Big Catch is a Novomatic slot released in 2017 with, of course, a fishing theme. As someone who likes fishing I have played Big Catch slot quite a bit recently, so here is my unbiased review of this slot machine. The bonus feature is a particular highlight of this slot, as in fishing slots you always can’t help to hope there’s an actual fishing game in it, and here there is one and it’s rewarding. You’ll actually go fishing and can win up to 500x your bet, but if you catch the Boot, your fishing trip is over and you go home until you’re ready to go fishing again. The game uses a 5x3 board with 20 paylines, and they’re not fixed, you can also choose 5 or 10 paylines if you wish. The minimum bet per payline is 0.02 coins and the maximum is 10 coins, which means the minimum overall bet is 0.10 coins for 5 paylines or 0.40 for all paylines. The maximum bet would be 200 coins, giving us a decent range of bets to work with in our betting strategies. Theoretical return to player (RTP) is only 94.00%, and that’s the level of some poorer classic slots, and the variance is medium. These two things might scare off many players, and it’s best to view Big Catch as a fun slot for passing the time. In that sense, it’s a good slot machine. It’s something between a classic slot and a videoslot, as the main game is all classic and the bonus feature is innovative. Variance is medium, perhaps a bit towards high, as there are only two good main game symbols and two to three good fish to catch in the bonus round. Main game and paytable The paytable is decent but feels as if a high value symbol is missing from it. The five card symbols don’t pay much and they are so predominant on the reels that it’s as if card symbols are the only ones in the paytable. There are two high-win symbols you’ll want to see often and will spot them as soon as they land, and they are the Anchor and the Game Logo. The prizes for these two, in case of a five-of-a-kind win, are 10x your bet and 25x your bet respectively. Those are very nice prizes, but again, we could have done with another medium-win symbol here. The best thing that can happen in this game is a full board of Game Logo symbols, which is worth 500x your bet. There is a Wild symbol, and it appears on reels 3, 4 and 5. Bonus features There’s no need to collect Scatters in this game as there are none and the bonus feature is triggered randomly. Your reels will just fill up with water and in no time you’ll start fishing. By clicking you’ll choose a reel and lower the fishing hook, and you’ll catch prizes. The game ends when you either catch the Boot, or the Prize Catch which is worth 500x your bet. Other fish are Tiddler, which pays 1x, Small Catch 2x, Medium Catch 5x, Big Catch 10x, Very Big Catch 25x, Whopper 50x and Monster 100x. Maybe the developer could have used real fish species for names, and it makes no sense to fish for aquarium fish, but this doesn’t change the fact that this bonus round can be very very rewarding. Conclusion There are good and bad things about Big Catch. The game is fun to play, especially the fishing game, and the payouts from the bonus feature can be substantial if your fishing skills are adequate. On the other hand, the paytable in the main game is poor, the bonus round gets triggered randomly which feels as if you have zero control over it, other fish species could have been used, and this game is just not on a high production level. Still it’s a fun experience, and many players will want to trigger that fishing feature over and over again until they catch the Prize Catch! After all, fishing is all about patience and about trying over and over again until you succeed.