Among the many things I love about mobile gaming is how the platform is home to both absolute mass-market games that can appeal to every living person and super niche titles that play to a specific interest group. Today’s example of that is people who are into fishing for carp (or, I guess, fishing in general). The App Store is jam packed with arcade fishing games which seem to hinge more on the excitement of catching tons of fish rather than the strategy that goes into fishing. That’s where CarpCraft (Free) comes in.

Built by actual anglers, CarpCraft challenges players to catch fish in real time as the game has an actual real world 24 hour clock in game with real day and night cycles, dynamic weather, and more. It’s a surprisingly neat spin, as it feels like you’re playing in a living pond that you keep in your pocket instead of how in a bunch of other fishing games on the App Store you can be catching a dozen deep sea fish in one 30 second session. Instead of hinging on action, you need to decide what specific tackle load out you’re going to use, and wait. Cooler yet, the game will even send you a push alert when you get a bite.

As someone whose fishing background involves losing lures to weeds and catching embarrassingly tiny fish, a lot of what is going on in CarpCraft feels like it goes a bit over my head, but I love the idea they’re pitching with the game which seems to be a complete polar opposite of every other mobile fishing game I’ve played. Even more surprising is this is just an indie game, you’d think a game like this would be primed for some kind of co-branding with Rapala or some other big fishing brand?

Either way, definitely give it a look if you’re into fishing and want a game that leans towards realism and strategy over quick hits and fast fishing.