Fish Flingers

Fish Flingers is a members only Distraction and Diversion released on 23 March 2010 that features the Fishing skill. There are no level or quest requirements to play Fish Flingers, or any required items as they are all provided. Having a low or a high fishing level does not bring any advantages or disadvantages to the activity itself, though you will receive more fishing experience if you have a higher level.

Introduction
To the north of the Fishing Guild is a peaceful island named Isla Anglerine, to which many species of rare fish flock. Why they do so is unknown, but it makes the island a paradise for budding fishermen. Discovering this, representatives of the Fishing Guild have arranged for regular fishing competitions to be held there, in which those with a love of angling can prove their skill in a race to land the most and the heaviest catches.

Requirements
There are no requirements to enter a Fish Flingers competition, so long as a player has enough competition entry tickets. Everyone gets ten entry tickets per week, but more can sometimes be found during a competition.

Where to start Fish Flingers: Talk to the Fishermen who regularly appear on Catherby's beach, where all the fishing spots are, and both inside and outside of the Fishing Guild, 5 minutes before the competition time.

Competition Times
A competition is run every 90 minutes (1 hour and 30 minutes). Five minutes before the Fisherman says the competition will start, you can be teleported to the waiting room on Isla Anglerine by talking to him. The timer resets as soon as a new game starts. That means that if players are late, they will have to wait up to 85 minutes (1 hour and 25 minutes) to enter the waiting room for a new contest. The event happens at approximately the same time on every world, so players must wait the full time to enter the competition again after finishing. In addition, players can participate in at least '10 competitions per week'', depending on whether or not they find any extra tickets during a competition. '''You get 10 new tickets every Tuesday GMT.



The competition happens once every 90 minutes, and will reset itself at every system update so that the next competition is 90 minutes away. Because of this, there is no real schedule of the times that the competitions occur at. However, after a system reset, since the times are constant, one can calculate the times of the next competitions exactly until the next system update/reset. For information on what time the next game starts, check runescape forums for various Fish Flingers clan chats.

The rough times both AM and PM are listed as below. For when the Actual game itself begins, getting there 5 minutes before is a good idea, as the game will begin almost instantly.

Clues
The Fisherman will also give hints/clue to get 100% for a fish. Every player gets one clue per game, so a good strategy would be to share you clues with a group of friends, to maximize you chances of discovering a perfect combination.

Some possible clues are as follows:


 * Cod don't like metal hooks.
 * Explanation: Use bone or wood hooks.


 * You'll find crested cod at the docks. They're known to like fluttering creatures, particularly grey ones.
 * Explanation: Cod at the docks. Grey moth is preferred bait.


 * You'll find darter cod at the river. They're known to like shellfish, particularly grey ones.
 * Explanation: Cod at the river. They like Crayfish.


 * You'll find thunder trout at the river. That species has a small mouth, so you'll need to take that into account when choosing your hook.
 * Explanation: Trout at the river; don't use the large or double hook.


 * You’ll find drift herring at the docks. That species is fairly normal and doesn’t need a special hook. A normal hook should catch them just fine.
 * Explanation: Herring at the docks. A standard hook is the best.


 * You'll find drift herring at the docks. That species tends to nibble its food, so a double hook will help to catch them.
 * Explanation: Herring at the docks with a double hook.

Tackles
In the Fish Flingers activity, there are 4 locations, (river, lake, dock and beach) each of which you can find different fish. The point of this activity is to fish with the most efficiency (up to 100%). You can achieve this by mixing and matching bait, hooks, and weights. Each of these choices account for one third of the total rating when chosen correctly. The correct mix varies each time you play.

The winner is the player with the most score points. Check for scoring above. It appears that more points equate to more skill experience.

Strategy
Because it is important for your total score to get your rating to 100% as fast as possible there are a few tactics you can use to speed up the search process. For the first fishing spot you have no information about the correct bait, hook or weight so you have to start with a random choice. For the weight you can best start with one large weight because it only requires one click and permits to build up from range 2 to range 3,4,6 and 7 easily by adding extra large weights. If range of 1 and 5 are not done yet, achieved by removing large weights and adding medium in its place.

Finding the correct hook

The first part of the tackle you have to find is the hook because you can find the correct one in a maximum of three tries. You have 3 sets (standard - slim, large - double, wood - bone), and you start with one of the hooks out of these sets. First you are going to change your hook into a hook from another set, so if you chose standard you change your hook to anything except slim.

There are five possible changes each with a different conclusion:

Finding the correct bait



If you use a good tactic it is also possible to know the correct bait in three tries. Although this is a little bit more difficult than finding the correct hook. You can represent the eight different bait types as corners of an octagon where bait types on adjacent corners have a similarity (colour or shape). The fastest way to look for the correct bait is to change the first bait type to a bait type three or four corners away.

There are again five possible changes:

NOTE: when at a point when searching for the correct bait or correct hook you get a rating of 83% you don't have to do the whole procedure described above. One of the two (bait or hook) is already correct and the other is similar to the correct type or also correct. You have to change the current hook to the type of the same set (unless you already know the correct hook).

There are two possible changes:

When in this last option you then change the hook back to the old hook and change the bait to one of the similar types

There are two possible changes:

Finding the correct weight

When you have found the correct hook and the correct bait your rating should be at 66%, 83% or 100%. If you rating isn't 100% you still have to find the correct weight. To do this you have to check every possible weight, there are no similarities between the weight (e.g. it's possible to get 83% at range 3 and 100% at range 6). You can get five of the seven ranges with only adding extra large weights. To get the other two ranges (1 and 5m) you need to add a single medium weight or 3 large weights and one medium weight. The easiest way to get through all the weights is to build up from one large weight up until 5 large weights. When you still haven't found the correct weight remove two large weights and add a medium weight. And if it's still not 100%, remove all remaining large weights. Most of the time you will find the perfect tackle without having to do this.

Finding more 100% fish

When you have your first fish at 100% you can then continue to look for more other (and possibly heavier fish). First write down or remember the tackles you already found. Neither of these characteristics (bait/hook/weight) are correct for any of the other five fish. This makes the search for more 100%'s potentially faster than the first one. After doing all spots for one fish, you'll have to look for spots where there are two types of fish. This can be either of the four spots (beach, dock, lake or river). The benefit you have when you first get one fish for each region is that there are only 4 possible bait types, 2 possible hooks and 3 possible weight combinations left. This makes it much easier to find the correct bait for the second fish without changing between catching one fish and the other because of trial and error, complicating the search.

Hints
Before each competition you can ask the Fisherman for a hint on how to achieve a 100% rating for a fish. He will only give out one hint per person for each competition.

When looking for the correct tackle for a new fish it's best to try out a combination first that isn't similar to any of the known tackles.

For fishing in "Fish Flingers", one of the most important things is to keep your rating high and smooth. The same combination of perfect tackle is never used for two different fish in the same competition. If one fish has a perfect tackle of Shrimp, a Large Hook, and Range 1, none of these, bait, hook or range, will be used for another perfect tackle of the same competition.

Once you've found the perfect tackle for a fish, the ones digit for the weight in the fish you catch will always be the same. This is helpful in determining which fish type is the heaviest in the competition.

If a fish's weight ends in a 9, it can be the heaviest (which has a maximum weight of 199) or the lightest (which has a maximum weight of 179).

However, the heaviest species does not have a chance getting 29 and 39; while the lightest species does not have a chance getting 189 and 199.

If a fish's weight ends in a 5, it must be the heavy species (which has a maximum weight of 195).

If a fish's weight ends in a 1, it must be the average species (which has a maximum weight of 191).

If a fish's weight ends in a 7, it must be the light species (which has a maximum weight of 187).

Score
To get your score several criteria are taken into account:
 * Total Fish Caught: x
 * Total Weight: y
 * Heaviest fish: z
 * Awards Score: A (6000 for 3 / 2000 for 1 - verification needed for two awards)
 * Medals Score: B (1000 score for junior angler/ 2000 for junior and master angler together, and 4000 for all 4 Medals - different scores for different medals might be possible, though unlikely - verification needed)
 * Perfect Tackle Found: C (see table)
 * Bonus for Performance: D (Average Rating)

This is your score: (10x + y + 10z + A + B + C) * (1 + (D/100))

Scoring more than 40k points will not yield any extra experience.

Types of fish
There are six species of fish that can be caught: The location of the fish differs from competition to competition.
 * Bass
 * Cod
 * Herring
 * Pike
 * Salmon
 * Trout

Be adventurous, as 2 spots will contain 2 types of fish.

Awards
Awards are given for the following achievements: Awards offer bonus points to your total score, making it more likely that you will be one of the top scoring players.
 * Heaviest fish caught
 * Most fish caught
 * Heaviest catch total

Medals
Medals are given for the following achievements:
 * 1) Junior Angler - Find the perfect tackle for three species
 * 2) Master Angler - Find the perfect tackle for all six species
 * 3) Efficient Fisher - Obtain an average catch rating of 80% or higher
 * 4) Heavy Catch - At least 80% of fish caught being of the heaviest species

Medals offer bonus points to your total score. Certain numbers of medals are also required to buy tackle boxes.

Rewards
The winner and the next four highest scorers are stood on the podium. They can stay until they decide to get down (be careful with dropping items on the podium as it is impossible to get back up unless you use telekinetic grab).

You can talk to the Fisherman's wife for information on Rewards and to know your Competition History, she is located in front of the Fishing Guild.

Fishing experience
You automatically gain some Fishing experience after the competition is over. (Additional information needed for formula)

Tokens
You get a certain amount of tokens depending on your total score. (Additional information needed for formula)

In exchange for tokens you can buy either raw fish (it would appear that one can only receive fish that they can catch at their fishing level.) or a tackle box. A tackle box is used to store fishing equipment (Fishing rod, harpoon, etc.), fishing bait (fishing bait, feather, etc.) and other items (Fist of Guthix Fishing gloves, cooking gauntlets). Tackle boxes are upgraded once you've purchased the first to hold more items, tho each tackle box requires more medals earned in total to obtain them with tokens.

Extra tickets
During a competition, there is a chance that a ticket will be found once a fish is caught. These may be used to attend more than 10 competitions a week.

Music
Some music tracks will be unlocked during the D&D, all of which are on the island.


 * Stillwater, in the waiting area.
 * Saltwater, on the docks.
 * Freshwater, around the lake.

Trivia

 * The name of the D&D is a play on the words 'fish fingers' (a type of food, also known as fish sticks).
 * In the Knowledge Base, a caption for one of the pictures is "I'm gonna catch you little fishy." This is a reference to "I'm gonna eat you little fishy", said by The Cat on Red Dwarf.
 * On the day of release, the Fishing Guild was updated and the entrance changed. Also players must be 68 Fishing not only to enter the guild, but also to talk to the Fishing Master, who has been moved inside the guild
 * This is the second time in a fishing activity where you can see the fish come out of the water, preceded by Barbarian Fishing.
 * The "Flingers" in Fish Flingers refers to the way the fish in this D&D are "flung" out of the water.
 * On the day of the release, if you were resting or performing an emote while the lobby closed then you would stay in the lobby.
 * There is a glitch that your normal Inventory will come up instead of the Tackle Box Menu.
 * There is another glitch that occurs when you enter the lobby right as a game starts. You are left in the lobby, unable to play, while the game continues. This glitch has not been fixed.
 * The Fisherman's Wife offers lobsters and swordfish as a reward, even though her table only has bass and cod on it.