cash values will be collected multiple times.
• Re-Spin – all non-Cash and Fisherman symbols will be respun. Reels keep spinning until the win is no longer improved.
• +Games – additional games will be awarded.

Free Spins

During free spins, whenever the Fisherman symbol lands at the same time as fish money symbols or any premium symbols that gained Cash Tags via the Pick A Fish feature, the cash values are awarded. In addition, Fisherman symbols are also collected on a meter beside the reels when they appear. After gathering 2, 6, or 10 Fisherman symbols, players receive extra upgrades from the Pick A Fish feature. When reaching 4, 8, or 12 Fisherman symbols, +10 free spins are granted each time, along with a multiplier of x2, x3, and x10, respectively. Multipliers affect the cash prizes the Fisherman collects, and any retriggered spins are played once the current set finishes.

Bonus Buy

Big Catch Bass Fishing allows direct access to the free spins round via a purchase costing 100 times the bet. After buying, at least 3 scatter symbols will land to activate the feature.

Big Catch Bass Fishing: Slot Verdict

What is it about fish—and bass in particular—that makes slot studios so obsessed? You could almost picture an iGaming expo on a sunny island, with a convention hall full of industry folks tucking into endless plates of freshly cooked sea bass. Jokes aside, there are already loads of these titles out there, and if past trends mean anything, plenty more are still to come. Blueprint Gaming is also among the most prolific creators of fishing slots. The classic Fishin’ Frenzy has been reworked so many times under the studio’s banner that it’s difficult to keep track. Add in the Pragmatic Play Bass slots as well, many of which already deliver something very close to what Big Catch Bass Fishing offers.

This kind of constant iteration becomes even simpler when a developer updates the visuals while leaving most of the mechanics untouched, which seems to be exactly what’s happened with Big Catch Bass Fishing. Why do it? Hard to say, but clearly there’s still a segment of players eager to jump on the next fishing-themed release, even when it feels familiar. Still, anyone who wasn’t keen on Fishin’ Frenzy, The Big Splash’s retro styling might find Big Catch Bass Fishing’s more modern look more appealing.

That’s the optimistic angle, and to be fair, if the fish are biting at full strength, the maximum potential reaches 4,000x the bet. The less flattering angle is the reaction that hits about 3 zeptoseconds after realising Big Catch Bass Fishing is a rework of an earlier, mid-range fishing slot. That reaction was frustration, and after spending some time with it, those first impressions held up. Beyond the refreshed visuals, there was little to nothing here that hadn’t already been cast out before.