In fishing games, the objective is to capture cards laid out on the table by playing cards from your own hand. There are many different variations of these types of games. They can be mostly separated by Eastern fishing games and Western fishing game, but some fit neither region exclusively.
In most fishing games the rules follow the same outline. There will be cards laid face up on the table that are available for capture. Each player’s turn will consist of playing a card from their hand. If this card played matched the value of any cards laid on the table that those cards are captured. If it does not match it’s typically added to the laid-out cards.
In the Eastern versions of fishing games, Japanese flower cards are typically used. The mechanic that separated these games from others is that after you play a card from your hand and after seeing if you captured any cards, you will flip a card from a face-down pile. This card is also able to be captured if it matches your played card.
Examples include:
In the western versions of fishing games, there is no turning over of facedown cards, but there is a mechanic added that sets them apart. In most games when a card is played from your hand, you may capture any card that has the same rank and in addition capture cards that add up to equal rank.
Examples include:
There are also a few more variations that don’t fit either category exclusively. In these games, there are no separate cards laid out on the table, but instead, they are all in a single pile. If you play a card that matches the top card of the pile you capture the whole pile.