If you want to collect all the fish and earn that golden fishing rod, you're going to want to know how to catch a mahi-mahi in Animal Crossing: New Horizons! While it's not too hard to know where to go with this fish, catching it might be a different story as it's particularly rare. We'll walk you through some tips that will hopefully help you grab it quicker.
How to Catch a Mahi Mahi
The Mahi-mahi is a fish that you can only catch if it is near a pier. This can be the pier that leads to the airport, the one on the side of your island, or the one located on a mystery island. It doesn't matter which one, it probably matters whether you're standing on a pier when casting for it or the spawn is near the pier (I haven't confirmed this). Now you'll need to make sure it's in seasons, so here's a look at when the Mahi-mahi will appear:
- Northern Hemisphere: May – October
- Southern Hemisphere: November – April
- Active hours: all day
- Shade: large
- Location: Pier
Dock fish can be quite difficult to find, so first make sure to cast for any fish when they are near a pier. You can catch tuna, blue marlin, giant trevally or mahi-mahi depending on the season. These all sell quite well, which makes them quite rare.
If you want to farm for Mahi-mahi, you will need to gather lots of fish bait. You can get it by running around the beach and looking for small dark holes that sprout from the water. Dig this spot with a shovel and you should end up with a Manila Clam. You can take this to your crafting table and make yourself fish bait. You will want to do a little more. Now that you have your bait, head to a pier and scatter it in the water. Each time you do this, you will notice a fish appear. If it's not a big shadow, you can just throw more bait in the water and try again. Keep doing this until you catch a Mahi-mahi.
Still haven't caught one? Well, there's another trick we can try, but it's not super reliable. You can take trips to Mystery Islands for 2000 Nook Miles each. While doing this, you will come across different islands. Some will be full of tarantulas (sometimes scorpions) or rare flowers, and one in particular will always spawn big shadow fish! This is the one we'll be looking to find, as you can then cast Fish bait off the island's pier and hopefully find yourself a Mahi-mahi! This is one of the few ways you can really narrow down the pool of fish you can catch.
That's all we have on the Mahi-mahi, good luck anglers!
