How fishing could be implemented into Pokemon GO

Fishing in Pokemon has been a long time tradition in the franchise, but could we see it in Pokemon GO?

Using the fishing mechanic has always been a way to either catch rare water types or load up on Magikarps. There are many Water-type Pokemon, like Tentacruel or Dewgong, who don’t appear on the mainland since they only live underwater. Niantic could use this feature as a way for trainers to find rare water-types. How would this mechanic look though?

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How fishing coule be implemented into Pokemon GO

Image via Game Freak

Well, there is no reason why it can't work in a similar fashion to the main series games. Niantic could program the game to where using a rod in a body of water would spawn a Pokemon. They could even treat this as a shore encounter, like the fisherman is bringing the catch ashore and then battling it. There can also be a button to tap when a fish is caught, just like in the games.

Of course, one big aspect of fishing in Pokemon is the three rods. There is always an Old Rod which pretty much catches Magikarp except on rare occasions. There is also the Good Rod, which catches stronger Pokemon, and the Super Rod is used to find the rarer catches.

Niantic can use in-game rewards to incorporate this dynamic. The Old Rod should probably be picked up at a PokeStop since it is usually easily accessible. The Gold Rod could be bought at the shop with a fair amount of PokeCoins. The Super Rod is always difficult to find, so that should probably be a reward for research or another task.

Niantic could also play around with the available Pokemon. Since Old Rods typically catch Magikarp, Niantic could have different ordinary Pokemon spawn from fishing, like Sobble or Seel. A Good Rod could be used to catch Pokemon in the middle stage of evolution, like Watrortle or Marshtomp.

Super Rods, naturally, should only spawn rare finds. Perhaps Feebas could be one of these, as it was incredibly rare in Generation III. There could also be shiny Pokemon that have a higher rate of appearing with a Super Rod.

There is one glaring issue with this concept: not everybody lives near a body of water. It would be a shame if players couldn’t have access to the full variety of Pokemon based on the area in which they live.

To address this, Water-type Pokemon could still be available in the general area, but with a lower spawn rate. This would incentivize those who can walk to local lakes or beaches to find the more rare Water-types.