><)))'> ZELDA 64: THE ULTIMATE FISHING GUIDE v1.3 ><)))'> by DaRk_OnE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Updates: 1/26/99: I started the guide and finished the guide in about 2 hours maybe. I hope it doesn't hurt to get your hands sewn back on because mine are about to FREAKIN FALL OFF from so much typing. 1/29: I made some minor updates and corrections. I added a few things in the Loach section based on what some people have told me in their emails. Also added Hall of Fame. Please email me at DaRk_OnE_@hotmail.com because I LIKE comments and suggestions, even if they are negative so I know what to change. 2/3: A few corrections, updates, 2 or 3 new sections, more people in the Hall of Fame, look for my new faq at www.gamefaqs.com, it's a list of all the rumors of the triforce I have heard about. Read it, it's good but not too many rumors yet so please e-mail them to me. 2/14: LISTEN UP! I put the hylian loach in its own section now and it is at the bottom of the guide. Please e-mail me at DaRk_OnE_@hotmail.com if you have caught the loach so you can go in my hall of fame. Oh yeah, I also made some corrections and added more names to the hall of fame. I added 2 more secrets to the secrets section. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - CONTENTS I. The Pond II. The Controls III. Fishing IV. Tips V. Secrets VI. FAQ VII. Hylian Loach VIII. Hall of Fame and special thanks NOTE: Many people have questions about the Hylian Loach. My section on the Loach is right near the bottom. It now has its own section (section VII) and it is no longer in the secrets section. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I. The Pond First, and most important, the fishing pond is in Lake Hylia in the east corner. It's a little patch of land on your map. If you don't know this already then you are a stupid ignorant person and it's no surprise that you need a guide to help you. The fishing pond is a small area where you pay for a fishing rod and you can fish, just like in real life. I recommend that you get a Rumble Pak, because it not only makes it feel cool, but it can also help you in this. The cost for fishing is 20 rupees, and you can fish for as long as you want. I can spend hours at a time here, because this is sooo fun. If you catch a big enough fish, you get a prize so don't forget to keep fishing in there until you know you have the biggest fish you can catch! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - II. The Controls Press A to talk to the man and B a couple of times to skip what he says, unless you want to learn the controls the HARD way. He is confusing sometimes so just read my control list. CONTROLS: 1. While not fishing A talks, rolls, opens doors, all the normal stuff B casts the line unless you are running, then Link just rolls Control Stick moves Link. what else? 2. While casting A + Control stick down makes the lure stop and fall right where it is 3. While fishing A reels the line in A + R reels the line in faster B makes Link tug at the line Z moves camera closer and farther from the lure Control stick makes link wiggle the lure to attract fish 4. You hooked a fish! Now what? A reels the line in B doesn't seem to do much here but I dunno. Z moves camera closer and farther from the lure Control stick moves the line left and right (see part IV for tips on this) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - III. Fishing This is a walkthrough of fishing 1. Walk inside the fishing pond at a good time (see part IV for tips on when to fish) and talk to the man. Pay him 20 rupees and press B to skip through his talking. Walk over to the pond, find a good spot (see part IV for tips on how to find a good spot) and cast the line to the desired location. 2. Wait for a fish to come and bite the hook. The fish bite more as kid Link or with the sinking lure as adult Link (see part V about the sinking lure, but not IV this time). You may need to wiggle the line a little to get the fish interested in biting, especially as adult Link since the fish are more stubborn then. 3. When the fish bites, there is no real strategy that I know of as to what buttons to push, but i just press and hold A, R, and B. Wiggle the control stick a little, hold it to one side, or for really big fish go see part IV on how to use the fish's direction to know what to do. 4. When you have pulled the fish up right next to Link, you may need to use the control stick to spin the fish in a circle because that brings it even closer to Link and, as always, the closer the better. 5. Yay, you caught a fish! If Link says, "Wow this one is a real lunker," that means its a big fish and you should keep it, unless it weighs less than any previous catches. Once you catch a good one, take it to the guy at the front and ask him to weigh your fish. Kid Link will get a piece of heart for a lunker, and adult Link will get the golden scale, which lets him dive a whole 8 meters! after you get the golden scale you should go to the Lakeside Laboratory and get the piece of heart for diving to the bottom of the pool. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - IV. Tips To get lunkers every time, follow these easy rules: a. FISH AT THE RIGHT TIME: This is the hardest part. You can play the Sun's Song and go in the door right when the day is about to change to night, or vice versa, because RIGHT BEFORE THE SUN RISES OR SETS IS THE BEST TIME TO FISH!!! If you go in at the right time, sometimes the fish will be really excited or something and they jump around. It's weird, but that makes it easy to fish. b. GET THE SINKING LURE: See part V on secrets to find out where this is, since it's one of the game's many secrets. c. STAND IN THE RIGHT SPOT: The place closest to the middle where you can stand to fish is kinda between the rocks near the stream in the back of the pond. The place closest to the lunker's spot (Note: the lunker always starts in the same spot, right next to the spike from the tree coming out of the water) is on the log right next to it! Quietly walk from the fisherman slowly into the water and stand on the log. DON'T SCARE ANY FISH AWAY! Get on the end of the log right next to that big fish just sitting there and cast toward it and quickly press A + control stick down so the lure lands right next to it. From there you can get the lunker in record time. d. FISH IN THE RIGHT SPOT: The best places to get the biggest fish are by the 3 poles sticking out of the water and by the log sticking out of the water. I think there's another one but I forget it, maybe I will think of it in a later version. If you scare the big fish, it will move to another one of these locations. e. DON'T WASTE TIME: If you are trying to get 1 fish in that big school of fish that hangs around in the middle, use the sinking lure (see part V) and let it sink to the bottom, then a fish will come up to snag it. If you don't have the sinking lure go to the letter e to find some useful ways to lure a fish into biting. If you snag a small fish just don't press anything and let it go to save time. If that happens, the other fish will swim away and you throw your controller getting mad at it and start cursing and stuff just because of that stupid small wimpy fish scaring the others away. If that happens it might be a good idea to leave and come back in to reset everything and, hey, it's only 20 rupees. f. LURING FISH THE HARD WAY: The hard way is without the sinking lure. If you are stuck without one, here is an almost foolproof way to get a big fish. WIGGLE THE CONTROL STICK UNTIL HE BITES! Doing this makes him think that the lure is a small scared fish and he will try to bite it. Also by doing this you are luring the fish out of deep water and closer to Link, so he will take shorter to reel in (see letter f for tips on reeling in). g. REELING IN: Here is the part where luck comes in. Hold A, R, and B like I do and wiggle the control stick. If it's a big fish, you should use the following tactic: when the fish turns left, HOLD THE CONTROL STICK LEFT and that will suprise him and make him reel in easier. Also, when the fish turns RIGHT, HOLD THE CONTROL STICK RIGHT and it will do the same thing to him. Once he gets so close that you can see Link, reel him in normally but hold the control stick in 1 direction of your choosing. If he seems to be slipping at this point, shake him back and forth a little to loosen him up. h. PICK YOUR CATCH: Put on the iron boots and the Zora Tunic and go into the water to find a big, meaty fish! Z-target it and then get out, cast, and drop the line right in fron of it's face! This can be a good way to find the Hylian Loach, talked about in the secrets section, if you can find it. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - V. Secrets There are a few fishing secrets, so listen up: a. THE SINKING LURE: As adult Link, when you have caught a fish 15 pounds and up, there will be a sinking lure somewhere in the pond when you enter. The lure appears in random spots somewhere in or around the pond. The place where I have found it to be most commonly is IN THE GRASS ALONG THE WALL. Walk along the wall and you may find it in the grass there or hidden somewhere by the place where the stream comes in among the rocks. Also, if you can't find it there, look on the log sticking out of the water. Sometimes it is by the three rocks near the bottom of the stream. This lure sinks and is possibly a good way to catch the mysterious Hylian Loach which is talked about later, in section d. WARNING: the fisherman will NOT let you claim any prizes if you use the sinking lure because it's AGAINST THE RULES. If you talk to the fisherman and say, "Let's talk about something," he will make the sinking lure legal to use. Note: Kenny Lazzer (wolfpactwosweet@hotmail.com) e-mailed me and said that he got the sinking lure WITHOUT catching a 15 pound or bigger fish. Don't believe everything you read. b. WEATHER: The BEST time to fish is when it is raining. I have seen it rain in the fishing pond once and let me tell you, it does no good to play the song of storms right before you go in the pond. There is no real way to make it rain, you just have to be lucky. I have seen the fish actually jumping out of the water early in the morning though. The four different kinds of weather are: 1) Day 2) Night 3) Rain 4)Cloudy c. THE FISHERMAN'S HAT: With either lure you can snag the fisherman's hat as adult Link and he gets mad at you and tells you to return it. But of course, being the rebellious young teen that link is, you can cast his hat out into the water. It is fun, but he charges you 50 rupees for it! It is very hard to aim right, but keep trying. I think it's worth the trouble trying to get the right aiming because it's very funny. d. BREAKING THE RULES!: You already know that you can break the rules by using the sinking lure, but here is the ULTIMATE way to break the rules! You know how the fisherman gets pissed off if you try to take the rod out of the pond? Well NOW YOU CAN! This is EXCLUSIVE STUFF here! Put on the hover boots after you get a rod and run onto the water. Quickly cast the line and hold Z and press back and A to do a back flip. This may take some practice. Once that happens, Link can still walk around (but the camera view is weird) and even go out the door and the fisherman won't even care! It's hard to find the door with the weird camera view you get but it's a pretty neat trick. Once you are outside, Link looks like he's holding an invisible fishing rod! If you do this, DO NOT CAST when you are out of the pond or else the game will CRASH and you will have to RESET! You can get your sword back by pausing and selecting the Master or Biggoron's sword at the weapon select screen. e. BIGGEST FISH: The biggest fish I have ever caught was 20 pounds, and Link said, "Oh my gosh! This one is huge! It is too big to fit on the screen so I can't get an accurate weight, but it's about 20 pounds," or something like that. I said the biggest FISH is 20 pounds, because the loach is not really a fish, and it weighs more than normal fish. However, somebody has recently e-mailed me and said that he has caught a 21 pound fish. f. BUT, I WANT IT AGAIN!: Just so you know, Dexter Smith (MRED1001@aol.com) e-mailed me and told me that it is possible to throw your lure into that fishing tank where the biggest fish is. You can't catch it again, but it's just fun to do. Try it some day if you are bored. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - VI. FAQ Not finished yet, sorry. Will be in a later version. Well, maybe not because I seem to be getting very few questions e- mailed to me, and mostly just stuff like "I caught the loach!" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - VII. The Hylian Loach The Hylian Loach is an eel-like thing that likes to hang around sometimes in the fishing pond. It does not appear very often and there is no known fool-proof way to make him come out. It is dark colored and thin like an eel with small flippers. If you are lucky enough to see him, you can put on the iron boots and Zora's tunic and take a good look at him. Few people have caught him, and if you want to see who has caught him you can take a look at section VIII (my Hall of Fame) right at the bottom of the guide. As far as I know, the appearance of the loach is completely random, and you have to be lucky to see it. I have not caught the loach yet, but I have seen it many times and I think that the best times to go inside the fishing pond door to find it is just before the wolf howls or the rooster crows. My friend just caught the loach 2 days ago (grr) and now I am determined to catch it myself. The loach usually weighs around 35 pounds as adult Link and around 16 pounds as kid Link. If you catch it, the fisherman guy gives you a purple rupee (worth 50 rupees, oh wow). Generally, it is probably a little bit easier to catch it using the sinking lure (section V-a), but that doesn't mean it is impossible to catch the loach with just the normal lure. I am not sure if there is any special time of day that makes more likely to come out. Despite it's size, many people have told me that the loach is not very hard to reel in. If you catch it, the fisherman will not keep it in the tank because the loach is an endangered species. IMPORTANT INFO: Every few minutes, the loach will come up for air. When it reaches the top of the water, it makes some sort of "thap" sound. This is the ONLY time that you will be able to z- target the loach. More importantly, this is also the ONLY time that the loach will actually try to bite the lure, even if it is the sinking lure. He only does this for a few seconds though, so don't waste time by trying to z-target him. Here is exactly what is said when you catch the loach: Link: Gosh, that's a strange fish you have there! On top of that is weighs xx pounds! Fisherman: Well well. Wow! What a rare fish! This is the Hyrule Loach! For this fish, size doesn't matter, I'll give you this prize (purple rupee)! Recently, the number of these fish has decreased tremendously, so I'm going to release this one. Below is a list of all the loach-catching strategies that I know of: 1. Whenever I have seen the loach, it has always seemed to happen the same way. I go in the fishing pond just before the rooster crows or the wolf howls, then I go straight up to the fisherman and buy a rod. Then I run into the pond, put on my iron boots, and look for the loach. I never see the loach at this point, but usually I find the sinking lure and go straight back in the pond and he's there. Sometimes I have to do this more than once, but every time I see him it happens that way. I doubt it means anything, I just thought I would point it out. 2. My friend caught the loach this way, and several others have told me the same thing in their e-mails. To catch the loach easily, drop the sinking lure right in front of its face and wait until it goes up for air. Remember what I said earlier in this section, it won't go after the lure unless it is going up for air. When the lure is in front of it, it goes up for air but sees the lure, and goes after it. With the sinking lure you have to be careful though, because when you are fishing with the sinking lure there is no way to tell when the fish has grabbed onto your line until you start reeling it in. For that reason, you should use your rumble pak (if you have one) so it is easier to tell if you snagged a catch. 3. Some people have e-mailed me with ways to catch the loach, and this one comes up every once in a while. Stand where you can easily see the loach and watch it until it goes up for air. Watch carefully which way it swims and QUICKLY cast to the exact spot where he will surface for air. Do this quickly or else he will swim back down to the bottom. Brake the line in the air with the A button if you have to. Wiggle the line and maybe he will bite it (if you are lucky). This concludes the loach section for now. Please e-mail me if you have anything to add or if I have something wrong here. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - VIII. Hall of Fame (people who have told me they caught the hylian loach) Alex Wolf acumike@enter.net Rennat64@aol.com Kay Pollock kpollock@columbus.rr.com (almost) Jacob Vernon beat_it_stupid_7777@yahoo.com CleInd12@aol.com Koch Family sfkoch@vbe.com tini ster tinister@hotmail.com Ron Grooms lucky_strike2@hotmail.com Patrick Thomas scu769@hotmail.com Chris Dickson chrisdickson@usa.net Nicholas Parker nick.b.p@usa.net Dimitri Apostol hw077543@nassaulibrary.org Randy Milligan randy_milligan@hotmail.com Chris Neitz (no e-mail address) Paces pace@xpressweb.com Pventresca@excite.com TheRealGau@aol.com Dex206@aol.com Mike Crochet mcrochet@hotmail.com James Appel jke6@frontiernet.com roscoe@splitrocktel.net WillM3S@aol.com Phillip Jevon Pack wrath64@hotmail.com Charles Passmore charlesiscool@hotmail.com Henrik Lofstedt henrik_cool@hotmail.com Patrick Allen antxeon@hotmail.com Ryan Lennox BLAZE92717@aol.com Robin randyl@softcom.net melone@inet-direct.com Thanks to: Matt Hayes toby@wwa.com Johnny fuzzbuckett@rocketmail.com Ron Grooms lucky_strike2@hotmail.com Dimitri Apostol hw077543@nassaulibrary.org Dexter Smith MRED1001@aol.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - By: DaRk_OnE E-mail: DaRk_OnE_@hotmail.com Please E-mail me with any and all questions about fishing in Zelda 64 Check back often for more updates and please email me if I am missing something!