GTA 6 fishing: catch and release, as deep as Red Dead 2

This guide is built on TGG's side activities video, whose fishing and hunting chapter runs from 4:19 to 5:07 in the video below. TGG was one of the creators who watched Nelson play GTA 6 at Rockstar North in July 2026, and he put the fishing question to him directly. Around those two Nelson quotes sit Rockstar's own screenshots, a fishing boat in the Extended Look and Game Informer's notes on sea life, each checked on 29 October 2026.

Can you fish in GTA 6?

Yes, and Rockstar has said so twice in its own words. The first time is on its Only in Leonida page, where the Mount Kalaga panel calls the region "a national landmark up against the state's northern border" and lists fishing second, between hunting and off-road trails. The second is Paul MacPherson, quoted by Game Informer, listing what fills the countryside between the northern towns. The last item on his long list: "go bass fishing in a Spanish moss draped live oak and cypress forested lake."

Then there are the pictures. Rockstar's caption for the screenshot above reads "Jason and Cal on a boat. Jason is holding a fishing rod and Cal is holding binoculars up to his eyes." Jason wears teal mirrored sunglasses and a gray long-sleeved shirt and holds a spinning reel rod with the line out; Cal stands further back on the white boat in a floral shirt and a yellow cap, binoculars up. Palms and a beach line the shore behind them. That is the only official screenshot with a fishing rod in it.

The Extended Look adds moving footage. TGG says that before it "we haven't really seen much of it besides screenshots" and that the Extended Look showed "a little bit of fishing". We found the shot at 25:52 and read it at full 4K size.

Three people stand in a center-console boat close to a palm-lined shore, each with a rod and a line in the water. A bearded man in a cap wears a tank top printed "Leonida"; a man in a floral shirt reels in mid-boat; a dark-haired woman holds a rod at the bow. The hull reads LUREPREDATOR next to a small US flag, then L35P, and both outboard motors say DINKA. A white seabird with a dark cap flies over them. The frame names nobody.

How does fishing work in GTA 6?

The only description from inside Rockstar is two sentences long, and it came through TGG. At 4:33 TGG says he asked Nelson to say more about fishing and hunting. Nelson's answer, as TGG reports it:

Yes, the fishing is as in-depth as Red Dead 2, but you can't take the fish with you because it didn't fit this game. So, it's catch and release.

Rob Nelson, Rockstar North, as reported by TGG, 4:33

Fishing is meant to be as deep as Red Dead Redemption 2's, and whatever you catch goes back in the water: no fish kept, eaten or sold. Nelson names no bait, lure, rod or species count, so how the reel works and how a fish fights is not known until 19 November 2026.

GTA6Activities had already reported, from GTABase, that fishing is catch-and-release, noting that GTABase cites no source. TGG's account is the first-hand one: he names the person, the place and the month.

What is the point of fishing in GTA 6?

TGG asked exactly that. His follow-up question, at 4:43, was "So, what's the point of hunting and fishing then? Is it money or what is it." Nelson's reply, as TGG reports it:

Yeah, fishing is for fun and some narrative stuff, collectibles, challenge stuff. Hunting is for money, and it's through a character that knows Jason.

Rob Nelson, as reported by TGG, 4:43

So fishing has four uses on Rockstar's side: fun, some story content, collectibles and challenges. Money is not one of them; that job goes to hunting. Nelson does not say which story moments involve a rod, what the collectibles are or what a fishing challenge asks of you. Those are not known until 19 November 2026.

The hunting half has a twist TGG picks up on: the activity comes "through a character that knows Jason". TGG does not think that person has been shown yet, and wonders if it could be one of the two riflemen in Rockstar's Mount Kalaga screenshot above. That is his guess. The hunting guide collects every armed scene Rockstar has published, from the Kalaga woods to the Grassrivers airboats.

Where can you fish in GTA 6?

Rockstar names one region: Mount Kalaga. Its panel is the only official text that pairs fishing with a place. The screenshot above is the most Kalaga water Rockstar has shown, and its caption is exact: a person in a life vest kayaking toward a bridge in the national park. A yellow water level gauge stands in the river on the left, a steel truss bridge spans it ahead. Kayaking is on Game Informer's list of confirmed activities; nobody in the frame is fishing.

The second place is MacPherson's lake: live oaks, cypress, Spanish moss and bass. He sets it in the countryside between the northern towns but gives it no name and no region. Which lake it is on the map is not known until 19 November 2026. Further south, Rockstar describes the Grassrivers wetlands as a place where "the gators may be the most famous attraction, but there are far deadlier predators" among the mangroves. It says nothing about fishing there, but anyone casting from a swamp bank should know what shares the water: the alligator page has every sighting.

The third is the sea, by way of the boats. Jason and Cal's screenshot and the Extended Look shot both show rods over shallow, clear water near a shore, which reads like the coast rather than a lake. Neither caption names the spot. Rockstar's Leonida Keys material is full of that kind of water.

Small boats trail white wakes across the shallows in that Keys screenshot, with the Vice City skyline on the horizon, but Rockstar's caption is about the seaplane and the bridge. It does not mention fishing.

One creator has made a case for a fourth spot. Berserker reads Lake Leonida as Rockstar's version of Lake Okeechobee, says "Fishing is a confirmed activity", and argues that the lake's size and shallow water "could allow for different and rare species of fish to be caught, and potentially fishing tournaments." Rare fish and tournaments are his speculation; no Rockstar source mentions either.

What fish are in GTA 6?

One species is named: bass, in MacPherson's lake. That is the full official list of fish by name.

Game Informer adds a count without names. GTA 6 has more than 170 animal species, of which "over 60 bird types, more than 30 land mammals, plus various fish, reptiles, and more." So fish are in the species count, but how many of them, and which ones you can hook, is not known until 19 November 2026.

Rockstar's own underwater screenshot shows fish without naming them. The caption reads "Two scuba divers swimming underwater in the Leonida Keys surrounded by aquatic life including coral, fish, an eel, and a sea turtle."

A school of small fish crosses the light at the top of that frame. The sea turtle has its own page, and the eel is a card on our sea life page. Whether a reef fish can end up on your line is a different question, and nothing official answers it.

The Extended Look has a second underwater scene at 17:18: a diver in a cave, an oxygen meter top left, and a group of rays gliding across the bright opening above with a school of small fish to the right.

TGG says he also saw a lung capacity meter at the July preview: underwater, the stamina bar switches to lung capacity. He wonders if it levels up. He also hopes underwater animals can be "studied" and expects shipwrecks, perhaps plane wrecks too. Those are his hopes, not Rockstar's promises. GTA6Activities describes the same cave scene as a diver with a manta ray.

Can you catch sharks or dolphins in GTA 6?

Nobody has said so. What Rockstar has confirmed is that they are in the water. Game Informer reports that Michael Kane "confirms players will encounter different shark species, whales, rays, turtles, and jellyfish, which all have distinct movement behaviors." One of the Rockstar screenshots in Edge's cover story shows a hammerhead shark between rocks covered in sea life.

Dolphins are on screen in Trailer 1 at 0:11, seen from high above: four dark animals with fins and beaks swim together near a catamaran, with a fifth at the edge of the frame.

Whether sharks, rays or anything bigger than a bass can be hooked at all is not known until 19 November 2026. The shark, the dolphin and the whale each have a card on the sea life page. For how animals react to each other and to you, see the wildlife system guide, and for the dogs that chase people instead of fish, the police dogs guide. How the game's sea life compares with the real animals is on real-life animals.

What is confirmed about GTA 6 fishing?

What about fishing is still unknown?

Most of it. Not known until 19 November 2026:

• Species you can catch. Bass is the only fish named.
• Spots. Mount Kalaga is the only region tied to fishing; the bass lake has no name.
• Gear. No rod, reel, bait or lure has been named or priced.
• The minigame. No HUD or control scheme has been shown.
• Collectibles and challenges. Nelson says they exist and names none.
• Your own boat. Whether you need one, and which ones carry rods.

Every animal Rockstar has shown is on the all animals page, with timestamps on every animal in the trailers and a checklist to tick off once you play. Our evidence rules are on the about page. This guide gets real spots and species after launch.