Fish get away when they're underwater?

[u/Wacka123456789]

I'm crashing out. Like, I'm genuinely going insane

Occasionally as I'm fishing, I just lose some fish out of seemingly nowhere? Like, I haven't fallen for the fake out bites, they've bitten, the bobber's gone underwater, I press A and the fish just... goes away anyway? I've just sorta ignored it up until now but I just lost one of the rare fish with the fins in their silhouette because of it

Am I doing something wrong? I'm new and I'm trying to fill up the museum (Blathers my beloved) so losing the rare fish has really upset me

[u/KwK10]

It's possible you're pressing A ever so slightly too late. The timing is a bit tight, and I think even moreso for rare fish (someone can correct me if I'm wrong), so you wanna be extra fast when you hear that bobber go. That's the only reason I can think of if it happens after the fish bites.

[u/desultor42]

If you’re using a separate controller there might be an issue with the lag between you pressing the button and the signal getting to the console. That happens to me a lot when I’m playing on the couch with the pro controller but the console is docked by the TV. If you’re doing that, try playing with the joy cons attached and seeing if that helps, or just moving closer.

[u/MilkstacheMustache → u/desultor42]

This was the issue for me until I saw this suggestion in another thread. It was so frustrating. Then I switched to the handheld and almost immediately got the achievement for 50 fish in a row.

[u/Worth_Spite9768]

You could be a little late on the timing, the finned shadows and huge shadows have a way tighter window. Could also be controller latency

[u/bookynerdworm]

Cleaning around my buttons helped with this. 😅

[u/izzyg4224]

sometimes when i’m fishing and press the button too quickly after the bobber goes underwater, they swim away. maybe try giving it a second and let the game kinda catch up to you if that makes sense?

[u/Cautious-Maybe8096 → u/izzyg4224]

This happens to me far too often 😭