Big Sport Fishing 3D (app Review)

    I was on a boat the other day with people that were fishing. I didn't have a fishing license so I wondered if there was a way for me to fish legally. I am an Android app tester so naturally my search started on Google Play. There weren't that many fishing apps that caught my attention. This was one that did although it was for salt water fishing, Big Sport Fishing 3D Lite (currently exclusive to Android OS). I was looking for an app with bass, stripers, trouts, catfish, karps, salmon, and sturgeon (California type of fish) but this application wasn't bad. Choose a location, start in a tournament, or just free fishing. Your smartphone's accelerometer is used to move your point of view in the game. Turn the phone around to cast from an area of 360 degrees around you. Once a casting area is chosen, you hold a finger on the reel and cast similar to a real casting motion and release the button/reel while on a forward motion. Be careful though, as tilting the phone left or right while casting will affect your trajectory (I actually struggle with this).

The sea creatures jump out of the water quite often.

        Realistic sounds such as reeling, casting, and water splashes accompany your app experience. While fish/water creatures are near your boat, you can see them in the water. If they are further out you and you can no longer see them, you can still catch them. Fishes on your screen, whether viewable or not, will swim towards your hook once it touches water. (this is unrealistic in my non-expert opinion, but it takes away the annoying difficult boring waiting for fish part of fishing). You can change which lure you use by clicking on the tackle box while on the boat and your hook is reeled in. I'm not sure how the lure affects your fishing chances though. Some information on each lure is displayed during the lure selection. There is also an ingame store where you can use your ingame earnings. I haven't tried out this feature.

The fishing rod doesn't always stay straight up like in these screenshots. You can turn and tilt them.

     There are two FREE Expansion packs that can be downloaded for this app. One is to fish at night, and the other is for Dinosaur fishing. These apps were fun for a few rounds. The full version will probably last longer of course. With over a million downloads on Google Play and with an average user rating of 4.2, this app is well worth the try.