Fishin’ Frenzy: Even Bigger Catch Slot Review
The whole grid hangs just below the waterline. Sunlight shafts down through pale blue water, coral columns loom in the murk at either edge, and the logo arcs across the sky above in orange-gold bubble lettering, a fish leaping over a bobber between the two words. It’s cheerful seaside-arcade colour, and Blueprint Gaming haven’t strayed a stroke from it.
What has changed is the arithmetic. Fishin’ Frenzy: Even Bigger Catch runs a 5×4 grid with 10 paylines at 95% RTP, and the maximum win from a single game is 10,000x the total bet, a ceiling the series hasn’t offered before. That figure puts it ahead of the original Fishin’ Frenzy and its Megaways offshoot, and it’s the clearest reason this entry exists at all.
The rest is familiar water: scatter-triggered free games, a fisherman who only works the bonus, and a bonus buy for anyone who’d rather not wait. Whether that ceiling is actually easier to reach is the fair question.
How the Base Game Pays
Wins run left to right across the 10 paylines, and only the highest combination on each line pays. This is a classic line slot rather than a ways game, so the numbered indicators flanking the reels are doing exactly what they appear to be doing. There’s nothing exotic in the win mechanics.
Every symbol value below is a multiple of the total bet, not the line bet. That distinction matters more than it sounds like it should, because a 200x top prize on the total bet is a very different number from 200x on a tenth of it. With 10 lines in play, the two figures diverge by a factor of ten.
The Pelican is the richest regular symbol, and the Fisherman matches it line for line. He has a second job, though, that only starts in the bonus round. The mid-tier drops away quickly beneath them, and the crowded lower half of the table supplies most of the base game’s action.
Here’s what each symbol pays at two, three, four and five of a kind:
- Pelican: 0.5x, 5x, 20x, 200x
- Fisherman: 0.5x, 5x, 20x, 200x
- Fishing reel: 2.5x, 15x, 100x at three, four and five
- Life ring / Tackle box: 2x, 10x, 50x
- Any fish: 1x, 5x, 20x
- A / K: 0.5x, 2x, 10x
- Q / J / 10: 0.5x, 1x, 5x
The fish symbols pay as a group rather than individually, which softens the bottom of the table considerably. Any three fish, mixed or matched, return 1x. It’s the only group pay in the game.
The royals are standard filler. They need a full line of five to reach anything worth calling a win, and even then the Q, J and 10 manage just 5x. Four of a kind on those symbols barely clears 1x, which tells you where the base game’s money actually sits.
Two symbols sit outside the table entirely. The Boat is the scatter, and it doesn’t pay as a symbol; its whole job is to trigger the free games. The Fisherman, meanwhile, doesn’t appear as a wild in the base game at all.
He’s only active once the bonus is running, which makes him the game’s most conditional symbol. A five-of-a-kind line of him in the base game pays nothing he doesn’t pay as a plain paytable row. Everything interesting about him waits for the boats.
Free Games
Landing Boat scatters starts the Free Games round, and the more boats you catch, the longer the round runs:
- 3 Scatters: 10 Free Games
- 4 Scatters: 15 Free Games
- 5 Scatters: 20 Free Games
Inside the round, the Fisherman wakes up. He does two jobs, and both of them pay. As the wild, he substitutes for all symbols during free games, completing line wins exactly as a wild does anywhere else.
His second job is the one that matters. During free games, each fish and coin symbol on screen carries a prize value, and every Fisherman on screen collects those values. One fisherman and a screen of fish is a good spin.
Two or three of them, and the same fish get collected repeatedly, once per Fisherman. That stacking is the mechanic the whole round hangs on, and it’s the only place in the game where a single spin can climb far past what the base paytable allows.
It’s also where the 10,000x ceiling has to come from, because the base paytable tops out at 200x and nothing else in the game scales. The cap works as a hard stop: whichever comes first, 10,000x the total bet or the fixed cash ceiling, ends the game. Operator limits can cut it short before that.
The 5×4 grid feeds the feature too. A fourth row gives prize-carrying fish more positions to land on at once than the older 5×3 layouts allowed, and more fish on screen means more for each Fisherman to collect. Free games, in other words, is the whole engine of this slot.
Bonus Buy
A bonus buy button sits on the left of the interface throughout play, and it does what buy buttons do: swaps a stake for a free games round, starting immediately. The RTP on the buy is the same 95% as the base game, so there’s no return penalty for skipping the wait.
The boats simply stop being your problem. Scatter luck goes from the gate you have to pass to an irrelevance, and the round’s length is fixed by what you pay for rather than what lands.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 6.8/10
This is a waiting game. You drift along on small line wins and the odd pelican, watching for boats, and the stretches between bonuses are quiet ones. The reason to pick this one over the dozen other Frenzy entries is the roomiest bonus the series has had, with a wider grid giving the fisherman more fish to work with when he finally clocks in.
When two fishermen land at once and start collecting the same fish, this series produces the only kind of moment it has ever promised. The weakness is everything either side of that: the base paytable stops at 200x, so the quiet stretches pay almost nothing, and the 95% RTP sits a point below the better modern releases.
Players who already like the Frenzy formula get its roomiest version here, and the bonus buy at identical RTP spares them the wait entirely. Anyone after layered features or a base game with ideas of its own will have drifted off before the boats arrive. Same water as ever, just deeper.
Fishin’ Frenzy: Even Bigger Catch FAQs
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What is the RTP of Fishin’ Frenzy: Even Bigger Catch?
The RTP is 95%, and it’s the same figure on the bonus buy, so there’s no return penalty for buying your way into the free games. -
How do you trigger the free games in Fishin’ Frenzy: Even Bigger Catch?
Landing the Boat scatter symbol starts the round. 3 scatters award 10 free games, 4 award 15, and 5 award 20. -
What does the Fisherman symbol do in Fishin’ Frenzy: Even Bigger Catch?
The Fisherman is only active during free games. He substitutes for all symbols and collects the prize values of every fish or coin symbol on screen, with each Fisherman collecting separately. -
What is the maximum win on Fishin’ Frenzy: Even Bigger Catch?
The maximum win from a single game is 10,000x the total bet, whichever operator limits apply first. -
Can you buy the bonus on Fishin’ Frenzy: Even Bigger Catch?
Yes, a bonus buy button is available during play, and the buy runs at the same 95% RTP as the base game. -
How many paylines does Fishin’ Frenzy: Even Bigger Catch have?
It’s a 5×4 grid slot with 10 paylines, with wins paying left to right and only the highest win on each line counting. -
Is the Fisherman wild in the base game?
No. He only becomes active during free games, where he substitutes for all symbols and collects the prize values from fish and coin symbols on screen. -
How do the fish symbols pay in Fishin’ Frenzy: Even Bigger Catch?
In the base game the fish pay as a group, so any three fish, mixed or matched, return 1x the total bet. During free games they carry individual prize values that each Fisherman on screen collects.
