SEGA Bass Fishing – A comprehensive guide

Overview

There aren’t that many guides for SEGA Bass Fishing here and not all of them have everything you’ll need here. Despite me not having a great deal of playtime on Steam, I have been playing this game for quite some time so I do know the ins and outs fairly well, I think.

Introduction

SEGA Bass Fishing originally came out on the Dreamcast and has had various ports since then. This guide aims to be accessible to all players, from those who are new and discovering the game to those who are proficient at it from another system and wish to carry their skills over.

Feedback and constructive criticism are always welcome! If there is anything that you feel is missing, tell me about it! Make sure you give me your Steam username so I can credit you too.

Thank you for reading and enjoy!

Controls

Controls referred to within this guide will be the default controls. These can be re-mapped in the configuration menu when starting the game.

Keyboard Controls

Return – Start/Pause
Arrow Keys – Move selection (in menus), move rod (in game)
S – Confirm selection (in menus), cast (in game)
D – Cancel selection/go back a menu (in menus)
A – Select area (in game, Original Mode only)
E – Reel slowly (in game)
Q – Reel fast (in game)
W – Select lure (in game)

Xbox 360 Controller Controls

Start – Start/Pause
Left Thumbstick/D-Pad – Move selection/move rod
A Button – Confirm/Cast
B Button – Cancel/Go back
X Button – Area select
Y Button – Lure select
Left Trigger – Reel slowly
Right Trigger – Reel fast

Gameplay Basics

I recommend starting your first play in Practice Mode just to get used to the controls, and even if you’re a returning player from another system.

After selecting Practice Mode, you’ll come to the Player Select screen.

On this screen you can choose either a male or female character. The choice is yours and gameplay is the same either way. In this example, I ended up going with the male character.

Then it’ll take you to the Name Entry screen. You can select a maximum of three characters to represent your name. Any bass you catch will be recorded under this name in the Diary (more on that later)

Then it’s onto the Area Select screen. You can select from two lakes (Lake Paradise and Lake Crystaldew) with three areas in each lake. In Practice Mode you can choose all the conditions of your fishing. After you select your area, you can then choose your weather and the time of day.

Once all your selections are made, you will then be presented with the main screen.

Here you can choose the lure you’ll be using to fish with. When first starting out you’ll have 6 lures to pick from but you can unlock more in Original Mode. When you’ve chosen your lure, you can then choose where you cast by pressing left and right on your keyboard. In my example below, I’ll be using the pencil bait.

When you’ve picked a cast location, press S to cast. When your lure hits the water, start reeling it in but be sure to jiggle the lure with some rod movements.

The game does provide some guidance with lure usage but I highly recommend always moving your lure with the arrow keys as well as reeling it in using E to reel slowly. If a bass shows interest in your lure, most of the time the camera will pan to track the fish (but not always).

If the bass takes the lure, quickly move the rod to set the hook. ‘Fish!’ will flash on screen if hooked successfully.

If not, the screen will display ‘MISS’ and the fish swims away, then this message flashes on screen.

“But I didn’t miss, I actually hooked the fish! Now what?”

Then you’ll need to fight to bring it in, and that involves reeling, rod movement and paying attention to the line tension meter on the right side of the screen.

Aim to keep the line tension around the middle and don’t go too high or too low. The game does give feedback but always watch the gauge! You do have some leeway if the tenson becomes too low or too high but don’t let that state stay too long!

If the tension goes too high, line break!

You’re then taken back to the lure select screen.

If the tension goes too low, the hook will come off!

Your lure will be still in the water and you can try to lure another fish.

In either case the weight of the fish you lost will be displayed.

But if you are successful then your catch will be pulled in and the bass’ weight added to your total weight caught.

Special Case

A Huge bass with a weight of 15lbs or more, when the camera pans down to them, instead of the usual ‘Bite it’, then ‘A big one’s close by’ will be heard instead (if you have sound on). These ones also have a slightly lighter underbelly than other Huge bass.

“What about the weight classes? How are they calculated?”

Weight class

Rough weight of bass

Small One

Less than 1lb 15oz

Average

1lb 15oz – 3lb 15oz

Big One!

4lb 0oz – 7lb 15oz

Huge!

8lb 0oz and upward

Arcade Mode – A Primer

Arcade Mode is where you’ll get a set amount of time to catch a specified quota of bass. The amount of time you get and the quota can be changed in the options menu (more on that later).

This mode takes place on Lake Paradise only and goes through all three time periods in each of the three areas. Depending on which area you choose first, you’ll go through each area in a round robin sort of setup before going onto the final area, the Palace.

First area: Lodge
Lodge (Morning) -> Cape (Noon) -> Inlet (Evening) -> Palace

First area: Cape
Cape (Morning) -> Inlet (Noon) -> Lodge (Evening) -> Palace

First area: Inlet
Inlet (Morning) -> Lodge (Noon) -> Cape (Evening) -> Palace

Here is a gameplay video (around 15 minutes) of me playing through the Arcade Mode just to give you a rough idea of what to expect.

But if you’d rather have screenshots and text, here you go!

You get 10 seconds to choose your starting area, and the orders are detailed above. As in the video example, I started in the Cape area. After selecting your starting area, the game will briefly show you the order of areas before starting.

The lure select screen is laid out differently in Arcade mode. Instead of scrolling through the lures, you’ll have the lures in a ring, and the game will show tips for the highlighted lure. The only real necessary tip is the depth that the lure goes.

Again, I went with the Pencil bait. Despite it being listed as a ‘Difficult’ lure I was finding I was getting the most catches with it, though everyone will find their lure preference. The timer may be somewhat intimidating but just focus on the fish. Your clear quota is displayed under your total weight caught. Now to hook some fish!

All catches are good so don’t be disheartened if you don’t hook the huge bass straight away. You will ALWAYS get an opportunity to catch the big one once you get to the Palace. Each fish you hook will net you a ‘hit bonus’ which is immediately added to your time.

Each size bass adds a different amount of extra time but as a general rule of thumb, the larger the bass, the larger your hit bonus. Small bass give you an extra 2 seconds while the biggest bass will net you as much as 8 seconds. Bring the fish in and then the weight is added to your total, plus you get a time bonus for your catch.

As with the hit bonus, the bigger the bass, the bigger your time bonus.

Once you hit your weight quota, area clear!

The next area will start but you may notice you only have 1 minute instead of the amount of time stipulated in the options menu. If this happens, you may need to use a continue. There is absolutely NO penalty for doing this!!! Your time will be reset to whatever you set it to in the options menu and you can continue fishing.

Your quota will be 2lbs more than the previous quota but either way, once that quota is fulfilled, area clear!

You may notice that on larger catches, ‘Rank In’ may be displayed as the weight counts down. This means that you’ve caught a bass big enough to be included on the leaderboard (more on that very soon!)

Anyway, onward to the final area! 2lbs more than the previous area to catch and then you’re finished!

ONWARD TO THE PALACE!

In Arcade Mode, the Palace is usually where you catch your largest bass (if you weren’t fortunate enough to catch one in the previous areas). All the bass are Huge and over 15lbs, so it’ll take some effort to bring one of these in!

An 8-second hit bonus will be applied to any catch here. Watch the line tension and reel that big bass in! Once you’ve pulled it in, the weight will be displayed (along with ‘Rank In’)

That’s one massive bass right there!

Well done! You’ve now successfully completed Arcade Mode!

After this, you’ll get a summary of the biggest bass you’ve caught and a chance to enter your name (if you got a Rank In).

Onward to the leaderboard!

Original Mode – A Primer

Original Mode is easily the largest mode in SEGA Bass Fishing. This mode involves taking part in what is essentially a fishing tounament, moving up the ranks to compete in harder tournaments. This mode is also where you get most of the unlockables in the game.

This mode alternates between covering Lake Paradise and Lake Crystaldew, as each stage alternates between going on one of the lakes. You fish for approximately 12 minutes, split into 4-minute intervals (covering Morning, Noon and Evening). One important caveat is that unlike Arcade Mode, you DO NOT have the option to increase your time. The stipulated time is all you get!

Here is a gameplay video of me playing through the final stage of the Amateur Tournament.

And of course, the screenshots and text version! All screenshots are from the Challenge Tournament, first stage.
Usually you would start on the Amateur Tournament but the basic principles are the same for all the tournaments. When you begin a game (or continue your save) on Original Mode, you are presented with this screen.

The options are as follows:

Start Game – Pretty self-explanatory. That’ll begin the stage you’re at.
Personal Data – This will allow you to view your tournament progress, see which lures you have and you can access the Diary.
Ranking – Shows you your current rank in that tournmant overall.
Rules – Read the rules of the current tournament.

When you start the first stage of any tournament, the rules screen will be displayed before you continue. Take a moment to read these. Later tournaments will have different rules. Here are the rules for the Challenge Tournament.

For example, bass weighing less than 3lbs will NOT count towards total weight. Take note. Don’t let yourself get caught short. After reading the rules, you are then taken to this screen that shows an overview of the lake you’ll be starting at, your start area and what the weather/water temperature are for the morning.

In Lake Crystaldew you start at the Bridge area while in Lake Paradise you start at the Lodge. You can move areas freely within that lake if you want to fish elsewhere.

Since this was Lake Crystaldew in the morning, I opted to start at my favourite spot for catching decently sized bass, somewhere in the Falls area.

Something tells me that bass is definitely over 3lbs!

Since we’re playing in a slightly different setup than the norm, when a bass is pulled in, the weight class isn’t displayed. It shows the weight but instead displays different text. Still in my morning fish, here’s one I reeled in earlier.

Definitely over 3lbs, so ‘Keeper Size’ is displayed on screen.

After time is up, you’re taken to the New Results screen which shows your placement in the rankings after that first fishing run.

Then it’s on to the noon fishing run.

Now I was glad I’d bult up a good weight quota in the morning, since fishing in the Cave area wasn’t quite so good. Fishing in the Falls area is far less profitable at noon. So, this happened.

That’s not 3lbs, so ‘Release Size’ is displayed and that bass isn’t added to the total weight.

After the noon fish another New Results screen is displayed and you can see if you’ve moved up or down in the ranks. I didn’t screenshot this one but I was still at a rather comfortable first place.

On to the evening fish! And I went back to the Falls area again. I see lots of big bass hanging around here…

Once the evening session is finished, you’re then shown the results screen of your whole fishing trip.

Not bad at all! Let’s take a look at the rankings…

… Well, I’d say that was a close margin. Not really.

Of course, if you place first in any tournament stage, you are treated to something similar to this screen.

Then your overall tournament rank is displayed.

So, for anyone who was asking, why was I so keen to fish in the Falls area during the morning and evening? Take a look at the Tips and Tricks session to find out why!

Tips and Tricks

In this section I will be covering useful tips and tricks that will help you.

Keep an eye on the time! (Mostly applies to Original Mode)

This can be applied to Arcade Mode but mostly applies to Original Mode due to the strict time constraint. Always pay attention to how much time you have left. This should be a given. You don’t want to be trying to pull in your biggest bass and then run out of time halfway there. The amount of time you’ll take to pull in a fish will depend on several factors:

The size of the bass
How much line you have out
How often the line tension hits the red area

For me, I’ve estimated that it will take around 10-15 seconds to pull in small bass, 15-20 seconds to pull in medium bass and 30 seconds or so to bull in the biggest bass when I have around 40ft of line out. Your estimates may be different. Time yourself. That way you can use your time effectively.

Find the lure that works for you but adapt to the situation! (All modes)

You may find that you prefer to use a certain lure (For me I used the Pencil bait a lot) but sometimes your favourite lure may not work (I found that I caught fewer fish when using the pencil bait around noon). That’s why it pays to understand where your lure works best and don’t be afraid to try another lure when your favourite doesn’t work.

So, back to my example. The Pencil bait is a floating lure and it stays on the surface of the water, meaning that it’s more likely to attract bass close to the surface. The bass tend to be closer to the surface during the morning and evening but seem to retreat to deeper waters around noon. Thefore, if I’m fishing at noon, the Pencil bait is going to be far less effective. In these situations I’ll go for the Floating Minnow (Suspend Minnow after it unlocks) or the Deep Crank to get deeper down in the water to attempt to catch the bass.

Huge Bass in the Falls Area (Original Mode)

Catching a good weight of bass in Original Mode is important, and when the Falls area is unlocked after playing up to stage 3 of the Amateur Tournament, you’ll find it much easier to rack up a good weight of bass when fishing on Lake Crystaldew.

Morning/Evening time, go to the Falls area and head to the rightmost area of where you can cast. (Screenshot below)

Here, you’ll always find many Huge bass (15lbs+) although you will have a lot more line out than usual (60-70ft whereas most areas go to 50ft)

I spent some time in Practice Mode in this part of the area, and after just a few catches I had already amassed a great total weight of bass.

If you have any more useful tips to share, send them in! Credit will be given, just include your Steam username (username not display name, display names can be changed!)

Options Menu

A brief overview of the Options menu and all its submenus.

Set Up Menu

This allows you to change various gameplay options.

Difficulty settings available: Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard, Very Hard

The first catch quota you’ll need to get in order to clear the first stage of the Arcade mode can be set here. This can go from 9lbs to 13lbs. After that the quota is increased by 2lbs per stage.
9lbs > 11lbs > 13lbs
10lbs > 12lbs > 14lbs
11lbs > 13lbs > 15lbs
12lbs > 14lbs > 16lbs
13lbs > 15lbs > 17lbs