Fishin’ Frenzy The Big Catch

Theme and Design

Like Most Fishin Frenzy Slots  - It's The Same ... But Different!

If you’re a fan of the original Fishin’ Frenzy game then you’re guaranteed to like the design of Fishin’ Frenzy The Big Catch, as really not a whole lot has changed. Blueprint Gaming has stuck to the tried and tested formula, bringing back the same popular pay symbols, on the iconic blue reels.

The soundtrack has shifted slightly for the loading menu, but other than that, the game is more or less identical to the original. With that said, if you’ve got a design this popular is there really any need to mess with it?

RTP and Variance

With an RTP of 95.32% this game falls just under that magic 96% rate. However, the trade off is the chance to shoot for that much bigger max win. The volatility on this game is medium, meaning there’ll be a mixture of larger and smaller wins, fairly evenly spread out throughout your session. If you’re on a tighter bankroll and looking for a lower volatility game with a slightly increased RTP then consider the original Fishin’ Frenzy game.

We've seen this game running at lower RTP rates (92%) at some slot sites. Blueprint make multiple versions and leave it to the site owner to choose. So check the RTP on the paytable screen before you play. We recommend playing at MrQ which has this slot at 95.32%.

Maximum Win

The top payout is the one big change between this slot and its predecessors. Here, you can haul in a really big catch, of up to 50,000x your bet. That’s right up there in terms of fishing slots. In fact, you need to make a move to shark fishing if you want to get any higher, Push Gaming’s Razor Returns is perhaps the only competitor.

Symbols and Paytable

Played on a simple 5 reels and 3 rows, this slot offers has 10 paylines. To trigger wins, just match three of the same symbols (or more) on one of the ten paylines from left to right, starting with the leftmost reel. If you match pelican symbols, you only need two. 

There are 9 pay symbols, plus a wild symbol and a scatter symbol that we’ll come to later. The low-paying symbols are the card suits (10, J, Q, K, A) which pay between 0.5x the bet for 3, up to 10x the bet for 5. The premium symbols are the bait box, the lifebuoy, the fishing rod, and the pelican. These pay from 2x your bet for 3 up to 200x your bet for 5. 

The remaining symbols are the blue fish which come in seven different sizes. They pay from 1x the bet for 3 fish, up to 20x the bet for 5 fish, no matter their size in the base game. The wild symbol is the fisherman who can substitute for all symbols to complete a payline. The scatter symbol only activates the free spins round if you land three or more at once.

Features and Gameplay

Fishin’ Frenzy The Big Catch keeps it fairly straightforward when it comes to features. Thankfully, they’ve kept the ever-popular ‘fishing’ round, with just a few tweaks. Let’s take a look at them.

Wild Symbol

First up is the wild symbol, which is the fisherman. In the base game he substitutes for all pay symbols. In the free spins game he acts as part of the cash-collect feature, ‘reeling in’ whichever fish land on the reels. In the Big Catch Fish Upgrade feature he can also upgrade the fish that land, and trigger more free spins, but we’ll cover that in more detail shortly.

Scatter Symbol

The scatter symbol is a fishing boat (aptly named Scatter). If you land 3 scatter symbols then the free spins round begins with 10 free spins. If you land 4, you get 15 free spins, and 5 gets you 20. Once you’re in the free spins feature, you can’t land scatters. 

Fish Symbols

The fish symbols come in seven different sizes, each with its own cash value, 2x, 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x and a whopping 50x the bet. In the base game the fish make wins regardless of their size, paying up to 20x the bet for 5x symbols. In the free spins feature the value of the fish also comes into play. Let’s take a look at how that works now.

Free Spins

Once you land 3 or more scatter symbols the free spins round starts. The round works like normal except a clever cash collect feature, probably the single feature that made this series so popular. If a fisherman lands on the reels at any point he collects all fish that are currently on the reels, taking into account their cash prize number (from 2x up to 50x the bet).

The Big Catch Fish Upgrade

Fishin’ Frenzy The Big Catch includes a key update to how the the cash collect feature works. There’s a little display to the left of the free spins game that counts up how many fishermen land. Once you land four fishermen, the Big Catch Fish Upgrade switches out the lowest  paying fish symbol currently on the reels and replaced it with a more valuable one. It also gives you an additional 5 free spins.

This gets even more exciting when you trigger this upgrade three or more times. Eventually, all of the fish that land in the free spins round will have cash values of 50x the bet. Allowing you to make those monster wins.