Line #32 Main/FishingForSole


1	[[quoteright:234:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sole_food.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:234:[[http://amazingdesigns.com/boy-fishing-1 If you catch something you don't want chances are you've caught this.]]]]
3
4	->''"I caught a boot! It, uh, wasn't made for swimming?"''
5	-->-- '''The PlayerCharacter''', ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingNewHorizons''
6
7	Out on a fishing expedition, and the fish aren't biting. Suddenly, there's a snag on the line. Someone's taken the bait; hook, line, and sinker. A quick flick of the rod and a frantic reeling in reveals your prize to be... [[{{Zonk}} an old boot]]. Dammit.
8
9	Several false alarms and several boots later, you start to wonder. [[FridgeLogic Why are there so many boots]]? Fish don't wear boots, hell, they don't even have feet. Yet there seem to be more boots in the water than there are fish. And it's not just boots, either. Spare tires, tin cans, other useless junk... why does it seem like you're fishing in Lake Erie?
10
11	Well, you're just having a bad run of luck. The bane of fishermen in old cartoons and [[FishingMinigame fishing minigames]] alike, Fishing for Sole is when you seem to pull just about everything out of the water... except for fish.
12
13	Of course, there is also magnet fishing, where a person has a strong magnet on the end of that fishing line and is trying to get metal objects under the water on purpose.
14
15	Compare IGotARock and MyNewGiftIsLame for similar lucklessness in receiving gifts. Contrast RodAndReelRepurposed; the character tries to use their fishing rod for something other than fishing.
16	----
17	!!Examples:
18
19	[[foldercontrol]]
20
21	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
22	* ''Anime/DevilMayCryTheAnimatedSeries'': Zig-zagged at the beginning of Episode 7. Kerry catches a fish, but that fish also has a demonic genie mask biting its tail.
23	* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'':
24	** ''Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries'':
25	*** In the first episode, Misty hooks Ash and Pikachu from the river. "Aw, it's just a kid!"
26	*** In the beginning of the episode "The Totodile Duel", Misty hooks a tea kettle after a surprising struggle.
27	** ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesSunAndMoon'':
28	*** In one episode, Wobbuffet somehow manages to hook a flip flop.
29	*** Jessie manages to snag ''Bewear'' while on Akala Island.
30	* Taken to [[RefugeInAudacity ridiculous extremes]] in one episode of ''Manga/CaseClosed'': fishing in a rain-swollen river, Kogoro hooks something huge...and discovers to his horror that he has hooked his rental car, which was swept away in a flash flood. Episode 352 has a straight example where the Detective Boys participate in a fishing tournament and catch a boot.
31	* The fisherman Ai sits with in the OVA series ''Manga/VideoGirlAi'' catches a boot which she keeps for a bit.
32	* Official ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' YonKoma comic ''Inaba of the Moon, Inaba of the Earth'' has [[PrincessClassic Kaguya]] trying her hand at fishing. She manages to fish out random junk like the classic boot, an empty can of mackerel, an old magazine, and [[ButtMonkey Reisen]], while missing all the fishes in the lake. As a strip title points out, "in a sense, it's an amazing hit rate".
33	* Happens to Yuuko at one point in ''Manga/{{Nichijou}}''. While she's fishing, she reels up an old boot and a kettle. She laughs it off and leaves... and then a giant peach, referencing Momotaro, floats by. [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Don't ask.]]
34	%% Needs context * [[RunningGag Hopper]] in ''Anime/AnimalCrossingTheMovie'' has [[SerialEscalation increasingly bad luck]] fishing.
35	* In episode 14 of ''Anime/Persona4TheAnimation'', when Yu is spending time with Hisano, she mournfully throws away the comb her late husband gave to her years ago, which Yu notices that it's caught in the fins of the [[TheCatfish River Guardian]]. Conveniently, the featured product the next morning on Tanaka's Amazing Commodities is a fishing set, which he orders and uses it to try and get the comb back. One whole day later, he's in front of several buckets of garbage including the usual boot, a pile of jars and a rubber ducky. [[LetsGetDangerous He then puts on his glasses]] to the tune of "''Reach out to the Truth''" and pretends to invoke his Persona Izanagi and finally catches the River Guardian, getting the comb back.
36	* The cover for chapter 76 of ''Manga/FairyTail'' shows Natsu pulling up a can with a fishing rod -- while a fish smiles tauntingly right next to the hook.
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:Asian Animation]]
40	* ''Animation/{{Lamput}}'': In "Everyone Needs Friends", a fisherman is seen fishing a boot out of the water. Lamput tries to cheer him up by having his monster friend give him a bunch of fishes.
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Comic Books]]
44	* A José Carioca comic book short features a sort of inversion. Being as poor as he is, he fancies the idea of a free pair of boots and continues fishing for the other boot. Cut to an annoyed Joe sitting in front of a large pile of ''fish'' but still just one boot.
45	* This is a common gag in Chuck Billy's stories from ''ComicBook/MonicasGang''. One short was about his cousin catching a pair of shoes which he uses for a long ChainOfDeals that ends with him buying a new pair of shoes. He then wonders if all the time spent was worth it.
46	** Another one has him catching more and more stuff, even a 'car', and then he says "Now there must be nothing else left", and he is right, there's no more water.´
47	* ''ComicBook/TheSmurfs'': In ''You Don't Smurf Progress'', a Smurf who is using one of Handy's robot servants to go fishing ends up catching an old sock and other bits of junk from the river.
48	* Played with in a Don Martin ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' cartoon: a woman fishing while her husband dozes nearby pulls a fish out of the water so forcefully it flies into her husband's yawning mouth and he swallows it. Demanding that she do something about it, the woman then runs the fishing line down his mouth into his stomach... and pulls out a tire!
49	* In one ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'' album, our hero and Obelix pass by a fisherman at the river, complaining about all of the amphora jars he keeps catching.
50	[[/folder]]
51
52	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
53	* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'': The title character [[http://strips.garfield.com/iimages/1996/ga960723.gif once tried to fish for mice]] using a [[StockAnimalDiet chunk of]] CartoonCheese. He caught a tiny boot instead.
54	[[/folder]]
55
56	[[folder:Fan Works]]
57	* Calvin and Hobbes, having been stranded on an island for 50 years, are forced to eat the tires they catch in ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesTheSeries''. [[spoiler:Except the whole thing was really AllJustADream.]]
58	* ''Fanfic/TheAristocatsIsland'': At the end of the episode "A Great Discovery", Jenny has [[spoiler: repaired the broken fishing line]] and is fishing in the lagoon when Berlioz comes along. He takes the fishing line and catches an old boot.
59	[[/folder]]
60
61	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
62	* Happened in ''Film/ForrestGump'', when they were shrimp fishing; only with a greater variety of junk, including a toilet seat.
63	* Flint is introduced in ''Film/PiratesOfTheGreatSaltLake'' fishing up a boot, which happens to have half of a treasure map inside.
64	* ''Film/PsychoPike'' opens with a fisherman making a late night catch, only for his prize to turn out to be a severed hand. This shocks him so much that he falls into the water, and resurfaces short while later with his head bitten off.
65	* ''Film/SleepawayCampIIITeenageWasteland'' has a scene where Angela manages to fish out a hockey mask from the water.
66	* In ''Film/TimeBandits'', the ogre in the [[TheTimeOfMyths Time Of Legends]] wishes he could get sole.
67	-->'''Ogre:''' There used to be a time when you could be sure of catching old boots, cans, hat racks, boxes...now it's ''prawns'' alla bloody time! Lousy ole ocean!
68	* ''Film/ATimeOutOfWar'': Two Union soldiers on picket duty declare a truce with their Confederate opposite so they can go fishing in the river. When one of the Union men hooks something in the river, the Confederate thinks it's a catfish, because it isn't moving. It's the dead body of a Union cavalryman.
69	[[/folder]]
70
71	[[folder:Folklore]]
72	* In the folktale ''The Fisherman and the Genie'', the title fisherman pulls up several useless items (including a dead donkey) before finding the genie's jar.
73	[[/folder]]
74
75	[[folder:Literature]]
76	* In the children's book ''Literature/TheFamilyUnderTheBridge'', the protagonist, a Parisian hobo, keeps a shoe he found because he might come across its mate someday. As it happens, he sees a man fish it out of the river.
77	* In the Richard Scarry book ''Funniest Storybook Ever'', someone goes fishing and catches an old bicycle, and as the narration puts it, "but he didn't want an old bicycle, he wanted a fish."
78	* ''Literature/MurderIsMyBusiness'': The dead body in the Rio Grande is discovered by a boy who was fishing for catfish, and caught a corpse.
79	* ''Literature/RoysBedoys'': In “Let’s Go Fishing, Roys Bedoys!”, Roys goes fishing and while he does manage to catch a fish eventually, he first catches some seaweed and a shoe.
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
83	* In ''Series/SamuraiSentaiShinkenger'' episode 7, the blue ranger has to go fishing for his mecha. He's shown pulling up a boot, which he adds to a pile of trash.
84	** ''Series/PowerRangersSamurai'' recycled the plotline, but not the gag - in that episode, anyway. It shows up in "Runaway Spike" instead, where Bulk and Spike end up finally getting some work helping Antonio with his fish business. They actually manage to bring in a fair few fish, while it's ''Antonio'' who ends up reeling in a boot.
85	* Almost invoked in ''Series/RedDwarf'', in which Lister notes that his fishing trips were mainly ForTheLulz and, if anything, he went condom fishing.
86	* On ''Series/DeadliestCatch'' this is the basis of many of the pranks that crab boat crews try to pull on each other. This comes in two flavors:
87	## One version is to haul up a crab pot belonging to another boat, dump out whatever crab is already in said pot, and load it with other stuff (garbage is one common example). Sometimes, to add more insult, the pot would also be tampered with (welding the door shut is common; one boat also slipped a section of pipe down a crab pot's line so as to essentially make it difficult for the targeted boat's crew to haul it up).
88	## The second, wackier version is to replace the crab pot in question with something else entirely. The examples shown in the series were a porta-potty and a wrecked pickup truck, the latter of which [[MagnificentBastard impressed even the victims]]!
89	* In one of the surviving episodes of ''Series/{{Pinwheel}}'', a sea elephant catches a boot while out on a fishing trip with a penguin during one of the shorts. Not knowing what the boot is, he assumes it's an unidentified fish and [[SniffSniffNom immediately tries to eat it]].
90	* ''Series/{{SCTV}}'' parodied ''Series/SiskelAndEbert'' showing them reviewing Robert Altman's "Henry", soon after his ''Film/{{Popeye}}'' movie - the clip was a drawn-out scene picturing this trope. They weren't impressed.
91	* The prologue for ''Series/YoungHercules'' episode 16 has Iolaus catch a boot fishing, complete with a pun about "filet of sole".
92	* In ''Series/TheRedGreenShow'', in one of the scene transitions a line descends through the screen, tightens and hauls up an old leather boot.
93	* ''Series/TheSketchShow'': Spoofed in a sketch with a visual gag of a clown sitting by the pond boasting to another fisherman that he caught a really big shoe the day before.
94	* In a ''Series/SesameStreet'' skit, Big Bird was on a boat fishing with two boys. He doesn’t have much luck, but it looks like he might have got one...only to reel in a boot. [[spoiler: He does eventually catch a real fish (a small one, but a fish nonetheless)]]
95	* Creator/PierceBrosnan invoked this in a commercial for the ''Earth Aid'' benefit concert simulcast. The commercial showed him fishing, only to pull a plastic bottle out of the water. With a satisfied smile, he chucked it into [[ExactlyWhatIAimedAt a large bag overflowing with plastic bottles.]]
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Manhua]]
99	* Exeggerated in one ''Manhua/OldMasterQ'' strip where Master Q and his rival, Chiu, competes against each other in fishing. When Chiu gets increasingly bigger fishes, Q on the other hand fishes out ''a wrecked car''.
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
103	* Swedish board game ''Old Pike'' features, in addition to the titular Old Pike and a big deck of different small fish: an old boot, an old hat, an "electric eel" (which looks a bit like a fluorescent tube bent like an S) and a tin of sardines. The two last cards are the reason that the rulebook states you need seven ''live'' fish to win. Emphasis from the original.
104	[[/folder]]
105
106	[[folder:Video Games]]
107	* There's no actual boots to be caught in ''VideoGame/AceFishing'', but unlucky players might reel in empty bottles, diving helmets and worthless sea urchins (which are somehow worth even less EXP & gold than the bottles/helmets).
108	* ''VideoGame/ANNOMutationem'': In the FishingMinigame at Harbor Town, Ann is able catch many fish when she responds to the AlertnessBlink. Otherwise, if she misses the catch, she'll pull out junk items to be sold as ShopFodder for additional [[WeWillSpendCreditsInTheFuture credits]] that are valued less than the captured fish.
109	* It can happen in the ''Franchise/AnimalCrossing'' series. You can get boots, cans, and tires. It's impossible to know that they're junk ahead of time, since they look and fight back just like real fish. (No idea how or why they fight, but they do.) In ''City Folk'', some villagers may end up locked out of their houses, leaving you to fish for the key. In ''New Leaf'', you can prevent this by enacting the "Beautify Our Town" ordinance which, among other effects, keeps you from fishing up garbage. In ''New Horizon'', there's a number of DIY recipes that use the junk you fish up, making them genuinely desirable for a change; for instance, a tin can can be recycled into a thumb piano or a planter for a succulent plant, while managing to catch two boots allows you to refurbish them into a pair of wearable "recycled boots".
110	* In ''VideoGame/{{APICO}}'', it's possible to fish up a shoe along with other junk or extract them from sludge using the Percolator. They're so worthless, you have to ''pay'' the shopkeeper instead if you try to sell them.
111	* ''VideoGame/BarrowHill: The Dark Path'' features a magnet-fishing sequence in which you retrieve a needed item from a junkyard, as well as a water-fishing one in which you can bring up a variety of garbage (cans, boots, etc) out of a woodland spring before the item you actually need turns up.
112	* The drakeskin boots in ''[[VideoGame/{{Avernum}} Blades of Avernum]]'' (the best boots available among the predesigned items) are obtained in one of the predesigned scenarios by fishing at a particular spot after achieving a high LuckStat. The message prompt is exactly as follows: "You have a fantastic stroke of luck! You fish out a pair of boots."
113	* The cover of Volume IV of the Mag Garden ComicBookAdaptation of ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIV'' depicts Ryu catching a boot when trying to fish. This is actually an inversion of a ''very'' long-running trope in the series where the various Ryus are depicted as expert fishermen (''Franchise/BreathOfFire'' as a series is famous, nearly ''infamous'', for its {{Fishing Minigame}}s--especially ''IV'' which actually had ''its'' FishingMinigame spun off into a NoExportForYou Japanese smart-phone game). The same manga (in Volume III) portrays Ryu's LiteralSplitPersonality Fou-lu actually ''catching'' fish, adding insult to injury.
114	* In ''[[VideoGame/CubeEscape Cube Escape: The Lake]]'', you need to repeatedly go fishing for items you need. You ''do'' catch a fish, but also keys, safes, a seashell (somehow), and a live human...[[HumanoidAbomination oid creature]].
115	* In ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'', one of the fisherman Korcha's special attacks has him reel in a monster that hits the enemies. Sometimes, however, he'll reel in a boot that does nothing.
116	* Case 43 of ''VideoGame/CriminalCaseGrimsborough'' opens with Jones reeling in (part of) the victim's corpse.
117	* ''VideoGame/DungeonsOfAether'' has useless boots that can be caught while fishing in the Underground Oasis.
118	* It's pretty interesting what sort of "junk" you can fish up with the [[GameMod Fishing Creation]] bundled with the Anniversary Edition of ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim''. There's normal stuff like empty bottles of wine, buckets, and flagons, but you can also find weapons and armor (which may also be enchanted, depending on your luck), troll skulls, ''filled'' bottles of wine (and ale too), and even some artifacts that previously only appeared in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]''. If you're fishing in a spot near some [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Dwemer]] ruins, you get a pretty different list of junk that includes stuff like gears, scrap metal, and entire structural supports. Speaking of Dwemer stuff, using a Dwarven fishing rod increases the chances of this trope occurring.
119	* ''VideoGame/EndlessOcean: Blue World'' introduced underwater salvaging to earn extra money, and you won't know what any given object is until you get Nancy Young to appraise it. A small bottle could either be a priceless perfume or a discarded orange juice bottle, for instance.
120	* There's actually a special enhancement exclusively used to invoke this trope in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'', although the situation is reversed compared to ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', as most items fished up really ''are'' junk, and most of the fish will result in a better profit(Although the junk was more valuable before, but it got heavily nerfed due to massive RMT exploiting).
121	* Happens also in the fishing minigames at ''Website/GaiaOnline''. Interestingly enough, you can trade your garbage for special hats at the fishing shop, which in turn managed to create a market for lake garbage. Like the saying goes, one man's rubbish is another man's treasure...
122	** The short-lived minor meme: "Johnny K. is a litterbug", referring to the amounts of trash that could be dredged up by Gambino Island.
123	* Parodied in ''VideoGame/AGirlAdrift.'' Players can catch a Rare fish called "Old Boots" — a fish that resembles a beat-up old shoe.
124	* In ''VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn'', you can provide a fisherman with a sturdy wooden pole. Then you can go outside and [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential set fire to a Djinni that did you absolutely no wrong, just so it'll hop into the pond to cool off and get hooked]].
125	-->"Okay, it's cool, but I don't think we can eat this for dinner... do you want it?"
126	* Occurs in some of the ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'' games that feature fishing, such as ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonFriendsOfMineralTown''.
127	** The [[VideoGame/HarvestMoon1 very first game]], for SNES, randomly shows boots or cans when fishing attempts fail. The player can't pick them up, however; they just vanish after a moment.
128	** In ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonDS'', you actually have to catch a Bottle so you can [[spoiler:propose to the mermaid, Leia.]]
129	* In ''VideoGame/{{Hydroneer}}'', while fishing you occasionally pull up a "stanky old boot" with a split toe. Pure vendor trash since the game has no clothing mechanic. Interestingly, boots are treated as fish in ''all'' respects: not only can they be caught in passive traps, they can also be mounted on fish-trophy plaques, and even ''cooked'' to increase their sell price.
130	* In ''VideoGame/IllusionOfGaia'', there's a man fishing on a pier in the starter town. If the RandomNumberGod is feeling especially generous, he'll pull up a pot with a [[CollectionSidequest Red Jewel]] inside. [[PermanentlyMissableContent Better not leave town before he catches it.]]
131	* In ''VideoGame/KingsQuestIV'', Rosella uses a fishing pole to catch a fish, which is needed to progress the game. She needs to bait the hook with a worm, in order to catch said fish though. Otherwise, she'll catch a boot instead. (Even with the hook baited, she may end up not catching anything, and have to try again.)
132	* ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheForgottenLand'': If Kirby fails the FishingMinigame, he'll reel in a junk item and will have to start his catch streak over again.
133	* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'' has a [[FishingMinigame fishing minigame]] at Valleria Shore in chapter 1. Besides five different kinds of fish of increasing rarity and value, you can also catch "Holey Boots".
134	* Despite its insistence on staying grounded in realism, fishing in ''VideoGame/ProjectZomboid'' has shoes, socks, and other such items in the fishing loot table that otherwise become useless, since the player likely already has decent clothing once they're capable of fishing.
135	* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
136	** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'' has a guy fishing up a "necklace" belonging to the local mermaid (in the Japanese version, it's her bra). The remake on the Platform/NintendoSwitch would also add a Fairy Bottle that could be caught in the FishingMinigame.
137	** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'':
138	*** The game both plays this straight and subverts it. Non-fish objects that you can catch include the usual junk like sticks, cans, and old cartwheels, but also some good things such as an empty bottle, a bag of rupees, or the most effective fishing lure in the game. The sign in the fishing hole area warning people not to throw junk in the water might be a LampshadeHanging, or it might just be a clue about dredging up the good stuff.
139	*** The game even seems to imply that fishing up an Empty Bottle [[CommonplaceRare is a more valuable treasure than any fish]] and snagging it helps with the litter problem since you're recycling the bottle.
140	* The {{MMORPG}} ''VideoGame/{{Mabinogi}}'' has a fishing skill and minigame. Aside from fish, catches include any number of different items, including quests, clothing and armour, crafting items, etc. Some items can only be found via fishing. The higher the player's rank, the more valuable the items (and fish) that can be caught. In one case, the "how did that stuff get down there" question was answered: a fashion designer decided the best way to publicize his new line was to dump the ''entire collection'' into various bodies of water and sell bait (instead of the clothes themselves) to see people try to fish them up.
141	* In ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', it is possible to catch worn leather shoes. So is catching raw leather, bones, enchanted artifacts (including fishing rods), as well as actual fish. You can even enchant your fishing rod to catch ''better'' random objects -- the "luck of the sea" enchantment decreases the odds of "junk" items like sticks, and increases the odds of "treasure" items like enchanted books. The weirdest part is that, whenever a fish is about to bite, you can see a trail of bubbles meander over to your hook... this ''also'' happens if you catch an inanimate object. Apparently boots can swim.
142	* ''VideoGame/MoshiMonsters'' has several anglers. A few of them are successful, but one of them, called Billy Bob Baitman, always catches the same boot every time.
143	* ''VideoGame/MyChildLebensborn'': If the PlayerCharacter fails to actually catch a fish while fishing, it will be shown as them getting an old shoe, instead. If the child is present when it happens, they may remark on it, in some cases wondering if there is currently someone wearing fish on their feet.
144	* [[UnderTheSea Maraqua]] from ''Website/{{Neopets}}'' has "Underwater Fishing", where boots, tin cans, driftwood, broken fishing poles, and other pieces of junk are frequent catches.
145	* ''VideoGame/TheOregonTrail (2009)'' has a fishing minigame in which you can accidentally catch various items, the most common being boots, which stun you temporarily.
146	* ''VideoGame/Persona4 Golden'': The lowest-rank "fish" you can catch at Shirichi Beach is a tire. It's completely useless, but fishing there can also net you the [[JokeWeapon Joke Weapons]] for every party member (except [[KickChick Chie]], ironically enough). This results in the protagonist fishing up objects like bus stop signs, benches, a ''drill'' and '''an antique flintlock pistol'''.
147	* ''VideoGame/{{Raft}}'' has fishing, and lets you catch various odd decorative items besides fish; old toys, a candle in a bottle, and a shoe, among others. The shoe can also double as a planting pot for small crops.
148	* Happens constantly in ''VideoGame/RuneFactory3''. Which wouldn't be so bad, except that they don't ''stack''. Hopefully you wanted that entire inventory of boots and cans.
149	* In ''VideoGame/{{Runescape}}'', there's a chance of catching a boots with a big fishing net. With that method, it's also possible to receive gloves.
150	* The "7Seas" MiniGame in ''VideoGame/SecondLife'' has a variety of boots you can catch with your fishing pole. Like in ''VideoGame/{{Suikoden}}'', these are wearable items and often have shiny bling.
151	* In ''VideoGame/ShovelKnight'', casting a fishing hook into non-sparkling pit may get you such junk like knives, bones or remains of food if you aren't lucky.
152	* ''VideoGame/TheSims'':
153	** Happens in ''VideoGame/TheSims2: Seasons''. Not only do you catch boots, but you can put them in your blender and drink them and watch your Sims have wacky reactions to boot smoothies. You can also have them mounted on the wall like a prized catch.
154	** Averted in ''VideoGame/TheSimsMedieval''. You can fish all you like and you only ever catch fish.
155	** The pond near your home in ''VideoGame/MySims'' has Tire Essences to be fished up... which is good, because some Tasks require them.
156	** One fishing spot in ''VideoGame/MySimsKingdom'' has a boot... armor-style. Indeed, several pieces of armor can be found, some by fishing.
157	* In ''VideoGame/{{Spiritfarer}}'', one of the possible items Stella can get while fishing are "soggy and smelly" Old Shoes, which can be sold to Francis at 8 Glims each.
158	* In ''VideoGame/StardewValley'', you can fish up all sorts of junk, including seaweed, pond algae, broken glasses, trash bags, discarded [=CDs=], and unopened cans of Joja Cola. Fortunately, you can put trash items into a Recycling Machine to convert them into useful resources, and any seaweed or algae you fish up can be used in certain cooking recipes.
159	* In ''VideoGame/StreetPassMiiPlaza'''s "Ultimate Angler", boots are one of the "junk" catches you can fish up (alongside cans, seaweed, and driftwood). If you don't have any bait colors that the area's fish like, these junk catches are ''all'' you'll be getting, although there's a chance you'll get junk even if you do have the right bait.
160	* Every ''VideoGame/{{Suikoden}}'' game since the second have included a fishing-game, and the 'Boot' has always been a possible alternate catch. Two amusing details: Those Boots are actually equippable an an Accessory item, which is somewhat odd unless they always come in pairs. And you actually have a 'biggest size caught' listing for the Boot as well as the various types of fish, only instead of being measured in centimeters, it's measured in boot size.
161	* ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'' version 1.2.4 adds fishing to the gameplay. There are several "failure" items that can be caught if the lake is too small, like old shoes, seaweed, and old tin cans. So if you start getting these, what you have to do is to make the lake larger and the fish will find their way in, no matter how the lake was made. If it's too small, you get junk. If it's large enough, there will be fish. [[InsaneTrollLogic Even if you spawned the water from thin air into some random hole.]]
162	* In ''VideoGame/ToontownOnline'', in addition to fish and the occasional jellybean jar, you can fish up worthless boots. This is desirable in Fish Bingo, however, where they act as a wild card that can be placed on any square.
163	* ''VideoGame/{{Torchlight}}'' and the ''VideoGame/{{FATE}}'' series involve fishing minigames where the fish sometimes contain items. It's usually jewelry or gems, but sometimes other things. There are also actual fish, which when fed to your pet turn it into a [[PowerUpFood powerful]] PetMonstrosity.
164	** The really funny part is when you get an [[GridInventory eight-grid-cell]] artifact shield [[FridgeLogic out of a one-cell fish]].
165	** Torchlight in particular gives out an inordinate number of magic boots when fishing.
166	* ''VideoGame/UltimaOnline'' had this happen and decrease in likeliness as you gained more skill. Due to poor balancing the boots were a far better catch then the fish; food was in abundant supply and boots sold for more.
167	* In ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'', you can fish while roaming Earth's Plains of Eidolon or Venus' Orb Vallis, and if you miss your intended catch there's a small chance you'll reel in a Grineer or Corpus trooper's boot instead; you'll also get a [[Funny/{{Warframe}} brief banjo ditty or electronica tune to go with it]], as opposed to the more triumphant tune for a regular catch. Finally, whilst you can sell the boots as ShopFodder, you can choose to mount them on trophy boards and display them in your Orbiter.
168	** Humorously, it isn't just the player that can experience this--idle comments from [[DefectorFromDecadence the Grineer defector known as Kahl]] indicates that he also sometimes ends up with boots when he goes fishing. However, since the boots he fishes up are the same model worn by Grineer Lancers like him, Kahl doesn't mind because hey, free spare boots.
169	* In the text-based MMORPG ''VideoGame/{{World of Hollow}}'', fishing can net you various fish, a boot, or even a new fishing pole. It's a bit of a game to see if you can fish new poles out of the lake faster than you break them on fish that get away.
170	* While fishing in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' with fishing skill lower than the required for the zone, significant part (up to ''all'' of them) of catches will be useless junk, like twigs...and occasionally An Old Boot (which can't even be worn). However, even at high enough levels to not catch any junk, plenty of ''actual fish'' is useless to the degree of not even being worthy ShopFodder. It also sometimes is inverted, with rare non-fish catches being more valuable, or at least [[CosmeticAward cosmetic]].
171	** And once you reach a high enough skill level, [[http://www.wowhead.com/items=4?filter=sl=8;cr=69;crs=1;crv=0#0-2+1 you ''can'' fish up wearable footwear]] (and +15 Intellect isn't all that bad when you're a level 44 caster).
172	[[/folder]]
173
174	[[folder:Web Animation]]
175	* In the ''WebAnimation/AstroLOLogy'' short "The Line", when Libra and Scorpio are [[{{Robinsonade}} stranded on a tiny island]], they try their hands at fishing for food. Scorpio catches a fish while Libra gets a boot.
176	[[/folder]]
177
178	[[folder:Web Comics]]
179	* ''Webcomic/StatisticalFact'' introduces a vintage clothing dealer who actually enjoys catching old shoes [[http://statisticalfact.com/sf/fishing-for-shoes/ here]].
180	[[/folder]]
181
182	[[folder:Web Original]]
183	* ''[[http://shirtoid.com/58655/oceans-outcasts/ Ocean's Outcasts]]'' by Glenn Jones.
184	* The main character of WebAnimation/PeteraDzive uses liquor as bait in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdYXhpyTLME one episode]], and manages to hook a naked man.
185	* In ''Roleplay/FightingSimulator3'', several "junk" items can be found when Fishing, including an old boot, which can be crafted with another old boot to make an equippable [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Pair of Old Boots]].
186	[[/folder]]
187
188	[[folder:Western Animation]]
189	* In the ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'' episode "Interview With a Campfire", Chuckie thinks he caught a fish, but it turns out to be an accordion.
190	* Parodied extensively in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "The Deep South", when the crew goes fishing, Leela catches a boot with a ''harpoon''. Then she gets something that must be good, since it's 20 times heavier than a boot... and it's a crate containing 10 pairs of boots. She gets confident about the next one since the thing is clearly moving... and then pulls up a boot being eaten by Zoidberg. And they were fishing this at the exact center of the Atlantic Ocean.
191	-->'''Amy:''' Oh, so ''this'' is where you shop for your boots.
192	* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', where Peter's terrible fishing trip results in a tire, a boot, a tin can and [[LampshadeHanging a book of clichés]].
193	* {{Inverted\|Trope}} in ''WesternAnimation/AaahhRealMonsters'', when Ickis disappointingly catches a fish. As a monster who [[ExtremeOmnivore eats garbage]], he would rather catch an old boot any day.
194	* In the ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'' episode "Gone Fishin'", Ben turns into [[FishPeople Ripjaws]] in an effort to catch fish more quickly. Even then, he ends up with a boot for his efforts.
195	* In the first 30-second short of ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleRascals'', Alfalfa and Spanky are fishing when they catch two identical boots. The boys are scared away when the boots start walking. [[spoiler:The boots had live fish in them.]]
196	* Inverted in a clip of ''Series/DieSendungMitDerMaus''. The Mouse has no use for fish. [[InsaneTrollLogic She even puts a sock on the hook as bait.]] It works and she goes home with new boots.
197	* In a classic ''Series/SesameStreet'' sketch, a boy tries to catch fish, but instead pulls up letters in conveniently alphabetical order. Though he initially assumes that he won't be able to eat them, he ends up using them for soup.
198	* In ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'' one of the half-length short types is "Donald's Dynamite" where Donald is plagued by a CartoonBomb for no reason; one of them he fishes up out of the water...already lit.
199	* ''WesternAnimation/MollyOfDenali'': In "First Fish", Molly can't wait to catch her first fish, but the only thing she catches is Tooey's missing boot.
200	* ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'': In "Primal", Grizz tries to catch fish in a lake with his bare paws, but all he finds is garbage.
201	[[/folder]]

Context Main / FishingForSole