🎯 Objective

Catch fish, earn XP + cash, level up your angler, fill the 📖 Catalog, upgrade rods/lures in the 🛒 Shop, and chase records — biggest fish, tournament wins, leaderboard placement. There's no end-state; play as long as it's fun.

⌨️ Controls

Drive: WASD or arrow keys. Tank controls (default ON): W = forward, S = reverse, A/D = rotate. Turn it off in Settings for free-direction movement.
Cast: hold left mouse on the water — line shows distance — release to cast. Out-of-range or onto shore = miss.
Reel in lure (no fish on): hold R or the REEL IN button — the lure draws back toward the boat while held; release to stop where it is.
Fight a fish: hold SPACE (or REEL button) to raise tension; release to drop. Stay in the green zone.
Search ground: press F near gold sparkles to dig up lockbox loot.
Zoom: + / - / 0 or the zoom buttons (bottom-right of scene).
Touch: on-screen d-pad + CAST/REEL/SEARCH buttons (toggle in Settings; auto-on for touch devices).

🎣 The Bite & The Fight

A 🔔 appears at the bobber when a fish hits. Hold SPACE to reel:

• Green zone = drains fish stamina (good).
• Too tight = line snaps and fish breaks off.
• Too slack = fish throws the hook.

📡 Sonar (chart-recorder strip at the bottom of the scene)

Scrolls right-to-left showing what's directly under your boat. Y axis = depth (0 ft at top, 50 ft at bottom).

• Green wavy line — lake bottom (spikes = timber, lumps = rocks, speckles = weeds)
• Colored squares — fish at their actual depth (color = species, size = how big, yellow underline = trophy-class)
• Bright red line — your lure's depth in the water column
• White ring around a fish — that fish is at your lure depth (±3 ft) and can actually bite
• 🎯 N AT LURE DEPTH badge at top-center pulses when fish under the boat match your lure
• BITE: HOT / MID / LOW meter on the right is the composite bite-rate rating for your current spot+depth+time

How to use it: if your red lure line doesn't pass through where the colored squares are, swap to a lure that runs at that depth (Topwater for 0–3 ft, Spinner for ~8 ft, Crankbait for ~14 ft, Worm or Jig for the bottom).

🪱 Lures & Depth Matching

Each lure runs at a different depth. Match your lure depth to the species' preferred band (shown in the Catalog) or you won't get bit.

• Topwater — surface (panfish, bass at dawn/dusk)
• Spinner — mid (~8 ft)
• Crankbait — mid-deep (~14 ft)
• Worm — sinks to bottom
• Jig — drops fast to the floor (walleye/cats)

🎯 Rods, Line, Snap Risk

Each rod has a line-test rating (lb). Hook a fish > ~60% of your line test and snap risk climbs sharply. Bigger rods widen the minigame green zone (more forgiving). Buy upgrades in the 🛒 Shop.

🚤 Boat Modes & 🌊 Spooking

Safe = slow cruise, never spooks fish, always respects no-wake.
Intermediate / Boat Pro = faster, but fast driving builds disturbance at the current spot. Spooked spots have much worse bite rates. No-wake zones (red icon) fine you for speeding in Pro mode.

📍 Spots, Travel, Population

Each spot has a fish population that depletes as you catch. Rest a spot (move on, come back) or visit a new one. Travel between connected spots via the panel — or drive your boat to the edge of the map and cross over (costs 3 fuel).

⛽ Fuel & 🔋 Battery

Driving burns fuel. Auto-pilot / Auto-fish / AFK drain the trolling battery. Top off at the Marina (right panel) — cost scales with % missing.

🤖 Auto-Fish / Auto-Pilot

Toggle on the left, or just walk away — past the Auto-idle threshold (Settings) the game enables both at ½ rate. Auto-fish picks targets, casts, and twitches the lure every few seconds to draw fish in; if it works the lure back to the boat it re-casts somewhere new. Auto-resolved catches pay only ~10% XP and ~30% cash, and bite rate drops ~15%. Active play is always better; auto is for when you can't be there.

🏕️ Camp & 🎣 Goon Session

Dock at camp (right panel) to sleep through time — restores Rest, fast-forwards the game clock, lets you target dawn/dusk/night species.
Goon Session is a button-masher minigame (mash SPACE for 8 seconds). Higher mash count = bigger bite-rate buff for 5 minutes. 6-minute cooldown.

🌅 Time & 🌦️ Weather

Game clock runs ~60× real time (24-min day/night). Most species bite hardest at dawn/dusk; walleye + catfish prefer night; panfish prefer midday. Weather shifts every couple minutes — overcast/light-rain bumps bite, thunderstorm crashes it.

📋 Daily Quests · 📖 Catalog · 🏆 Tournament · 🌐 Leaderboard

Quests — 3 random goals per real-world day; cash rewards.
Catalog — every species, your record weight, first/last caught dates. Silhouettes for uncaught.
Tournament — 3-day, 6-game-hour/day format (~10 real-min per day). 8 AI competitors. Total weight wins. Difficulty tiers set the prize pool.
Leaderboard — submits to jefehz.org's shared scoreboard. Categories: 🐟 Biggest Fish, 🎣 Top Per Species (one record per species across all anglers), 💰 Most Money (lifetime cash), 📊 Most Catches, 📖 Species Caught, ⭐ Angler Level, 🏆 Tournament Total, 🍆 Trophy Goon (best single-session stroke count). Offline = local-only.
🍪 Profile name: open the Leaderboard tab and hit Save name (3–20 chars). First time triggers jefehz.org's one-time consent prompt for cookie/localStorage use — your profile name + ID then persist in this browser and are shared across every game on the site. Without a name, your scores submit as "Anonymous". No accounts or email required.

🎁 Lockboxes

Faint gold sparkles on certain tiles. Drive near and press F (or SEARCH) for cash or a free lure.

⚙️ Expert Sim Mode

Tightens the minigame green zone (-6%) and bumps line-snap risk. Toggle in Settings.

💾 Saves

Auto-saves to browser. Use Export in Settings to download a JSON backup, Import to restore one.