• Guide

How to catch a Golden Trout - Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Learn everything there is to hunt down and catch the elusive Golden Trout in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Josh Hawkins

May 20, 2020 10:35 AM

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The Golden Trout is a fairly rare fish that players can catch in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Like many of the other hard-to-catch fish in the, getting your hands on the Golden Trout can be tough. Thankfully, we’ve put together this handy guide to help you catch a Golden Trout before it leaves the island at the end of May.

How to catch a Golden Trout

Before you can head out and just start fishing, you’re going to need to prepare yourself. The Golden Trout, like many fish out there, can only be caught during certain seasons and times of the day. Because of this, you won’t be able to fish whenever you want.

Instead, you’re going to need to fish for the Golden Trout between 4pm – 9am between the months of March to May and September to November in the northern hemisphere. Those in the southern hemisphere can catch this fish between the months of March to May and September to December.

If you’re trying to catch the Golden Trout, then you’re going to need to head up to the rivers on the highest elevated parts of your island, as detailed in our guide to all the fish in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. If you don’t have any rivers situated on higher elevated portions of the island, then we suggest unlocking terraforming and then making one to use when you’re trying to catch fish like the Golden Trout. We’ve heard reports of success from people fishing in both the upper and middle elevations of the island, so be sure to try both spots if you have rivers in those areas.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to guarantee that the Golden Trout will be the fish that spawns in these rivers. Instead, try to focus on catching large shadowed fish. You can even use Fish Bait to speed up the process. If you’re having trouble getting any fish to spawn in your clifftop rivers, then go ahead and scare off the other fish around your island by sprinting next to the water near them. This should help reset spawns and increase the chances of fish appearing where you need them to.

Now that you know how, when, and where to catch the Golden Trout, be sure to check out our Animal Crossing: New Horizons guide for even more details.

Josh Hawkins

Guides Editor

Joshua holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and has been exploring the world of video games for as long as he can remember. He enjoys everything from large-scale RPGs to small, bite-size indie gems and everything in between.