Fishing Episode

Unfortunately, most of these catches will probably be Magikarp.

"Gone fishing,

Gone fishing,

It's a sunny old day and you're on your way,

Why don't we all go fishing?''

—Thomas & Friends, "Gone Fishing" music video

Exactly What It Says on the Tin, a fishing episode will involve the protagonists going fishing.

The fishing trip will often be an excuse for a character to try and bond with their parents.

A variation of this episode may have a character trying to catch a legendary fish that nobody has been able to catch. They may eventually finally catch the fish, only to inevitably let it go.

Compare Fishing Minigame, for when this trope is used in video games, and Camping Episode, which revolves around another typical outdoor activity. In fact, it's not uncommon for people to go fishing while camping.

Also compare Heroes Gone Fishing, for when a hero does a relaxing activity (such as fishing) to take a break from crime-fighting.

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Examples:

Advertising

• A commercial for Duracell batteries from the Puttermans campaign features the titular family fishing on a boat. When Herb catches a fish, his wife Flo tells him to be careful. Herb tells her not to worry, as he's running on a long-lasting Duracell battery. His son Zack soon discovers that the fish he caught is also running on a Duracell battery, leaving the two in quite a battle.
  Herb: (laughing) Good thing I've got a long vacation!

Anime & Manga

• Crayon Shin-chan have it's share of fishing-themed episodes, including one where Shin-Chan and Hiroshi squares off against a champion fisher to catch a legendary giant carp for a massive cash reward. Shin-Chan managed to hook said giant fish, and uses his butt to drag the fish in, as usual.
• Doraemon has several shorts where Nobita goes fishing either by himself or with the gang, just to name a few:
  • "The Fishing Pond in My Study Room": Suneo invites Gian and Shizuka to go with him on a fishing trip, but deliberately left out Nobita, as usual, so Doraemon helps Nobita gets back at Suneo with the "Rolled Up Pond" gadget for Nobita to go fishing in his bedroom.
  • "The Puddles' Mysterious Fish": Nobita and Shizuka competes against Suneo and Gian in catching bigger fishes in a local creek; Doraemon helps Nobita out by using his gadgets to connect Nobita's size of the creek with the Amazon River causing Nobita to catch some huge river monsters.
  • "The Jaws in the Parking Lot": Nobita wants to go fishing again but doesn't feel like traveling far, so Doraemon uses a gadget to turn the Open Lot into an impromptu lake. A Great White somehow made it's way into the Lot and crosses the boundary, requiring Nobita and Doraemon to catch it before it escapes into the big city.
• One of the shorts from M78 Love and Peace have Ultraman and Alien Baltan on a fishing trip, with Baltan getting a literal mountain of fish while Ultraman fails to get even one. Then Ultraman seemingly caught a big one... which turns out to be the whale the two of them are sitting on, causing both of them to be comically thrown off.
• Episode 16 of the first season of Ojamajo Doremi has the Ojamajos go on a fishing trip so Doremi could impress a boy she was crushing on.
• Pokémon: The Series has several episodes centered around fishing:
  • "Hook, Line, and Sinker" has Ash, Misty and Brock join in on the annual Seaking Catching Competition, which is entered also by Team Rocket, and the episode's featured trainer, Andreas.
  • "Whiscash and Ash", Ash accidentally loses his badge case after it gets eaten by a large Whiscash. With the help of a local who's been hunting down the same Whiscash for years, Ash and the gang spend the episode trying to catch it and retrieve his badges.
  • "A Fishing Connoisseur in a Fishy Competition" has Team Rocket orchestrate a fake fishing competition, in which Cilan participates as a "fishing connoisseur", along with Bianca, who had never fished before.
  • "Going For The Gold" involves Ash, Clemont, Bonnie and Serena going fishing to help a fisherman catch a Golden Magikarp.
• In episode 14b of Tamagotchi, when Mametchi asks his father Papamametchi about his ship in a bottle as they prepare to go fishing, Papamametchi tells him it's a ship he rode when he was younger. As the two are actually out fishing, Papamametchi recounts the story of when he took that boat out on a journey to find a rare sea creature.

Asian Animation

• The Say Hi to Pencil! episode "Fishing Day", which features Pencil attempting to catch one particular fish in the ocean but constantly being outsmarted by it.

Comic Books

• The Professor takes The Powerpuff Girls fishing in issue #34's "Fish Fight" (DC run). They catch one but the Professor turns it loose as it's too small. Bubbles is traumatized by the fact that fish is considered edible, so she refuses to engage when the fish turns monstrous and destructive after being irradiated by chemical waste.

Comic Strips

• One or two Garfield arcs involve Jon and Garfield going fishing. Garfield's opinions on it seem to zigzag, from liking it ("where else can you take a nap and call it a sport?") to disliking it (mosquitoes).
• An arc in Zits has Walt taking a less-than-enthusiastic Jeremy on a fishing trip, which ultimately turns out out to be a ruse to isolate him on a boat so they can have The Talk.

Film — Animation

• A Goofy Movie has Goofy and his son Max go on a fishing trip in an attempt to bond with him after Max gets in trouble at school.

Literature

• In the Dirty Bertie story "Fishy", Bertie and his father go fishing and, by coincidence, so do Nick (Bertie's rival) and his dad.
• Roys Bedoys: In “Let’s Go Fishing, Roys Bedoys!”, Roys and Loys’s grandpa takes them fishing.
• In "Super Grover and the Hole Story or Gone Fishing", the sixth and final chapter of The Exciting Adventures of Super Grover, Grover and several of his friends from Sesame Street go fishing on a boat. When the boat starts springing leaks, Grover can't find a telephone booth to change into his Super Grover outfit (which he had packed in his fishing creel), and the others are oblivious to this incident, so he tries to stop the leaks by plugging them himself. But then he catches a big fish, which pulls him underwater. There, he finds a discarded telephone booth under the sea, becomes Super Grover, and saves the boat by carrying it in mid-air.

Live-Action TV

• The entire premise of Surreal Humor series Fishing with John. Every episode, host John Lurie takes a celebrity guest on a fishing trip somewhere. The episode with Willem Dafoe turns into a Horrible Camping Trip.
  Narrator: On January 19th, Willem Dafoe and John Lurie died of starvation.
• In the A-plot of the Good Luck Charlie episode, "Teddy On Ice", the Wentz family invites Teddy to go ice fishing with them in a cabin in the mountains. Mr. Wentz is reluctant to let Teddy fish with his favorite fishing pole, Betsy, due to her accidentally destroying his old car, Gracie, in a previous episode, "Amazing Gracie". Sure enough, when Teddy tries to catch a fish, she accidentally drops Betsy into the water. Near the end of the episode, when Teddy accidentally falls into the water, she manages to catch the fish that swallowed Betsy. This redeems her in Mr. Wentz's eyes, and he invites her to come back next year, much to her horror.
• Jane the Virgin does this in a season 5 episode when Jason convinces Jane (who doesn't like it) to go fishing with him.
• The Noddy Shop had a variant on this in the episode "The Fish Story", in which the children play a fishing game that's set up in the shop. The plot is set off when Kate takes off a ring her mother gave her to play the game properly when it gets in the way.
• Henry Warnimont takes Punky Brewster and her pals fishing in a 15-minute episode. It seemed boring to them until they actually got some catches.
• In a Bert and Ernie sketch on Sesame Street, the two title characters go fishing. Ernie is able to catch fish easily with his fish call; whenever he says, "Here, Fishy, Fishy, Fishy!" really loudly, the fish jump into the boat. When Bert tries Ernie's fish call, he doesn't succeed at first, but eventually manages to yell it really loudly, and a shark jumps into the boat.

• In "Pier", Milkshake! Monkey is at the seaside and he goes fishing at the pier, Milkshake Monkey wants to catch an fish, who he caught the shoe, so he cannot catch the fish, right?, Milkshake Monkey’s friend have an idea to have a picnic at the beach!

Web Videos

• In the SuperMarioLogan episode, "The Fishing Trip!", Bowser takes his son, Junior, on a fishing trip when he worries they don't spend any time together (after seeing an episode of Charleyyy and Friends where it is revealed that Charleyyy's Dad never played with him). Bowser also invites Mario and Jeffy to join him on the fishing trip. Unfortunately, they fish in shark-infested waters, and when Junior drops his fishing pole in the water and Bowser makes him get it, Junior gets attacked by a shark. Fortunately, Bowser saves Junior from the shark and congratulates Junior for catching his first fish. Mario, unfortunately, is not so lucky, as he gets eaten by a shark when Jeffy floats into the water on a monkey float.

Western Animation

• In The All-New Popeye Hour short "Popeye and the Pest", Popeye tries to fish, but is menaced by a mosquito.
• In the Arthur episode "Cast Away", Arthur is looking forward to a weekend of fishing at Whale Lake with his father, David, but he is soon forced to bring his little sister, D.W. along when it is revealed that David has to work next weekend. After many unsuccessful attempts at casting his line, Arthur accidentally sprains his ankle and has to stay in the tent while David fishes with D.W. the next day. Much to Arthur's chagrin, D.W. is an expert at catching fish thanks to the fish-loving the Mary Moo Cow song that she plays.
• The Atomic Puppet episode "Surf n' Turf" has Joey going on a standard father-son fishing trip with his dad, only to get caught up in the battle between aquatic superhero King Hydronomous and his archenemy Meglo-Don.
• The Beatles: John and Paul are out fishing in a bumper storyline. When a shark encroaches on their canoe, they row frantically for a deserted island. To get back to regular land, they hook onto another fish which tows them back.
• In "Gone Fishin' (Sort of)", the first episode of Camp Lazlo, nobody in Camp Kidney has been able to catch a fish, not even Scoutmaster Lumpus. Just to rub it in Lumpus' face, the fish jump into the Squirrel Scouts' boat. Lazlo, Raj, and Clam take Lumpus' fishing boat on a joyride and decide to fish in its spot when it runs out of fuel. When Lumpus catches up to them, he gets attacked by the legendary Leakey Lake Monster, but still manages to catch a fish in the struggle.
• Codename: Kids Next Door: In the episode "OPERATION: O.O.M.P.P.A.H.", Numbuh One is forced to go on a fishing trip with his father.
• An episode of Danny Phantom has Danny go fishing with his dad for father-son bonding; its peacefulness is soon interrupted by Skulker. Danny defeats him without his dad even noticing, and they bring home a giant ghost sea creature.
• In the Dennis the Menace episode, "Fishing For Trouble", Mr. Wilson goes to the 28th annual Lake Watchimatatchi fishing derby and Dennis tags along. Mr. Wilson is out to catch "Old Gramps", the smartest trout in the whole lake. After a number of zany mishaps due to Dennis' over-eagerness, Mr. Wilson manages to hook the prize-winning fish, only to have Dennis cause it to escape back into the water.
• Dexter's Laboratory: In the episode "Catch of the Day" Dexter's dad tries to get him to go to a fishing trip with him.
• Doug: "Doug's Big Catch" focuses on our eponymous hero attending a fishing competition with his neighbor Mr. Dink, who is more interested in catching an old fish named Chester, who stole his wallet 30 years prior.
• Futurama: The episode "The Deep South" kicks off with Hermes realizing that he accidentally filed for a mandatory fishing license instead of a pet license for Nibbler. The entire Planet Express crew goes out to sea for a fishing trip, with the delivery crew having varying degrees of success. Most of the rest of the episode is about what happens after a whale drags the Planet Express ship underwater.
• Gravity Falls: "The Legend of the Gobblewonker", in which Dipper, Mabel and Soos try to capture photographic evidence of a lake monster.
• The Hailey's On It! episode "Beta'd and Hooked" is about Hailey and Scott trying to catch the perfect fish to use for their taco.
• Hey Arnold!: "Big Caesar", in which Arnold and Gerald try to find the said fish his grandfather tried to catch years ago but wind up letting it go.
• King of the Hill: "Jumpin' Crack Bass" mostly centers around Hank and his friends going fishing, with Hank trying to up his fishing game and unknowingly purchasing Crack Cocaine that he uses as fishing bait to great success. He and Dale end up getting caught by the police thinking that they were purchasing illegal drugs and have to clear their names by showing that their usage of Crack was just for fishing (Only by that point, the fish had already gotten used to crack cocaine from all the extensive fishing that it isn't an effective fishing bait for them) Hank and Dale manage to finally catch a fish and clear their names by the end.
• The Little Bill episode "Going Fishing" has Little Bill, Big Bill, Fuschia, and Uncle Al going on a fishing trip. Little Bill wants to catch a big fish, and with a hot dog, he does.
• Looney Tunes:
  • 1941's "Greetings Bait" stars a worm (caricature of Jerry Colonna) assisting a fisherman in catching fish. The worm then has his hands full as he encounters an ornery crab.
  • 1940's "The Sour Puss" had Porky and his pet cat Pussy out fishing where they deal with a Cloud Cuckoolander of a flying fish.
• Molly of Denali has "First Fish". Molly tries to catch her first fish, which is an honor in Alaska Native tradition.
• The Mr. Men Show episode "Mr. Nosey Goes Fishing" involves Mr. Nosey following the rest of the Mr. Men and Little Miss when they go on a fishing trip and ends up paying for his nosiness when he falls overboard and gets eaten by a shark.
• In the Noddy's Toyland Adventures episode "Noddy and the Fishing Rod", the goblins steal Miss Pink Cat's ring and sell it to Sammy Sailor, who hides it in a treasure chest in the sea. Noddy has to fish it out of the water.
• Pocoyo has "Fishing With Pocoyo".
• Rocko's Modern Life: The episode "Fish-n-Chumps" has Rocko, Heffer and Filburt going fishing, only to discover that the fish are fishing for them.
• In the Rugrats (1991) episode, "In the Naval", Stu, Drew, and Lou take Tommy, Chuckie, and Angelica on a trip in a fishing boat. While Stu and Drew get into a competition on who can catch the bigger fish, Angelica takes her Cynthia doll water skiing, getting it eaten by a swordfish as a result. Inspired by a story Lou told them about how he was rescued by the Navy Seals, Tommy and Chuckie try to help Angelica get Cynthia back. At the end of the episode, Lou catches the swordfish that swallowed Cynthia.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • Inverted in the episode "Hooky". As all the main characters are sea creatures, they're menaced by the fisherman, resulting in something that's more of a Very Special Episode parody. To wit: Mr. Krabs warns everyone in the Krusty Krab, including SpongeBob, about the dangers of fishing hooks. Patrick, however, treats the hooks like a carnival game and convinces SpongeBob to play on them (stealing the bait, riding the hook up toward the surface, and jumping off at the veeeeery last second) with him. When Mr. Krabs catches them at it, he, with the help of Squidward, decides to teach them a lesson they won't soon forget.
  • A straighter example is the episode "Clams", in which Mr. Krabs takes Spongebob and Squidward clam fishing as a reward for helping him make his 1 Millionth dollar. Mr. Krabs' dollar gets eaten by a giant clam, meaning that he, SpongeBob, and Squidward won't be going home until they get it back.
• The Simpsons:
  • In "Gone Fishin' (Sort of)", one of the pilot shorts produced for The Tracey Ullman Show, Bart and Homer go fishing in the river on a boat. While on the boat, Homer wants a bologna sandwich, but since Bart forgot to bring the bologna, he improvises by using fish bait (which Homer is none the wiser to). Later, Homer and Bart's boat travels through some rapids, and as Homer has Bart sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" while he fishes, the two plunge down a waterfall.
  • In the episode, "War of the Simpsons", after Homer embarrasses Marge at a house party she throws, Marge signs up for a weekend retreat of marriage counseling hosted by Reverend Lovejoy and Helen at Catfish Lake. When Homer finds out, he is interested in going as well, but for the sole purpose of trying to catch the legendary catfish, General Sherman. After quite the battle, Homer finally catches General Sherman, but when Marge finds out, she is not happy about it at all. Just to prove to Marge that he does value her happiness over fishing, he lets General Sherman (who is still alive) go, and they return home.
• In the Thomas & Friends episode, "Thomas Goes Fishing", Thomas wishes that he could go fishing when he sees people fishing at the river. He gets his wish when one day, a water tower is out of order, and his crew gather water from the river with a leaky bucket. Unfortunately, because they also caught some fish in their bucket, the fish make their way into Thomas' water tank, causing Thomas' boiler to overheat. Thomas' crew and Sir Topham Hatt catch all the fish in Thomas' tank and have a lovely supper of fish and chips. It is at this point that Thomas vows never to go fishing again.
• Tom and Jerry go fishing in a 1975 TV episode. They're after Karmic Trickster (and aptly named) Tricky McTrout and are decidedly outmatched.
  • An earlier theatrical short, "Cat Fishin'," has Tom sneaking into a prohibited area to fish, using Jerry as live bait.

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