Stringfish - Picture Guide - How to catch Reproducibly, Quickly, and Easily

rustfour

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Hi, fellow Animal Crossers!

I've seen a lot of people struggling with this, and since there's only one day left, I wanted to make as easy and painless as possible.

Follow my guide below, and you'll get your fish with minimal effort, though it can still take a little time.

Stringfish -

Go to your ABD machine and get a Nook Miles ticket and, after 4 pm local time, travel to a deserted island via your local airport.

What data I've seen so far indicates the stringfish spawns after 4 pm. I wouldn't travel to the island before that in case it can impact the spawn formulas for the island.

NOTE: You may need to do this a few times to get the right sort of island. All you need is a deserted island with a cliff and water on that level as the stringfish only spawns in water that's cliff height.

What's unique about the deserted islands are their very high respawn rates as well as the ability of spawn to occur while you're very close to a location. These two factors are essential.

I've gone to enough deserted islands to find some patterns. The pictures I'm sharing are from a deserted island type I've seen spawn a few times.

Stringfish_Guide-pic1.jpg

Now, you don't need to go down and clear everything before coming up here. If it makes you more comfortable, go ahead and start at the sea and remove the fish present by running/slamming your net into the water/fishing them up.

You NEVER need to go down off the cliff once you're up there. If you do get fish spawning below the waterfall, feel free to fish them up, but again, this isn't necessary to this method. The radius away from the player that fish can spawn is tiny, as the next pictures illustrate.

Now, once you're at your cliff-height water source, presuming it's empty, step as far away from it as you can without leaving the cliff. Like so:

Stringfish_Guide-pic2.jpg

This small distance away from the water is enough for spawning to occur.

Now set your controllers down and do something else for a little bit. Maybe 30 seconds, perhaps a minute.

Walk, don't run (scares the fish) back over to the water. You'll usually have fish spawned in. If they aren't the right size, run or net-scare them away, fish them up, whatever. For speed, I'd run or smack the water with the net.

What is the right size? This image shows you that:

Stringfish_Guide-pic3.jpg

That is my actual catch for this guide still in the water, successful lure in the air, so I'm sure it's a stringfish.

Voila:

Stringfish_Guide-pic4.jpg


This is a straightforward and reproducible method to catch stringfish. This is my 2nd catch as I wanted to test the guide.


Good fishing, fellows! Please give this a like and a bump when you get yours!
 
i’ve already caught my stringfish but thank you for sharing!
 
Thank you so much! I've been struggling to catch this guy.

You're very welcome! I wish I'd posted this sooner - let me know how it goes?

edit: and hello/thanks/you're welcome/:) to everyone else responding or giving it a thumbs up. :D

I wonder if I can get a sticky for this, just for the day??? I suppose it's broadly relevant to other hard-to-get fish in future months as well. I could rewrite it with that in mind. Hm hm hm...
 
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Thank you for posting this! I went to three different islands last night and still couldn't catch the stringfish. I'm hoping that my luck will be better tonight!
 
Thank you for posting this! I went to three different islands last night and still couldn't catch the stringfish. I'm hoping that my luck will be better tonight!

Hit it at 4 pm local time, and don't give up! Also, if you find that you're not getting respawns in the top lake area, try to extend the water-out-of-view time a little bit. I was doing other things to stay busy so I wasn't just staring at a timer or anything.

I can say with 100% confidence you will get spawns while being that close to the water. I didn't try to press it further to see how close I could be but it seemed WAY closer than when you're on your home island.

Also, please share your experience - any data we can add to refine this further would be ideal. Maybe people need a slightly longer wait time, maybe they're having more luck with an initial clearance of the river below (I don't expect that you would as they'll despawn in time but it could speed up the front end, hard to say for sure).
 
I have a Stringfish but the problem here is that I've never been to an Island with a clifftop. So for me finding one is rarer than catching the actual fish.
 
You're very welcome! I wish I'd posted this sooner - let me know how it goes?

edit: and hello/thanks/you're welcome/:) to everyone else responding or giving it a thumbs up. :D

I wonder if I can get a sticky for this, just for the day??? I suppose it's broadly relevant to other hard-to-get fish in future months as well. I could rewrite it with that in mind. Hm hm hm...

Turns out, doing this with heavy Joy-Con drifting makes it incredibly hard.
 
Finally caught one just now, so close to it going out of season too!
 
I've been to this island type several times, but I've never been able to get one to spawn at the top of the cliff. Going to try it tonight. Wish me luck!
 
I'm assuming this works for all the fish that spawn there, including the Golden Trout? That's the only fish giving me trouble now.
 
I'm assuming this works for all the fish that spawn there, including the Golden Trout? That's the only fish giving me trouble now.

Yes, it should work irrespective of the fish type. I think I actually caught my golden trout doing the same thing, but please verify if you get yours this way. Thanks!

@Everyone - please share your success! We're in the window now.
 
already caught my stringfish on these mystery islands, basically unintentionally using this guide, but thanks for explaining it! i've caught the stringfish, sturgeon, and coelacanth at the mystery islands.. the high respawn rate for the fish and the small area really do make a big difference!
 
Thanks for the guide!! It sucks it's so complicated lol
 
Hey, thank you for the guide! I like it with the images and all, I got to an island which was almost like yours, but the cliff was smaller, so I couldn't zoom out the camera without climbing down, do the stringfish spawn in this one too?

And it's funny because I got a golden trout before the stringfish :(, I hope I get it before tomorrow! Let me know if you think the stringfish can spawn in this island, which is like yours with that cliff but the cliff is a bit smaller (and it's surrounded by peach trees).

Regards!

EDIT: By the way, can you catch the stringfish after 12 am? I mean the day doesn't change until 5am, doesn't it? Or do the fishes' seasons change at 12am?

EDIT 2: The biggest shadows I got were all black basses T.T

EDIT 3: I GOT IT! Oh my... I'm so happy! I got it on the island I said, after a loooong time, thank you very much for the guide! I'm looking forward to the easter bunny event and the spring season!
 
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Hey, thank you for the guide! I like it with the images and all, I got to an island which was almost like yours, but the cliff was smaller, so I couldn't zoom out the camera without climbing down, do the stringfish spawn in this one too?

And it's funny because I got a golden trout before the stringfish :(, I hope I get it before tomorrow! Let me know if you think the stringfish can spawn in this island, which is like yours with that cliff but the cliff is a bit smaller (and it's surrounded by peach trees).

Regards!

EDIT: By the way, can you catch the stringfish after 12 am? I mean the day doesn't change until 5am, doesn't it? Or do the fishes' seasons change at 12am?

EDIT 2: The biggest shadows I got were all black basses T.T

EDIT 3: I GOT IT! Oh my... I'm so happy! I got it on the island I said, after a loooong time, thank you very much for the guide! I'm looking forward to the easter bunny event and the spring season!

Awesome! So glad it worked out for you!

I do think this is the best way to go about fishing up the hard-to-get fish in a focused way. Thanks for responding and sharing your success!!!
 
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