Free fishing games: five arenas, one cannon each

How a fish shooting game works

Targets swim, crawl or float across the screen. You tap where you want to shoot, or hold to keep firing, and every shot costs your bet multiplied by the cost of the weapon you have selected. When a shot hits, it may capture the target; big creatures are caught less often but pay much more than the small fry. Capture something and you receive its multiplier times your bet.

The five games in this section share that base, along with a few useful habits. Shots bounce off the edges of the screen until they hit something, and a shot that hits nothing is refunded. Raising the bet gives you a bigger cannon (three power levels in the four newest games). Auto keeps firing for you, and Lock follows the most valuable target on screen, or the one you tap.

Five free fishing games compared

Leviathan Gold: the classic reef

Leviathan Gold is the most traditional of the five: an open reef arena and three weapons: the cannon at one bet per shot, a laser that cuts through every creature in its path for 5 bets, and a bomb for 15 that blasts everything around the creature you tap. Special catches such as the Thunder Jelly and the Blast Pearl hit the creatures around them, a SUPER ×5 can turn up, and the Golden Dragon and Kraken bosses spin a wheel worth up to ×300. If you have never played a fish shooting game online, start here.

Nebula Hunters: fishing in space

In Nebula Hunters, Rocco fires a plasma cannon (1× the bet) at creatures of the asteroid belt. The chain laser costs 4× and jumps from its first target to four more, and the gravity well costs 10× and pulls nearby targets together before imploding on all of them. Catch the black-hole token and every target on screen is pulled into one point for a single combined prize. The Void Leviathan boss has six shield panels to break in order, each one raising its multiplier.

Magma Mayhem: a lava lake and an eruption meter

Magma Mayhem gives Sizzle a rock mortar, a freeze cannon that spreads to four more targets and slows the whole lake for three seconds, and a drill torpedo that pierces up to eight creatures in a line. Every hit warms the volcano; when it erupts, meteors fall on the targets for free. The Molten Golem boss has six crust plates to crack.

Cloud Kingdom Catch: play the wind

Cloud Kingdom Catch swaps the cannon for Pip's feather slingshot. The wind changes direction every 20 seconds, and a dart fired with it can ricochet to a nearby target. A charged wind blows a free gust when it turns. The Storm Roc boss dodges and calls the storm, each storm level raising its multiplier.

Bayou Phantoms: shoot what you can see

Bayou Phantoms is the trickiest. Phantoms are invisible outside Baron Croak's lantern beam and can only be hit in the light, where they pay double. The voodoo net catches up to six targets where it lands, the mojo bomb up to ten, and every boss you capture spins a bounty wheel.

Getting the most from a free fish shooting game

Because every shot is a bet, fishing games can burn through a balance quicker than a slot. A demo is the place to learn the pace:

• Start on the cheapest weapon and fire 100 shots at your normal bet, then check the balance.
• Try the 4× and 10× weapons only when several targets are bunched together; that is what they are built for.
• Watch how long a boss stays on screen before it escapes. It helps you judge whether chasing it is worth the shots.
• Use Lock rather than Auto at first, so you can see which targets the game considers most valuable.

Fish shooting games on a phone

All five games run in a mobile browser and are designed for taps: tap to shoot, hold to keep firing. Landscape gives you a wider arena and more warning when a boss appears. There is nothing to download and no account to make. The same fishing games are available for real money at the casinos listed below.