Everything you need to know to compete, climb, and take a crown — in plain language. Two minutes and you'll get the whole game.
Free, skill-based contests with no entry fees and no cash prizes — you fish for XP, badges, crowns, and bragging rights.
Anyone can host: pick a body of water, a scoring style (biggest fish, best 3, best 5, total length, or most fish), and share the code. Hosts are the event organizers — some waters require an event permit or the owner's permission for competitions, and checking and securing any required approvals (plus following all local laws and regulations) is the host's responsibility.
Ranked catches go through the in-app camera with GPS and time checks — no gallery uploads, no staged photos. Casual events run on the honor system.
When time expires the server finalizes everything — places, XP, badges, and crowns update automatically. No signal out on the water? Catches queue on your phone and still count if they sync within 30 minutes of the horn. It takes at least 2 anglers for a tournament to count.
Every fish moves you forward, and earned XP stays earned. It drives your level, your angler titles — and your entries when giveaways run.
Land at least one approved catch in a tournament.
Every approved catch you land adds up.
+200 for the win, +100 for 2nd, +50 for 3rd.
First catch photo daily = +50 XP. Share your bait and it doubles to +100.
Weekly challenges and streaks stack more XP on top — challenge progress counts approved catches in real tournaments (2+ anglers), while feed posts earn the daily Catch of the Day bonus. Ranked XP — the slice earned in server-verified Ranked tournaments — powers the Ranked leaderboard.
Every body of water is an arena with its own all-time leaderboard — and exactly one reigning GOAT. Each water also keeps a Record Book: one record holder per species, verified in ranked tournaments, so the catfish crowd, the crappie crowd, and the bass crowd all have their own title to chase.
Tournaments held on a water pay XP onto that water's board. Highest all-time total holds the crown.
Two anglers level on XP? The one with more tournament wins on that water wears the crown.
You stay the GOAT until someone out-fishes you — a day or years. Champions who stop fishing get caught.
Dethroning is instant — and holding a crown earns double entries in every giveaway drawn while you reign. Take a throne, defend it, cash the odds.
Prestige, not grind. GOAT Score measures who's dominating right now — and it can go down.
Tournament wins are the backbone. 2nd = 50, 3rd = 25.
Only while you hold the water. Get dethroned and the points move with the crown.
Earned milestones count — plus 2 per verified catch.
Half your Ranked XP adds verified-ladder weight.
Tournament XP, challenge XP, and every past day's bonuses are permanent. Two exceptions keep the game honest: deleting today's Catch of the Day post reverses that day's bonus (post another catch to re-earn it), and GOAT Score drops when a crown you hold gets taken. Your grind is always safe.
No. A tournament needs at least two anglers to award XP, wins, or crown progress — nobody can farm a crown by beating themselves.
Yes — any real (2+ angler) tournament held on a water pays XP onto that water's board. Ranked tournaments additionally feed your Ranked XP and the Ranked leaderboard.
Every water keeps one record per species — the longest catch verified in a ranked tournament there (in-app camera, GPS and capture-time checks). Casual honor-system catches never set records, so every number in the Record Book is real. Beat the record in a ranked event and the title — and the bragging-rights notification — transfers instantly.
Open Water Battles, find your water (all 50 states are loaded), and the reigning GOAT is right at the top with their crown — along with the ladder of anglers coming for it.
Flag it. Verified catches carry GPS and capture-time checks, moderators review reports, strikes add up, and three strikes is an automatic suspension. Crowns are only worth taking because they're real.
3,446 waters are waiting for a GOAT. Start with yours.
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