The Fishing Game

Anglepen's Original The Fishing Game is a beautiful, lovingly made production of a fishing sim. It features a large three-fold board of a fine painted lake, sets of large cards with excellent artwork and unbelievably, 6 different solid pewter figures of fishers and two little pewter rowboats. There is even a Record Book to keep a diary of your days by the lake. And days it will be, because, despite the wonderful attention to detail and genuine care taken in its making, this is a deadly dull game of dice rolling and dice rolling and dice rolling. You first seed the board with little paper tiles showing fish on one side & their weight hidden below. Then you have to roll dice to walk round the lake to your chosen fishing spot (why???), roll dice to use the rowboat, roll dice to hook a fish, roll dice to reel it in, roll dice as the fish runs and so on. The cards are used as part of landing the fish, being Run, Hazard & Problem cards. So it may run straight to you, but if it slips into the reeds, you lose your catch. No doubt habitual fishers will enjoy the tedium and it may well be a fine simulation of the sport, but any gamers will go mad.

Absolutely typical for a British product, a classic case of theme before game, no idea of a mechanism beyond dice and hazard cards. The graphic artist is named, but the actual designer is not. I suspect it is the eponymous Anglepen. The producers included an order form for parts, baseball cap, T-shirt and future accessories.