I was wondering if some of you hard core players would either answer this question for me OR if no one knows to please help me figure out the answer. I hope you don't think this is silly but I like to try and figure things out and if there is something to this it could be fun to know.

I have 3 separate games going on 3 computers right now so I have 15 games running. I have been playing for several months and I am still learning new things about this game every day! (I found out today that children can heal people!)

My question is about the "strange fish" in the lagoon that must be caught by a master farmer. Is there any possible way to predict where to drop the villager into the lagoon to ensure that they catch it or is this always a random occurance that we would not have any influence over?

Just for fun, I have recently started to log this data on each game and since it doesn't happen until far into the game,(and only once per game) if someone else could make notes as to where they dropped the villager into the lagoon and how many tries it took to catch the fish and post it here I would be most grateful. (Unless someone from LDW confirms that it is indeed totally random)

If we do end up logging our findings here this is how I do it.. I think of the lagoon as a clock face (and center) and I log what position assuming that the top of the lagoon (where the water runs into it) is 12 o'clock and the middle is simply "center". You will also need to count the number of tries it took before you were successful. There may be other things that need to be kept track of and hopefully someone here will know if that is the case. Also, I have noticed that the number of times that the villagers goes under water varies from once or twice but I haven't been able to tell if that indicates anything yet and I am going to keep track of that from now on too just in case it means anything.

So far I have found that if I drop the master farmer into the lagoon at the 11 o'clock position I have the most success. The number of tries it takes varies with the average being 10 tries before success with the number of times I have tested it so far. I am no mathematician so I could use some help here with figuring this out. I see no trends with number of tries and I have only had a couple of first time catches. As you can see, more data is needed which is where you guys would come in.

If there are any other external influences you know of that could be affecting this outcome please post those here. The only one I know of is that you have to have a master farmer to catch the fish. If there is a certain level of tech points or certain things that have to be researched at certain levels then we could start keeping track of those values as well.

I am fairly certain that this is going to end up being a random thing, but I have been surprised so many times before with this game and everyone is so nice here so I thought I would go ahead and ask.

FYI... The highest number of tries I had to make before the "strange fish" was caught was 44 tries with the 11 o'clock position as the drop in point where she finally caught it. I have only had 2 games where the villager caught the fish on the first try and each time was dropped in at the 11 o'clock position which I found very interesting. That could mean something right??

Also, I have also had the least success with dropping the villager into the center of the lagoon. So far that has never worked. Next time you go hunting for the strange fish in the lagoon please let me know if you notice any trends or if you think this is a random occurence.

Thanks!

The villager must be a master farmer. The others see something in the lagoon, but don't hunt for it. I've been fairly lucky; most cases my farmer has caught the fish after only one or two attampts. If you've got more than one master farmer they can all go hunting, and can each catch a fish. At one stage I had three proud fishermen in a line walking back with their catch. However, the one that gets first to the food bin is the only one that counts. The others will drop their catches when he gets there and start celebrating.

Judging from the hint in the guide or spoiler (can't quite remember which), that says you may have to try several times before the villager is successful, it would seem to be random. One thing I did notice was that if a runner was the one trying, on 1/2 speed "several" times became "endless" times. He would also only make one dive as opposed to two dives non-runners would make. I was growing totally frustrated, when I decided to try switching the speed up to normal, and bang, he got it on the next try. This has happened twice now.

I'm pretty sure that if the farmer only dives once, he/she will not be successful.

I think the location in the lagoon is random as well as how many times it takes. But it would be interesting to see if the 1/2 speed games take more attempts on average than the normal or 2x speed games.