Animal Crossing: The Rarest Fish Of All Time
It’s tough out there for an Animal Crossing: New Horizons angler. While we all want to find those super rare fish, we keep catching ultra common ones.
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 fish.
Updated on May 3, 2023, by Gabrielle Huston: We’ve updated this list to really highlight the rarest, most special fish that you can catch in New Horizons!
11 Napoleonfish
The Napoleonfish is a stunning ocean specimen! In the real world, it’s more often known as a humphead wrasse. They’re actually an endangered species, thanks to overfishing.
It can be spotted from July to August in the Northern Hemisphere and January to February in the Southern Hemisphere – if you’re lucky! This is a rare catch, and you should look for the biggest possible shadows if you’re hoping to reel it in. Thankfully, once you do have it, it’s worth a pretty penny! Tommy and Timmy will pay you 10,000 Bells for this beaut.
10 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.
9 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 forc
8 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 a river on a cliff.
7 Mahi-Mahi
Fun fact: Mahi-Mahi hasn’t appeared as a fish in an Animal Crossing game before Animal Crossing: New Horizons! The species’ name comes from Hawaiian (since it can be found around the coast of Hawaii) and it means “very strong.”
In-game, you’ll be able to find this species from May to October in the Northern Hemisphere and November to April in the Southern Hemisphere. You can also only catch it off the pier of your island, making it especially tricky – you have to hope the right size shadow appears in just the right place… You’ll probably need some bait.
6 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.
5 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 is going to want to see.
4 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.
3 King Salmon
The King Salmon is a tough to find because its location actually moves around! You’ll find it in September in the Northern Hemisphere, and March in the Southern Hemisphere.
From the 1st to the 15th of the month, you can catch a King Salmon in the mouth of the river exiting into the ocean. Starting on the 16th, the King Salmon can be found anywhere in the river on your island. This is because they follow the patterns of real salmon, who go up the river each year to have baby salmons!
2 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.
1 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.
Source: www.thegamer.com
