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My game is exploration-and-interaction base. Now that the player has struggled and found a fishing rod, I would like my character to convey the message that "this pond appears to be sufficiently populated with fish, and it is a worthy place to consider fishing."

How can I convey these two ideas in one word or in a short phrase?

a scene from a video game, with a pond next to a stone wall, and a character named "Hamza" trying to express the notion that it might be worth fishing here

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  • 15
    “This pond looks fishy”? It is intended to be funny—but it actually fits the first sense listed under fishy in the OED: “Abounding in fish (now poet. or humorous)”. There are citations like “On the banks of that fishy loch we stood”, so it has been used in this way. Still, hardly a serious recommendation for current usage. :-)
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Sep 14, 2014 at 11:39
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    I'd go with "fishable".
    – Dan Bron
    Sep 14, 2014 at 11:40
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    If I can suggest a replacement for the enter quote (both sentences, not just the bracketed "<fish-worthy>" part): "This looks like a good spot for fishing."
    – Dan Bron
    Sep 14, 2014 at 11:41
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    If you want a term that's a description of the pond, you would say: "This pond looks like it has good fishing*.
    – Peter Shor
    Sep 14, 2014 at 12:17
  • 4
    "This pond looks piscivorous" (just kidding)
    – Mari-Lou A
    Sep 14, 2014 at 14:24

13 Answers 13

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49

I think the word you're probably looking for is "teeming", which describes something as being densely populated or swarming with life.

In your case, the appropriate phrase would probably be something like:

"This pond is teeming with fish! Maybe I can catch one."

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  • I've also heard 'brimming' used interchangeably with teeming.
    – Robotnik
    Sep 15, 2014 at 4:20
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    @Robotnik In the case of fish, brimming would be a very strange term to replace teeming.
    – ErikE
    Sep 15, 2014 at 7:17
  • @ErikE - I agree with you - sticking to the traditional meaning of the word it doesn't quite fit, I'm just saying that it is used interchangeably (at least here in Australia).
    – Robotnik
    Sep 15, 2014 at 7:30
  • @Robotnik At least in my experience in the USA, "brimming" is something one uses for liquid--a cup brimming with tea, eyes brimming with tears. The implication is "about to overflow its container. If the fish were not in water and were about to fill their container, then I could see brimming. :)
    – ErikE
    Sep 15, 2014 at 17:14
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    @ErikE - Like I said, I agree with the traditional definition, but (at least with the fishermen I know), they use brimming interchangeably. It's possible they're using it in the exaggerated sense (a lake literally brimming with fish would probably be a good day for a fisherman). Who knows? Maybe fishermen are prone to over-exaggeration? :P
    – Robotnik
    Sep 16, 2014 at 8:06
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A piscary is a body of water natural or artificial (a piscine would only be an artificial one) under active piscicultural care to render it fit for piscation and related piscatorial—or simply piscatory—pursuits perpetrated by piscivorous piscators, at which point said piscose body will be perfectly pisculent — that is, it will be fit for fishing.

But I predict a potential problem if you go with pisculent and related terms.

Although all these words are of obvious meaning and attested by the OED, it is always possible that some petty pissants hearing such words will perceive them as presenting the pissants not with a piscary but with a pissoir, and perforce pitch a personal pot of puissant poison into your pretty poisson pond in a puerile act of piscicide instead of fishing it per your preference.

Pity, that.

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    Well played. +something
    – sehe
    Sep 16, 2014 at 11:14
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    +10 internets to you, that was simply epic.
    – JustinM
    Sep 16, 2014 at 19:22
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    This answer is just taking the pisc.
    – David Richerby
    Sep 17, 2014 at 13:49
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How about: "This pond looks well-stocked. I can fish here."

You could put more fish icons in a pond that's well-stocked; and fewer fish icons, or even green-blue algae in an ill-stocked pond. "This pond is filled with algae. I can't fish here"

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  • +1 I don't have space on my map for a poorly-stocked pond. But thanks for the great idea!
    – ashes999
    Sep 14, 2014 at 14:37
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    @ashes999 note that you can also just say that the pond is "stocked" and it has a verb construction too: "Looks like someone stocked the pond for us!" or "Looks like someone needs to stock the pond!"
    – user0721090601
    Sep 14, 2014 at 20:33
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    @guifa that implies a man-stocked pond, which conflicts with what I want here.
    – ashes999
    Sep 14, 2014 at 23:52
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The answer "this pond looks like a good place to fish", is an excellent phrase for your purposes. However, if you want a short way to describe a pond that is "fishing-worthy", the usual way of doing it in English is to say:

This pond has good fishing.

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9

This pond looks quite fishable.

Yes, it is a real word.

(Dictionary.com)

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7

Good for angling?

East, Big Lava lakes look good for angling
(The Bulletin - Oct 12, 1967) [emphasis added]

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  • 5
    Why not just say: looks good for fishing? (no one's mentioned it so far)
    – Mari-Lou A
    Sep 14, 2014 at 14:26
  • +1 I actually consider angling to be a bit of an esoteric word. I don't expect my players to know that. It is a good fit though.
    – ashes999
    Sep 14, 2014 at 14:36
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    @ashes999 I personally always liked games that taught me a new word here and there. I remember feeling so smart in elementary school because I knew what a 'silo' was from SimFarm. Or "Boy is engulfed [in flames]" from Secret of Mana.
    – emragins
    Sep 14, 2014 at 17:35
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    @ashes999 - "angling" is a quite-common word, in my circles, at least :)
    – warren
    Sep 16, 2014 at 16:49
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    In the UK, the word angling is very common. Going fishing is just trying to catch some fish, where angling is fishing with style.
    – Carl Smith
    Dec 9, 2014 at 21:15
5

You could use "promising".

"This pond looks promising. I can fish here!"

Or, if you want a more unusual word, you could go with "propitious".

Giving or indicating a good chance of success; favourable:

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Looks like a good fishing hole!

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  • It does the job. I want a more specific word though than "good."
    – ashes999
    Sep 14, 2014 at 23:51
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    I'd associate the phrase fishing hole specifically with a hole in ice allowing access to water below.
    – TRiG
    Sep 15, 2014 at 11:04
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    @TRiG: I've heard and used fishing hole to refer to a murky pond where catfish and the like can be caught. It's especially common down here in southern U.S. states like Florida, where there's no ice fishing to be had. I suppose it's similar in meaning to watering hole, which also has nothing to do with ice. I'd even say a fishing hole is implicitly a good place to fish.
    – talrnu
    Sep 15, 2014 at 15:19
  • You don't need to use 'good' with fishing hole. There is such thing as a bad fishing hole.
    – pazzo
    Sep 21, 2014 at 16:30
3

This pond appears bountiful judging by the glutton of birds on the opposite shore.

[Fish]

[Maybe Later]

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2

Try using abundant.

Either

The fish in this pond are abundant.

or even

The pond is abundant.

(if the context is clear). As a bonus, the word connotes "overflowing", which would be appropriate for a body of water.

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  • I'm not looking for a generic, context-specific adjective. I'm looking for a specific word that emphasizes fishing specifically.
    – ashes999
    Sep 14, 2014 at 23:51
  • But the pond isn't abundant: it's the life within it that is.
    – David Richerby
    Sep 17, 2014 at 13:50
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I'm surprised nobody mentioned "fishful".

It's defined at Wordnik as "abounding in fish" with the following quote from that page:

Coming down the hill, out of the town, the delusion is that this great fresh-water lake is but itself a bay, the mouth of which is concealed from view, but not so, for its waters run clear and fresh, and as fishful as the Erne.

Also, if you use the word despite its rarity, its meaning would be clear to the reader, especially in your sentence.

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Assuming we are trapped with the set grammar, I would go with "well stocked" also assuming the target audience are native-speaker adults. "full of fish" in other cases.

For those that don't know, many software systems do not allow full phrases. Cases like this can be limited to "This {place} appears {adjective}. I can {verb} here."

The actual code can look something like:

$text = sprintf("This %1$s appears %2$s. I can %3$s here.", place, noun, verb);

Or in a translation file (the major reason it's done like this) it can look like:

"この%1$sは%2$sでしょう、私はここに%3$sします。" Rearranging the replacement words is also possible if needed. The noun/adjective etc are translated elsewhere.

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You have an opportunity to refer to English as She Is Spoke, about which Mark Twain once wrote, “Nobody can add to the absurdity of this book, nobody can imitate it successfully, nobody can hope to produce its fellow; it is perfect.”

Este lago parece-me bem piscoso. Vamos pescar para nos divertirmos.

That pond it seems me many multiplied of fishes. Let us amuse rather to the fishing.

Source: English As She Is Spoke, via Wikipedia

You could also use all or part of the suggested alternative:

This lake looks full of fish. Let's have some fun fishing.

Source: Wikipedia

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