Since I consider myself an “otaku,” the richest, and most tasteful in far away Pet Society Land, I take upon myself the responsibility to share with the uninformed a new feature in the game which allows your pet to “fish” in the new fish pond area (Pet Society is a game by PlayFish that I play on facebook). At first try, I got very frustrated because in all of my 20 attempts, the fish would get away. Alas, in time, I finally succeeded. You would, too, if you follow these simple steps.

1. Go to the Pond area. It’s the new place that’s right outside your house and on the lower right side as seen in the screenshot below. Click on the place to begin your quest!

2. Select a bait. Choose any food item from your chest. Make sure that you don’t throw out a rare food item now!

3. Click on your pet to throw your bait in the water. I’d usually just make a single click on my pet’s head and that’ll do the trick.

4. Wait for a fish to take the bait. You’ll know when there’s a bite when you see water splashing at your line’s end and when your pet’s face changes to something that resembles glee.

5. Now, the hard part: Reel the catch in. With your mouse, click and hold on your pet’s head as this will slowly draw the fish towards you. No need for a backwards motion from your end. Clicking and holding will do. You have to watch the water as you do this, though. Once the fish/catch exhibit signs of struggle, let go of your click-and-hold. Wait for the line to calm down (read, no splash and no bubbles at the end of your line) before you click and hold on your pet again. You may be required to let go of your line three to five times before you get to draw in your prize catch.

What you get may depend on what you throw in the water. Apples from the food shop may only give you trash from the lake. A white dog bone can give you a “Dog Fish,” while cheese may get you a “Silver Arowana.” I used Maple Syrup (80 gold from the Food Shop) 10 times in a row and documented my random catch:

Bluegill, Clown Fish, Shrimp (2), Starfish (2), Flounder, Altum Angel Fish, Crab, Carp.

Therefore, Maple Syrup is a “good” bait since I did not get crap on any of my 10 tries.

I tried using Cauliflower (7 gold from the Food Shop) ten times in a row and got the following:

Squid, Soda Can (2), Empty Bottle, Bike Wheel, Sea Star baby Doll (2), Seaweed, Fish Bones, Sea Urchin

Therefore, Cauliflower is a “bad” bait since I did not catch a single fish in any of all 10 tries.

Experiment with different kinds of bait. The idea is for you and your pet to have fun while fishing. Also, you can only catch/keep 5 of the same fish/catch at a time, no matter if they’re stored in your chest or displayed in an aquarium. Exception to this rule are “accessory” catch like the coral, sea urchin, seaweed, empty bottle, bike wheel, fishbone, broken pot, soda can, and conch shell. You may get to catch and keep more than 5 of those.

What’s the point of catching fish when you can’t show them off, right? It the Garden Store are three sizes of aquarium for sale at 500, 1500, 0r 3000 gold coins a pop. Display them in your place and get all your prize catch in them and get mesmerized by watching the fruit of your hard labor swim about in graceful, relaxing motion.

I started playing Pet Society in November 2008. To date, PlayFish have made improvements in the game that can still make seasoned PS addicts want to come back week after week, despite it being on “ongoing maintenance mode” most of the time.

Next: The Bait Experiment + List of All the Fish in Pet Society
New Fish to Catch on Pet Society (as of July 31, 2009)