Fishing — a free cast, hook and reel game in your browser

Three things happen with one finger. Hold to cast and let go to throw the float out. Tap the moment it dips to set the hook. Then hold to reel — and let go whenever the fish runs, because reeling against a running fish is what breaks the line.

You get ninety seconds and your score is the number of fish you land. Free, no download, no sign-up.

How to play

• Hold, then release, to cast. The longer you hold, the further the float goes.
• Strike when the float dips. There is a short window; miss it and the fish is gone and you cast again.
• Hold to reel the fish in. The bar on the left is line tension: fill it and the line snaps.
• Let go while it runs. Tension falls when you are not reeling, but the fish also takes line back.
• Your score is fish landed in 90 seconds, and your top 5 is kept on this device.

The whole game is one number, and it is not the distance

It looks like the goal is to reel the fish in, so the obvious plan is to hold the button down. That plan loses every time, and understanding why is the game.

There are two quantities moving at once. One is the distance left to reel, which only falls while you hold. The other is tension, which rises while you hold and falls while you do not. The trick is that the rate tension rises is not constant: it depends on whether the fish is running. A calm fish costs you almost nothing to reel; a running fish costs several times as much, and holding through a run is what fills the bar.

So the game is a rhythm rather than a race. Reel hard while it is calm, stop the moment it runs, and start again when it settles. The player who holds the button down all the way snaps the line on the first serious run; the player who is too cautious spends ninety seconds landing three fish, because a fish that is not being reeled is quietly taking line back.

That last part is the reason doing nothing is not a strategy. A fish left alone during a run swims away from you, so the distance you have to make up grows — and if it takes enough line it breaks off and is gone. Waiting out every run costs you more line than it saves you tension, which is what stops "release and wait" being a solved answer, and the break-off is what stops a player who never reels at all from sitting in a fight that never ends.

The cast has one decision in it too, and it is the opposite of what you would guess. A long cast gets a bite sooner, because there is more water out there with fish in it, but it leaves you more line to win back and therefore a longer fight. The two nearly cancel: measured end to end, a short cast produces a fish about every 8.8 seconds and a long one about every 11, so the short cast is slightly ahead but you spend most of that time waiting rather than playing. Where it stops being close is the end of the run — with fifteen seconds on the clock a long cast will not finish, and casting short to land one more fish is simply right.

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