At its core, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a game about meeting new friends, honing your interior decorating skills, and, above all else, raking in the bells. With bridges and inclines to build and houses to upgrade, players are always searching for ways to make some quick cash.
Selling fish to Timmy and Tommy at Nook’s Cranny can net you a decent income, but which fish can reel in the largest profit, and when and where can they be found? Also, avid fishers will no-doubt know that super common catches are nearly worthless. So, let’s take a look at Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ rarest and most common fish.
Updated April 1st, 2021 by Tanner Fox: More than a year after launch, Nintendo continues to support the newest installment in the Animal Crossing franchise, adding all sorts of items, DIY recipes, and, of course, all sorts of flora and fauna to New Horizons for players to add to their collections.
As seasons change and the roster of creatures to hunt down continues to grow, it’s increasingly difficult to keep track of which fish one may still need to track down, and where and when they can be found. While we’re eager to cover these examples of atypical aquatic life, we’ve also thrown in a few super-common finds, if only to commiserate with players sick of seemingly catching the same five species of marine life.
15 Rarest: Gigas Giant Clam
Spotting a large shadow when out swimming in the ocean is often a good sign, as most larger sea creatures bring in a respectable sum of bells, and one of the most desirable large sea creatures of all would have to be the Gigas Giant Clam.
Available at all times of day from May to September and in the Northern Hemisphere and November to March in the Southern Hemisphere, the Gigas Giant Clam is fairly accessible in terms of times during which it can be found. However, dredging one up is more or less down to luck, and fortunate finders will be able to pawn it off to Nook’s Cranny for a cool 15,000 bells.
14 Most Common: Tadpole
Players investigating ponds in Animal Crossing New Horizons may be hoping to find a koi, and goldfish, or, at the very least, a pale chub. Unfortunately, some of the time, they come up with the ultra-common, ultra-worthless tadpole.
While it’s kind of a cool creature to catch the very first time, it only brings in 100 bells when sold to Nook’s Cranny, and it’s really not even worth the time it takes to catch. Given that fruit is more readily available on any island, catching low-value, common fish like the tadpole is perhaps the most inefficient possible way to earn bells in New Horizons.
13 Rarest: Football Fish
The football fish, which closely resemble their abyss-faring neighbors the deep-sea anglerfish—is one of the creepiest-looking creatures New Horizons villagers could possibly pull out of the ocean. Gelatinous and bio-luminescent, it really is a peculiar thing.
Football fish can be caught from 4pm to 9am from November to March, meaning that, if you didn’t catch one shortly after the game came out and aren’t interested in time traveling, you’ll have to wait a while to reel in one of these monstrosities. Plus, at 2500 bells a pop, they aren’t all that expensive, though they do make for a unique in-home centerpiece.
12 Most Common: Sea Bass
One of the most common creatures to be found floating near your island’s coastline, Sea Bass are the bane of anglers hoping to get their hands on a much more valuable red snapper. Like most incredibly common fish species, Sea Bass are available at all hours of the day, every month of the year.
Though they’re worth 400 bells—a relatively decent asking price for such a common fish—pulling up Sea Bass after Sea Bass from the seas gets old pretty quickly. In older games, villagers would literally quip “not again!” when catching one.
11 Rarest: Golden Trout
Though it’s not actually made out of gold, New Horizons’ Golden Trout may as well be worth its weight in the stuff. Sporting some spectacular gold and red scales and fetching 15,000 bells apiece at Nook’s Cranny, these things are an angler’s dream.
Unfortunately, they’re also one of the game’s rarest catches; they only appear from March to May and September to November from 4am to 9pm. Plus, they’re only ever found at the source of your islands river, which is located at its highest point.
10 Most Common: Black Bass
Commonly known as the most metal of all fish, the Black Bass is one of the most common species of fish found in the rivers of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Worth 400 bells apiece over at Nook’s Cranny, hunting these creatures down may be worth it for new players.
However, after pulling your nineteen-billionth Black Bass out of the river, the appeal wears off. Another fish found 24/7 all year round, the frequency at which this catch is found will have players shying away from fishing in the river.
9 Rarest: Pearl
Alright, we’re really pushing the limit of what could reasonably be considered a fish in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but pearls are too neat to not bring up at least once. Found by diving in the ocean, pearls are rare and valuable creatures that are technically crafting materials and can’t be added to the Critterpedia.
That said, pearls net 10,000 bells when sold to Nook’s Cranny, and they can also be used to craft some pretty rare stuff. Pascal will offer them in trade fairly regularly, so that may be a more reliable means of finding these tiny, innocuous sea treasures.
8 Most Common: Sea Anemone
Perhaps most remembered for the adorable mispronunciation in Pixar’s Finding Nemo movie, the sea anemone’s charms lessen each and every time we dredge it up from the depth of the ocean.
Though it’s technically a sea creature and not a fish, we couldn’t resist adding this annoying bit of marine biology to the list, as we pull a few of these things up each and every time we go exploring away from shore. They’re available all year round all day long, and they only fetch 500 bells, so bringing one back to dry land is hardly worth it.
7 Rarest: Ocean Sunfish
It may not be the absolute rarest or most expensive fish in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but this sea-dweller is just so ridiculous looking that we couldn’t help but include him. Encountered from July to September from 4am to 9pm, the Ocean Sunfish is notable for its outrageous size. Additionally, if someone already has one, you’ll know they’ve been doing some time traveling, as it’s not accessible to most players quite yet.
Watching this thing leap out of the water at your villager is as horrifying as it is hilarious, and this is definitely something the museum curator Blathers going to want to see.
6 Most Common: Crucian Carp
Likely one of the first species of fish new villagers encountered after stepping foot on their new islands, the Crucian Carp is a painfully common creature which most veteran Animal Crossing players are all too familiar with. They’re available 24/7, all year long. Be it the dead of winter or the dog days of summer, anglers fishing in a river are likely to pull up at least a few of these things.
Not only are they aggressively plain-looking fish, but they’re also basically worthless. In fact, with an asking price of 160 bells, they’re actually the second-cheapest fish in the game.
5 Rarest: Barreleye
When first plucked from the sea, the Barreleye may seem relatively unassuming; small in form and pretty typical in terms of appearance, players may be surprised to find that this fish brings in 15,000 bells when sold at Nook’s Cranny.
It’s not even that rare, in all honesty. It’s available all year round and can be found in the ocean and can be found between 9pm and 4am. That said, it casts a small shadow when in the water, and it may easily be passed up by Animal Crossing islanders looking to snag a fish with a fin.
4 Most Common: Pale Chub
Another guaranteed pain in the butt, the pale chub only fetches 200 bells at Nook’s Cranny and is about as much fun to catch as an old tire. In fact, given the crafting potential, we’d almost rather have the tire.
Found all year round from 9am to 4pm, anglers exploring their islands rivers are likely to pull up a ton of Black Bass and Pale Chubs. Quite honestly, selling fruit, sticks, and rocks is a much more worthy time investment than fishing for these things.
3 Rarest: Great White Shark
The rarest of the New Horizons shark family consisting of the Great White Shark, the Hammerhead Shark, the Whale Shark, and the Saw Shark, this oceanic beast can only be found in the sea from 9pm to 4am from July to September.
Fetching a cool 15,000 bells over at Nook’s Cranny, most players will have to think long and hard about whether they want to pawn this thing off or not. It may help some pay off their ever-growing debt to Tom Nook, but it also makes for a one-of-a-kind trophy.
2 Most Common: Horse Mackerel
The least expensive and most common fish one could possibly pluck out of the ocean, the horse mackerel is sure to have most Animal Crossing players rolling their eyes. Netting a meager 150 bells, these things aren’t even worth occupying an inventory slot.
Available at all hours of the day all year round, Horse Mackerels seem to infest the seas and make fishing a far more arduous task than it already is. In fact, given how tough it can be to decipher if that submerged shadow is or is not a Horse Mackerel, we’re almost tempted to give up altogether and go bug hunting, instead.
1 Rarest: Coelacanth
The grand-daddy of all Animal Crossing: New Horizons fish, players can sometimes be found gathering on an island’s shores, whispering tales of the mightly Coelacanth to each other. Fetching 15,000 bells at Nook’s Cranny and sporting a wicked prehistoric look, these things are the be-all, end-all of the AC fishing world.
Though they can be found year-round and at any time of day, the Coelacanth can only be caught while it’s raining. Since it’s impossible to determine when it will rain in-game ahead of time, players will have to wait around and hope for the best should they be questing to catch one of these legendary creatures.
NEXT: Animal Crossing: New Horizons - The Best Use For Spoiled Turnips
