fishing is a mechanic introduced to the persona series in the original persona 4. this mechanic is slightly changed in golden. in said mechanic, you do a minigame where you fish with a rod to catch fish, which have multiple purposes.

obviously, the point of fishing is to catch various different types of fish. with these fish, you can:

• eat them. however, i wouldn't recommend using your fish to do this. for one thing, these fish can be used in other, more rewarding ways. also, fishing takes up a time slot. i think it would be much more useful to grind in the tv world and buy foods with a time slot instead of fishing for food.

• give them to the lady in white at tatsuhime shrine. i would recommend doing this if you want to, and i believe this is the main purpose for fishing. if you give her fish, she'll give you gems. you can trade these gems with the shiroku pub hostess, which will give you some weapons for the investigation team

• finish quests. to complete some quests, you need to feed a cat with fish.

• finish the hermit (fox social link). for rank 10 of the hermit social link, you need to get the sea guardian. more specifically, you need to complete a quest involving the sea guardian. this will be elaborated more on later.

• get an achievement. for one of the achievements, you need to capture the sea guardian. for those unaware, the sea guardian is the "final boss" of fishing, the "ultimate fish" if you will.
  
  

in order to fish, you need a fishing rod. follow these steps to get one!!!

• on may 1st (or anytime after), go to the samegawa riverbank. talk to the old man there; he'll give you a fishing rod if you give him a fishing hook

• buy the drink called the natural. it can be obtained in many ways:
  
  • defeat the trance twins in yukiko's castle (located on floors 3-5) (not recommended out of convenience but included in this guide for the sake of completion)
    
  • at the vending machine near konishi liquor (recommended method)
    
  • on tanakas amazing commodities on may 22nd
    
• give this drink to a boy at tatsuhime shrine for a tatsuhime ladybug.
  
  
• talk to the lady at shiroku pub and trade the ladybug for a fish hook
  
  
• talk to the old man again for the rod!!!!!! you can now fish at samegawa food plain!!!!!
  
  you also need bait to fish (specific fish require specific bait). heres how to get all types of bait:
  
  • breadcrumbs; to get breadcrumbs, you need to trade bugs with the shiroku pub hostess. the bugs she wants depend on how many bugs you've given her. after getting a certain amount of one bug, the hostess will ask for other bugs.
    
  • bugs: the main method of getting bugs is catching them with a net. used for getting breadcrumbs, most fish are baited with bugs as well (the other fish, obviously are baited with breadcrumbs). to get these:
    
    • talk to a boy at tatsuhime shrine, who will ask you to get a bug net for him.
      
    • go to the shrine at nighttime. talk to the woman in white and tell her you knew about the net on the roof, which you will later acquire.
      
    • after this, go back to the shrine during the day and talk to the boy. you have a net now!!!!
      
    • to actually catch bugs, interact with the first tree in the background of the shrine on any day (or night) it isn't raining.
      
    • bugs are caught through a minigame. during this minigame, an exclamation mark will appear over your head after a while. when you press your confirm button after this, you'll get bugs. (it's recommended to save before you do this, since if you time your button press right after the exclamation mark appears, you'll get more bugs) this action does not take up a time slot, although i believe (we can flyyyy up in the sky) that you can only catch bugs once every day.
    note: to fish at the beach (the sea guardian is only available here), you need to obtain the deep-sea rod. to do so, you need to fish for the guardian at the flood plain and show it to the old man at the riverbank. obviously, you need to unlock the beach first, which you can do by taking your scooter for a long ride three times. more on this later.
    
    optional:rank up your diligence to level 5 (each rank lets you have one more attempt at the minigame). also, read the books beginner fishing (which lets you fish more) and expert fishing (which makes you reel faster, making the minigame easier)

as stated previously, each bait secures a different kind of fish. these are the fish each bait gives:

• breadcrumbs: red goldfish or genji ayu

• tatsuhime ladybug: genji ayu or amber seema

• yaso locust: amber seema or inaba trout

• meiou cricket: inaba trout or huge fish

• inaba jewel beetle: huge fish or guardian

• daimyo grasshopper: hachiro octopus

• heike stag beetle: hachiro octopus or meguro tuna

• genji beetle: meguro tuna or sea guardian

note: to my knowledge, the bugs you get from catching them are completely random. this is why i recommending saving before you catch bugs so if you don't get a bug you want (or mess up the minigame), you could always reload

now for some actual fishing!!!

after you've completed all the steps before this, head to the samegawa riverbank and interact with the stone near the bottom-left. you'll need to select which bait to throw (see previous section to see which bait to throw)

unlike the bugs you catch, the fish you get from fishing is not random. check below to see how to get each fish (besides just throwing the right bait for each fish):

• one ripple: red goldfish
  
• two ripples: genji ayu (if the hook bobs once); amber seema (if the hook bobs twice)
  
• three ripples: inaba trout
  
• four ripples: huge fish; guardian (if you also see splashing water)

note: i would highly recommend saving before fishing. by maxing your diligence and reading the books listed previously, you can get a maximum of six attempts at the fishing minigame per time slot. however, if you fail, you don't get that attempt back. this means that if you mess up all six times, you can leave with nothing and waste a time slot. while it might be tricky, i would recommend saving and reloading even if you mess up a single time, as there's no punishment for succeeding at the fishing game all six times and getting the most out of your time slot. to add, you cannot back out of the fishing game and regain your time slot.

if you obtained the deep-sea rod and have the beach unlocked, you can fish at the beach!!!! interact with the ocean to do so. besides the fish, most of what applies to fishing at the riverbank applies to here, so i wont repeat myself.

these are ripples for each fish here, though (always remember to deploy the correct bait!!):

• the first time you fish here (and every first attempt when you come here), you'll get a weapon. there's no reason not to try to fish for these since they don't take up a fishing try or bait, but if you're impatient and want to get to fishing, just take back your reel.
  
• one ripple: useless trash (literally). if you see a single ripple when you fish here, don't try to fish for it and instead take back your bait. fishing for this gives you no fish and still takes up your fishing try.
  
• two ripples: hachiro octopus
  
• four ripples: meguro tuna; sea guardian (if you also see splashing water)

personally, i found the fishing minigame to be quite hard at times, with me having to reload my save multiple times out of failure when i first started. however, i pretty much always catch a fish if i try now. here's what i do!!!!

note: i would read expert fishing to make the reeling happen faster and therefore make the minigame easier. also, i played most of the game with a controller, but for the fishing i used a keyboard and recommend you do so too. it just makes it easier.

• always remember to press confirm right after you hear the sound so the fish doesn't go away.
  
• in the minigame, pay attention to where the arrow is. using the arrow keys on keyboard, (or a and d, joystick, dpad, etc.) make sure the arrow is always in the middle (blue area). i cant stress this enough. even if the arrow is slightly to the right, hold left like your life depends on it.
  
• this goes without saying, but always hold the confirm button the millisecond the arrow starts to go into the blue area. try your very best to not hold it when its in red orange or yellow since this harms you more than helps you
  
• always mash the quick reel (or whatever its called) when it shows up this greatly, greatly helps.

overall, while fishing may not be the most useful thing in persona 4 golden, it still has some benefits and is required for 100%, so hopefully this guide helped with that!! thanks for reading!!!!