Big Bass Bonanza: the fishing slot that started the series

The original lake

Big Bass Bonanza is the game that spawned one of Pragmatic Play's longest-running series, and playing it now is a good way to understand what all the later versions build on. Five reels, three rows, ten paylines. Tackle boxes, rods, dragonflies and floats make up the symbols, along with fish that carry a cash value printed on their side.

In the base game those fish pay like ordinary symbols when they line up, and their printed values mostly sit there looking tempting. The values only come alive in the bonus.

Free spins and the fisherman

Three, four or five scatters award free spins. During the round the fisherman appears as a wild, and every time he lands he collects the value of every fish on screen. One fisherman and a screen full of fish is a very good spin; a fisherman with no fish in sight pays nothing extra.

He's also counted. Collect four fishermen and the round retriggers with extra spins and a multiplier on what he collects. Reach the next set of four and the multiplier climbs again, up to a final level of 10x. That ladder is the heart of the game: most bonuses end on the first rung, and the rare one that climbs to the top is what people remember.

How to read the Big Bass Bonanza demo

The demo loads with 1,000 virtual credits, no download and no sign-up. Pick a stake equivalent to £0.20 or £0.50 and play at least 200 spins. Pay attention to three numbers: how long the scatters take to arrive, how many fishermen you collect per bonus, and how often you see a fisherman land with no fish beside him. That last one teaches you a lot about the game's swings.

This version has no bonus buy, so the free spins only come from the scatters, exactly as the original intended.

Where to go next in the series

If the formula clicks, the sequels change one thing at a time: a bigger grid, random modifiers, a seasonal setting. Starting with the original makes those differences easy to spot. The same game is also available for real money at the casinos listed below.