Fish Out of Water: The Catgirl Fishing Isekai

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Four friends, tossed into an unfamiliar world for reasons unknown.

Oceanus is one seriously messed up place. With simmering tensions between nations on the rise, vicious pirates that'd slit your throat as soon as look at you, mysterious sea-dwellers that might drag you to the depths, never-ending storms that wander across the ocean, and a bloodthirsty empire that wants to subjugate the whole world in the name of their Goddess, finding a nice, quiet spot to call your own is no easy feat. Even the islands don't sit still for long, carried along on the backs of enormous sea creatures. And on top of all that, High Society drifts above the clouds in their fancy floating cities, living the high life while treating the surface like their own personal all-you-can-eat buffet.

So what can one lone catgirl do about all that?

I dunno. Let’s go fishing!

What to expect:

~A comfy, queer slice-of-life found family story about self-discovery,adventure on the high seas, and the addictive dangers of fried fish.

~ A primarily light and fluffy tone that occasionally will dip into some heavy themes, but will never wallow in them.

~ Four central protagonists with their own personal journeys to undertake, at first alone and then, together.

~ First person POV for the the primary protagonist and third person for everyone else, which will occasionally rotate to one of the other three protagonists.

~ Chapters may/will get fairly chunky, I'll try not to regularly exceed 10k but if it happens, it happens.

~ Alotof scenes describing catching, cooking, or eating, increasingly weirder fantasy fish.

~ In case you missed it the first time, this story will have a lot of queer themes. People will discover things about themselves, and there will be somegenderstuff going on, so please feel free to give this one a pass if that's not your thing.

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2024
Author: Relyet

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.9/ 5.0
Followers: 193
Views: 30,927

Chapters(35 total)

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(7)

LehnsaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a lovely story centered around our protagonist discovering more about her old self, her new self, and the ocean-centric fantasy world she finds herself in. The world is filled with detail and the cast vibrant in life and expression. The fishing is enjoyable and feels like Call of the Wild: The Angler seasoned with hints of Monster Hunter, and this is when our dear catgirl is still in the learning stages.
The author's habit of dropping large volume chapters makes each update feel like the reader is Scruge Mc'Duck about to take a swim in his vault of wealth. Fish out of Water is an absolute pleasure to have in one's library and definitely worth your time if you consider yourself interested by anything you've read up until now.
DaScootRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
While I think all stories need at least some slice-of-life type content, I'm not usually into stories that are entirely SoL. That said, if you're into SoL stories about found families and adaptations to new bodies (and a world without homophobia) after getting isekai'd, this is probably a story for you. Each of the four protagonists has some very different circumstances and issues, which keeps it from feeling like it's just repeating the found family formula four times.
I think the main flaw is probably that when it swaps between protagonists it will sometimes do so on a cliffhanger, and given the size of the chapters and how long they take that means a cliffhanger might be left hanging for a very long time. Given the lengths of the protagonist sections I don't think the cliffhangers are really necessary for this sort of story, and it might be better doing the swaps at cleaner break points.
GhostlyGooseRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Do you want a cute fluffy story, well this is a phenomenal pick. Super cute but maintains narrative tension throughout. Really strong character writing and an interesting setting. Handles the isekai really well being from another world doesn't for some reason give the protagonist an insane advantage. Chapters are really long and detailed but do not drag. What are you waiting for give it a read.
AverageGamer8Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Love how the four protagonists' past lives still matter to the story quite a bit
Really like Mandy's perspective(s), and just in general how each perspective is unique in their own way
Chapters are so large that they have to be split into parts (positive)
they made the gays fish
MageSeerRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
im going to be so sad when I catch up and have to wait a month for more…
great world building, I hope we get to see more of the magic system, looks pretty cool so far. I hope this story never ends and that Sam gets a happy ending.
imnotarobotRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I have read a lot of bad isekai's and let me immediately inform you this is not one of them. I was initially hesitant upon seeing "catgirl fishing isekai" but I'm glad I gave it a try because this story is worth reading.
The story is primarily told through our catgirl protagonist (not all the other lead characters have been introduced yet) who has to find her place in the world while dealing with gender feels. As a protagonist she feels immensely relatable in more ways than one and I can't overstate how nice it is to see this kind of representation, not just as any character, but as the protagonist. I am also a huge fan of the fact that being a catgirl in this world means more than just "girl with animal ears and a tail" as is typical in these kinds of stories.
The dialogue feels realistic and natural to me and the characters and their actions are believable. The characters and dialogue are the strongest part of this story, and there is a good balance between having enough characters to be interesting without having too many to keep track of.
Story wise, this novel is very slow paced and there hasn't been much evidence of an overarching plot. The slice of life tag is well earned and if you are seeking lots of action and quick plot developments you may wish to look elsewhere. Even so, I do see some evidence of progression and character development and there are definitely events I'm already looking forward to.
For spelling and grammar I haven't noticed any mistakes.
If you want a slow-paced, feels-good, wholesome slice of life with well-written characters and plenty of queer rep, this one is for you.
chjeeseRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Is it worth reading? Yes.
That's the short answer. For the long answer, I'll have to expound a little bit.
I think catgirl stories are, for the most part, generally drivel. They're uninteresting and use the allure of the conventionally exotic female form tailored to the male gaze or however you'd describe it to craft a wish-fulfillment story about how hot they are, or how their sexual escapades are both varied and incredible.
This story isn't that.
The style and grammar are competent, so I won't go into depth on those. Instead, I'll discuss mostly the story and characters.
For the most part everyone is decently written, with few glaringly bad paper cutouts-- even Bentley is more than just a generic, twisted bully like the kind you'd find in a Korean manhwa. Some push the boundaries of what I personally find believable for a personality, considering how quickly most of Sam's conflicts resolve. The people around the titular main character are incredibly generous and forgiving, weaving the image of a town that's both sleepy yet important. All the challenges most other isekais might present like getting to know people and establish herself in this new world are quickly papered over by people who, while not all perfect, seem almost too good to be true. The result is mostly fluff, feel-good chapters with occasional breaks for a revelation or an emotional breakthrough without stakes. To someone transgender... it's perfect.
I think that's why the character score is 3.5 for me. It's not bad by any means, but at times the hand of the author isn't so invisible anymore, and it can feel like everyone including the world at large is twisted and molded to fit the queer desire to just become who you want to be, and be accepted for it. It's wish-fulfillment for the transgender girl. It's... wish-fulfillment for me, in a sense: I list some examples here for your thoughts.
Samantha Fisher falls into a polyamorous relationship with two beautiful, attractive elven women, both of whom ar