Gus Goes Fishin': Slot Overview

Software provider iSoftBet has done well from its mining-themed slot Gold Digger and subsequent follow-ups. From the original Gold Digger, we've since seen Gold Digger Megaways and even Christmas Gold Digger. One of the things tying all of them together is the sweet moustachioed prospector Gus. Gus has been there from the start, accompanying players as they attempt to extract precious resources from the ground. So busy has Gus been that iSoftBet has seen fit to bring him above ground and give him the day off. Well, a day off of mining, at least. Instead of making holes in the Earth, Gus is pulling fish out of the sea, or attempting to, in the online slot Gus Goes Fishin'.

Like many popular fishin' games, Gus Goes Fishin' is a friendly-looking, cheerful-vibed slot that does its darndest to evoke a warm, personable mood. iSoftBet has a talent for making cheerful games, as experienced in Tropical Bonanza, Hot Shots Megaways, and of course, Gold Digger. This time, players are transported to a Tahitian sort of spot where the water is light blue, the sand is white, a coconut tree sways in the breeze, and an upbeat tune evens out the aural side. Gus is prominent in this game too. For Gus Goes Fishin', he spends much of the time bobbing up and down in a boat to the side of the screen, rod in hand, before doing his best to reel in a few fish for players, should they be lucky enough.

When baiting this hook, players are able to choose stakes of 20 p/c to $/€20 as well as having access to a side bet and two bonus buy options. The Big Catch Side Bet increases the wager by 50%, providing an increased chance of hitting Deep Spins and modifiers. Bobbing away beneath the surface lies a medium-high volatile math model producing four RTP values depending on how Gus Goes Fishin' is played. In the normal game, as the help docs put it, the return is 96%, rising to 96.01% when using the side bet. When buying free spins, the regular bonus buy comes in at 96.02%, dropping ever so slightly to 96.01% for the Golden bonus buy.

Gus Goes Fishin' is a 5x3 video slot with 20 paylines for landing regular line wins across. For pay symbols, the game uses J, Q, K, and A as its 4 low pays, then a can with a worm, a starfish, a boot, and a tackle box as its 4 premium symbols. When landing a 5-of-a-kind win, players receive 1 to 4 times the stake when the win is made up of low pays or 5 to 20 times the stake for the high pays. Gus also appears on the Collect symbol, which is also wild, so it substitutes for all symbols except Fish and scatter.

Gus Goes Fishin': Slot Features

If you've played a fishing slot before, you'll know the Collect symbol will have another role to play as well. In Gus Goes Fishin', when fish money symbols land together with a Wild/Collect symbol, their values are awarded for each Collect symbol that lands. The values of the Blue Fish are 1x to 10x the bet, the values of the Big Fish are 25x for the Mini, 50x for the Major, or 100x for the Mega, while Sticky Golden Fish have values of 1x to 10x. Key to note, Sticky Golden Fish are only present in Deep Spins.

Fishin' Bonanza Modifiers.

Gus Goes Fishin' comes with 3 modifiers, which are available in the base game only on paid spins.

• Reel 'Em In – on any paid spin with at least 1 fish symbol, but without Collect/Wilds, Gus may collect all the fish on the screen.
• Big Catch – on any paid spin, Gus may award a random win multiplier of x2, x3, or x5. The Big Catch and Reel 'Em In can occur on the same spin. The multiplier applies to all wins from the spin, including fish values.
• Bonus Boost – when 2 or more bonus symbols land on a paid spin, Gus may add an extra bonus symbol to the reels to trigger the Deep Spins feature.

Deep Spins

When 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols are in view, players are awarded 8, 10, or 12 Deep Spins. When a fish symbol is collected in Deep Spins, it contributes to a progress bar. When a multiplier on the progress bar is reached, all fish symbols from then on are multiplied by the value. The multiplier also applies to Big and Sticky Golden Fish symbols. When 8, 16, or 24 fish in total have been collected, the multiplier achieved is x2, x5, and x10.

Each time a Wild/Collect symbol hits, it also contributes to a progress bar. Collecting 5, 10, or 15 Wilds in total awards +4 spins each time the three levels are reached. Also, when Sticky Golden Fish hits, it sticks to the reels until the Deep Spins feature ends and can be collected multiple times. Only 1 Golden Sticky Fish can land during the feature.

Bonus Buys

Gus Goes Fishin' has two bonus buy options. One is the Deep Spins Bonus, costing 60x the bet to guarantee 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols (with no additional win) land. The second is the Deep Spins Golden Bonus for 200x the bet, which guarantees 5 scatter symbols (with no additional wins) trigger Deep Spins with a Sticky Golden Fish landing in the feature.

Gus Goes Fishin': Slot Verdict

After all those years of service, stuck beneath ground accompanying players as they hack their way through mining slots, it was nice to see Gus above ground for a change, getting some sun on his face. The dude's earned it, but how did his fishing slot go? For the most part, Gus Goes Fishin' is a competent angling game. iSoftBet has tapped into the fair weathered, buoyant atmosphere the top dogs of the genre, such as Big Bass Bonanza and its numerous offspring, possess. It shuns retro references, avoiding direct comparisons to the granddaddy Fishin' Frenzy other than having the word Fishin' in the title. Oh, and the money-collecting part, but that's pretty much a must-have device in a fishing slot by now.

Therefore, players looking for a new way to collect money symbols in the form of fish might be curious to see how Gus Goes Fishin' goes about business. The fish money symbols don't offer colossal value on their own, but Gus might well award a Big Catch multiplier in the base game, and if the collecting goes well in Deep Spins, then an x10 multiplier could be just the help required to build a decent winning total. One of Gus Goes Fishin's more original touches is the Sticky Golden Fish - available only in Deep Spins, let's reiterate. Sticky Golden Fish might not be as exciting as first hoped, though, since only one can land in a bonus round.

Having just one Sticky Golden Fish per bonus round helps Gus Goes Fishin' reach a certain risk/reward equilibrium that may or may not be to all tastes. iSoftBet's aim with Gus Goes Fishin' appears to have been to make an enjoyable but not overly brutal nor massively rewarding fishing slot. As if it's going head-to-head with the likes of Big Bass Bonanza rather than slots like 4 Fantastic Fish or Golden Catch. Consequently, if Big Bass Bonanza or even Gold Digger got you baiting up with anticipation of a juicy catch, Gus Goes Fishin' might do too.