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Fishing games are a family of card games where players play cards from their hand to attempt to capture cards that are face-up on the table, in a shared ‘pool’.
Categorization
I believe they can be divided into three broad groups, in increasing order of luck:
- games where cards are played only from the hand,
- games where cards are played from both hand and stock,
- and games where cards are played only from the stock.
For the first type, where cards are only played from the hand, games include:
- Cassino
- Laugh and Lie Down
In games where cards are played from both hand and stock, after playing a card from the hand (and making any captures), the player turns a second card from the stock and attempts to capture cards with it. These games are popular in East Asia. Games of this type include:
- played with two-colour chess cards:
- played with Ceki cards:
- many Hanafuda games (which I have yet to document) also fall into this category
The last type are luck-based games where all cards are turned from the stock. These are commonly gambling or children’s games:
- played with standard cards:
- played with Ceki cards:
References
McLeod, John (). ‘Playing the Game: Notes on Fishing’. Journal of the International Playing-Card Society vol. 26 (6), : pages 204–206.
McLeod, John (). ‘Playing the Game: Swazi Casino’. Journal of the International Playing-Card Society vol. 28 (5), : pages 258–261.
McLeod, John (). ‘Playing the Game: Fishing in 18th-century Yorkshire’. Journal of the International Playing-Card Society vol. 45 (3), : pages 183–185. Edited by Peter Endebrock.