Giant Trevally and Mahi-Mahi do not exist...!

[ceribells]

I have the best luck on NMT islands. It feels like things respawn faster - maybe cause the island is smaller? I've caught pier fish in the area surrounding the dock Wilbur hangs out on.

 

[SmrtLilCookie]

I was lucky to catch the mahi-mahi. I kept seeing people talking about that fish, so I made fish bait one day, went over to the dock, and it was the first fish that showed up. I caught a char a while back, but I don't remember when that happened. I just saw a fish and threw out the line. I didn't even know chars were tough to get.

Oh my gosh, chars were the bane of my existence. It took me over a month to see one, and 2 solid nights of bait making to finally catch it for my museum. Probably 100+ bags gone for a supposedly "common" fish. On the other hand, I got my Mahi Mahi and Giant Trivially in the same night on one stack of bait so I dunno

 

[Khaelis]

I just caught a Mahi-Mahi, lol

 

[PugLovex]

really? i caught them both on accident trying to get my first coelacanth haha

good luck!

 

[Red Cat]

The Mahi Mahi took FOREVER for me too, I have never had so much trouble trying to catch a fish in AC. I was crafting 10-40 pieces of bait each day over like 10 days. I finally dedicated an entire Saturday to JUST get this fish, and I got it in the last 10 minutes before I went to bed. Spawn rates have gotten really unbalanced, it's super weird. They've really messed with the bug rates too

An event that takes 5 minutes to complete will last 2 weeks so no one misses out, but fish/bugs will not spawn after tens of hours of dedicated searching... Nintendo please

Since they nerfed the spawn rates of bugs that they thought were too common, you'd think they could increase the spawn rate of fish that are obviously way too rare, especially since the hardest ones to find aren't even the most valuable ones. I've already caught a few dorados, great white sharks, arowanas, and arapaimas, but I've seen the loch ness monster by my pier more often than the giant trevally even though it's only worth 4.5k. The betta and piranha shouldn't be that hard to find since they're worth less than a freaking red snapper. Then again, instead of balancing the fish spawn rates, Nintendo will probably just nerf the spawn rates of the big money fish and give us more sea bass instead.

 

[Khaelis]

Making this thread to complain was worth it because I caught two mahi-mahi and a barreleye (finally) in 30 bait, lol. Just the giant trevally to go now, as well as a hammerhead shark.

 

[swifterly]

On my 2nd island (Aoshima), I caught the giant trevally and mahi mahi in a single day while not even trying, just doing a bit of random fishing as I ran up and down my beaches. On my 1st island (New Senia), which is where I really want to focus on the completionist things and finish my museum, I have seen not hide nor hair of either. I haven't got really into trying with bait for either, but I have spent several dozen looking for trevally so far. Too bad there is no way to trade fish with each other...

Meanwhile I have caught a lot of char. Probably somewhere around 10? I didn't know it was supposed to be super rare until coming on the forums and seeing people complain.

The golden trout, though... I spent hundreds of bait looking for the damn thing. I finally caught one near the end of the season for it. It's so pretty, I'd like to get a model made of it, but I have my doubts that'll ever happen.

 

[Khaelis]

The golden trout, though... I spent hundreds of bait looking for the damn thing. I finally caught one near the end of the season for it. It's so pretty, I'd like to get a model made of it, but I have my doubts that'll ever happen.

Golden Trout took me just shy of 400 bait...

 

[swifterly]

Since they nerfed the spawn rates of bugs that they thought were too common, you'd think they could increase the spawn rate of fish that are obviously way too rare, especially since the hardest ones to find aren't even the most valuable ones. I've already caught a few dorados, great white sharks, arowanas, and arapaimas, but I've seen the loch ness monster by my pier more often than the giant trevally even though it's only worth 4.5k. The betta and piranha shouldn't be that hard to find since they're worth less than a freaking red snapper. Then again, instead of balancing the fish spawn rates, Nintendo will probably just nerf the spawn rates of the big money fish and give us more sea bass instead.

Betta are rather uncommon for me but overall I have caught plenty.

Piranha is way too rare, though. So far I've only caught two (and I've spent several dedicated sessions looking for it). And I think the spawn rate of the dorado is weirdly high given it is one of the most valuable fish in the game.

 

[samticore]

I had no trouble finding Tuna. My friend had no trouble finding Blue Marlin.

We both had extreme trouble getting the opposite fish. It’s like the game knows, somehow??? You have to stop looking and let it come to you or be prepared to spend 80 bait in a single session. Bless all y’all who sell stacks for TBT.

 

[Red Cat]

I had no trouble finding Tuna. My friend had no trouble finding Blue Marlin.

We both had extreme trouble getting the opposite fish. It’s like the game knows, somehow??? You have to stop looking and let it come to you or be prepared to spend 80 bait in a single session. Bless all y’all who sell stacks for TBT.

I wonder if some fish are actually more common on some islands compared to others to push online play a little more. I have no real evidence to back this up, but it wouldn't surprise me given how the availability of different furniture colors depends on the island. There are some fish that others have an extremely difficult time finding that I find relatively often while some people here say they haven't had a lot of difficulty finding the mahi-mahi and giant trevally even though those are extremely rare for me. I don't know if it's just RNG or if there's a game mechanic at work here.

 

[sdw4527]

They're both extremely rare (1% spawn rate each iirc) and only spawn in a single small area so it makes them even more rare without bait. Fish like the Barreleye and Oarfish (easier since you can distinguish the shadow) are easier to catch due to being able to spawn anywhere in the ocean. You can just walk around and spot one in the Oarfish's case while going about daily tasks. Not much you can do, but keep on trying. With a spawn rate that low, you can easily get unlucky and need 200+ bait before finding one.

 

[Shawna]

The giant trevally took me about 100 bait to catch, I had the same issue. The mahi-mahi was easier.

 

[lars708]

The thing I think is the weirdest about all this is that they don't even sell for much. They're a pain to get and yet barely worth anything. Meanwhile sharks appear all the time and sell for tons....

 

[Shawna]

The thing I think is the weirdest about all this is that they don't even sell for much. They're a pain to get and yet barely worth anything. Meanwhile sharks appear all the time and sell for tons....

I noticed! I caught like 10 already, and I caught like 5 dorado in, like, a two hour span.
Yet, there I was breaking my back to catch a fish that only sells for 4,500. .-----.