Pale chub
A small minnow that schools in the riffles of clear streams. In spawning season, males show bright red and blue breeding colors.
Fish Log
Dot Fishing has 66 species across six fishing spots. They are all real fish from Korea's rivers and seas. Here is each one's in-game size range, best time and season, and how it looks and lives. Tap a name for its own page with tips on catching it for real.
Riverside Reservoir Lake Breakwater Rocky shore Boat
Riverside
Crucian carp
Korea's signature freshwater fish. It feeds near the bottom, and the slow rise of the float when it bites is the joy of carp fishing.
Yellow catfish
A bagrid catfish nicknamed 'ppagasari' in Korea. It rubs the spines of its pectoral fins together to make a croaking 'ppak-ppak' sound.
Dark chub
Looks like the pale chub but has bigger eyes and a dark stripe along its side. It lives in shady, clear mountain streams and upper rivers.
Catfish
A nocturnal catfish that feels for food with four whiskers around its mouth. It bites best after dark.
Common carp
A powerful fish that can grow close to a meter long. It's famous for the heavy pull when it takes the bait.
Korean aucha perch
A perch found only in Korea that hides between rocks. Look for the blue spot on its gill cover.
Sweetfish
A river fish said to smell like watermelon. It spends its early life at sea, swims back up rivers in spring, and grows fat on algae scraped off rocks in summer.
Mandarin fish
The leopard-spotted 'king of fresh water.' Anglers target it with lures in clear, rocky rivers.
Japanese eel
Born far out in the ocean, it swims up rivers to live for years, then returns to the open sea to spawn. By day it hides in rocks or mud and comes out to feed at night.
Golden carp
A legendary fish found only in Dot Fishing. A golden carp that appears very rarely; if you meet one, it's your lucky day.
Korean spotted barbel
A fish found only in Korea, with rows of black spots along its body. It's famous for its spawning towers: it digs into the gravel, lays its eggs and piles the gravel back up over them. It's a Natural Monument and an endangered species (class II).
Korean stumpy bullhead
A tiny bullhead found only in parts of the Nam River in Korea's Nakdong basin, about 10cm long, with a flat head and mottled light-brown body. It's an endangered species (class I).
Reservoir
Bluegill
An introduced species from North America. The dark blue spot at the edge of its gill cover gives it its name.
White crucian carp
A crucian carp variety brought from Japan. It's deeper-bodied than the native carp and feeds in mid-water rather than on the bottom.
Bitterling
A finger-sized fish whose males turn rainbow-colored in spring. It has the unusual habit of laying its eggs inside freshwater mussels.
Sharpbelly
A long, flat, silvery fish with a sharp keel along its belly. It travels in schools near the surface.
Largemouth bass
An introduced predator that hunts small fish with its big mouth. One of the most popular lure-fishing targets.
Snakehead
It can breathe air, so it thrives in murky, still water. It strikes hard at the surface.
Silver carp
A large carp introduced from China that filters plankton from the water. It's famous for leaping high out of the water when startled.
Israeli carp
A carp variety with few scales, also called the Israeli carp. Fish escaped from farms spread into reservoirs.
Trophy crucian carp
Koreans call a crucian carp longer than one ja (about 30.3 cm) a 'wolcheok.' It's the record every carp angler dreams of.
Golden mandarin fish
A color mutation of the mandarin fish: its whole body is golden, but its markings remain. Golden mandarin fish in the Han River system are a protected Natural Monument.
Lake
Pond smelt
A small fish famous for winter ice fishing. Its body is almost see-through, and a fresh one smells like cucumber.
Skygazer
A long, flat predator with an upturned mouth. It can grow close to a meter long.
Steed barbel
A bottom-dwelling carp of rivers and lakes with a downward-facing mouth for picking food off the bed. It can grow past 50cm and puts up a good fight.
Piscivorous chub
A carnivorous minnow with a mouth bent like an inverted V. Spawning males turn red.
Trout
A salmonid that loves cold water. Farmed rainbow trout are now common at fishing spots too.
Rainbow trout
A trout brought over from North America, named for the pinkish rainbow band along its side. It loves cold water and is the star of Korea's winter trout festivals.
Masu trout
A trout that stays in mountain streams instead of going to sea. Look for the oval marks along its side.
Sturgeon
An ancient lineage of fish with rows of hard bony plates. In Dot Fishing it's known as the master of the lake.
Manchurian trout
A fish that lives only in cold, very clean mountain streams. It's an endangered species (class II), and its habitats around Jeongamsa Temple in Jeongseon and Daehyeon-ri in Bonghwa are Natural Monuments.
Breakwater
Goby
A fish that bites everywhere from mudflats to breakwaters. A good friend for first-time sea anglers.
Horse mackerel
A migratory fish with a row of hard scales along its side. It travels in schools, so once one bites, more follow.
Mackerel
Korea's classic blue-backed fish, with wavy blue markings on its back. It swims fast in big schools.
Greenling
A fish that stays put on the bottom around rocks and breakwaters. It bites in every season.
Halfbeak
A slender fish with a needle-like lower jaw. From autumn into winter it gathers in schools around breakwaters.
Gizzard shad
Gizzard shad, Korea's classic autumn fish: a saying goes that the smell of grilled shad brings even a runaway daughter-in-law home. It schools along the coast and has rows of small dark dots on its back.
Korean rockfish
Its standard Korean name is jopibollak. It hides between rocks and is one of Korea's favorite sashimi fish.
Dark-banded rockfish
A big-eyed fish that's active at night. A regular catch for night lure fishing off breakwaters.
Flathead mullet
Mullet move between river mouths and the coast and are often seen leaping out of the water. They're best from winter into early spring.
Bigfin reef squid
Officially the bigfin reef squid. Its fins run the full length of its body, and it's the top target of eging, fishing with shrimp-shaped lures called egi.
Striped beakfish
The boldly striped 'king of the rocks.' It cracks sea urchins and shellfish with its strong teeth.
Three-spot seahorse
A seahorse with dark spots on its back. It lives in seagrass beds off the southern coast and Jeju, holding on to the grass with its tail. The male carries the eggs in a belly pouch and gives birth. Korea lists seahorses as protected marine species.
Rocky shore
Surfperch
An unusual sea fish that gives birth to live young instead of laying eggs. It schools among the seaweed around rocks and breakwaters and crowds inshore in spring to give birth.
Wrasse
A colorful fish of rocky reefs. Males and females look different, and females can turn into males as they grow. At night it sleeps buried in sand or tucked into rock gaps.
Scorpionfish
A rockfish relative that hides in rock crevices, with a red, mottled body. Its fin spines carry a mild venom, and a jab really hurts.
Opaleye
The signature fish of rock-shore float fishing. Its dark blue-black body and blue eyes make it easy to spot, and it's famously wary and hard to catch.
Mottled spinefoot
A seaweed-grazing fish named for the venomous spines in its fins. It's common on warm southern rocky shores from summer into autumn.
Black sea bream
Called the 'flower of sea fishing' in Korea. It's wary, so catching one takes delicate float fishing skills.
Asian sheepshead wrasse
Grown males sprout a big bump on their forehead. It crushes turban shells and crabs with strong teeth and can grow close to a meter long.
Kelp grouper
A large grouper living deep among rocky reefs, sometimes called dageumbari on Jeju. It's prized as a top-grade sashimi fish and can grow over a meter long.
Thorny seahorse
A seahorse covered in small spines. It lives among rocks and seaweed in warm southern waters, and like other seahorses the male carries the eggs. It is a protected marine species in Korea.
Boat
Filefish
A fish with rough skin and a tiny mouth. It's nicknamed the 'bait thief' for picking hooks clean.
Hairtail
A long fish shaped like a silver blade. It swims upright and gathers under lights at night.
Webfoot octopus
A small octopus with a gold ring marking near its eyes. Anglers head out by boat for it in autumn, and in spring it's prized for being full of eggs.
Olive flounder
Also called the olive flounder. As it grows, both eyes move to one side so it can lie flat on the bottom.
Red sea bream
The 'queen of the sea,' pink with shining blue spots. A prized fish served at celebrations.
Pacific cod
A cold-water fish named in Korean for its big mouth. It's at its best in winter.
Golden cuttlefish
Named for the hard, shell-like bone inside its body. It squirts ink when threatened and can change color in an instant.
Marbled flounder
A flatfish like the olive flounder, but with both eyes on the right side of its body. Koreans say spring is the season for it.
Japanese Spanish mackerel
A long, sleek member of the mackerel family with sharp teeth and great speed. It's best from late autumn through winter.
Yellowtail
A large migratory fish that gets rich and fatty in winter. The saying goes, the bigger the better.
Yellowtail amberjack
It looks just like the yellowtail but has a sharper yellow stripe. It's famous for its strong pull.
Bluefin tuna
The Pacific bluefin tuna, an apex predator that can weigh hundreds of kilograms. The dream catch of boat anglers.
Scalloped hammerhead
A shark whose head spreads out sideways like a hammer, with an eye at each end so it can scan a wide area. It travels in schools through warm seas. Its numbers have fallen sharply worldwide, and Korea lists it as a protected marine species.