Golden Trout Animal Crossing - Where & When to Catch

Golden trout is one of the fish in Animal Crossing New Horizons. It’s relatively rare, and you’ll need to catch at least one in order to complete your Critterpedia and get the golden fishing rod. If you’re having trouble finding one, this guide will show you where and when to catch golden trout in ACNH.

How to catch golden trout?

According to the Critterpedia entry, the golden trout appears only in clifftop rivers. It appears in two waves – from March to May, then again from September to November. It can only be caught between 4PM and 9AM. It’s a medium-sized fish.

Before you begin the hunt, you should prepare. A fishing rod is a must, naturally. You’ll need either a ladder or the ability to build inclines using the Island Designer. Bait isn’t required, but having some might speed things up.

Find a suitable spot and look for a medium-sized silhouette. If there isn’t one, you can run around and wait for it to appear, or use your rod to scare away the other fish, then use bait to make new ones show up. You only need one manila clam to craft bait, and it will make fish show up instantly.

Now it’s only a matter of time. Like in real life fishing, you’ll have to have patience. This is one of the rare things that can’t be solved by time travel. So you’ll just have to sit yourself down on the river bank, pull out a book and wait for the golden trout to appear. They’re not too rare, so you shouldn’t have to wait as long as you do for, say, a stringfish, but they aren’t the most common either. That’s pretty much it – good luck out there, and we hope it bites!