FlySim - Fly Fishing on your computer!

publication date: Oct 17, 2007

After playing a few bass fishing console games I wondered if there were any fly fishing games out there so set about searching the internet to see what I could find.

FlySim came up at the top of the list so that's where I decided to start! Firstly a free demo is available which gives you one of the featured rivers to fish on and introduces you the style of gameplay.

At first sight I wondered if it was going to be detailed enough graphically to keep me interested as the waterscapes and background are fairly simple. However, the physics of the water and the fish themselves are pretty good and this along with mastering the casting (which is done with the mouse or touchpad in my case) proved to challenging at first but eventually is actually fun to try and get a perfect cast out. A seperate small window shows you the line action during the cast so you can judge when best to lay the line down. You can also roll cast pretty well!

You get to fish short beats of a series of US rivers once you complete various challenges such as catching 3 species of trout, a specimen over 3lb or a total catch weight over 30lb for example. Each has varied conditions and species but the gameplay model is the same.

Part of the challenge is choosing what fly, tippet and weight if needed to use and you can also increase or decrease drag on the reel to avoid breakoffs which do happen if you try to bully a big fish. Once hooked I found the actual 'fight' a little lacking somehow, probably because I found it hard to experience the tactile feel that we would normally get through a reel and rod of course or even on a controller attached to a games console. The keyboard is just not the same somehow. Saying that, each time I sit down to play I find myself getting drawn into the game and playing longer than planned!

At $24.95 for the full version which gives you 7 rivers to fish and sets of challenges to beat its not bad value for money thanks to the $/£ rate these days and will definitely help while away the time now and then. You can also get yourself on the online leader board if you catch a real specimen!

Available from www.FlySim.com