How to catch a whopper in Monster Hunter Wilds

Landing a whopper is just another step on the road to fishing mastery in Monster Hunter Wilds. Kanya, your fishing senpai, asks you to bring her one of these aquatic beasts as part of The Catch of a Lifetime quest. While this fish is a lot easier to find than most of the others she requests you hunt down, it's a bit more challenging to catch.

Since whoppers are really big, there's a whole extra minigame involved in fishing for one, so here's how to catch a whopper in Monster Hunter Wilds and exactly where you need to look.

Monster Hunter Wilds whopper location

You can find a variety of whoppers in area 17 of the Scarlet Forest above the dam—you may remember this as the area where you fought Uth Duna in the story. If you look out across the lake towards the ruined structures you should be able to see some big fish floating around out there. If you can't see any, try the righthand side, since a couple often hang out at this spot.

Now a whopper isn't a specific fish, it's more of a catch-all term for big fish in Monster Hunter Wilds that require a special minigame to catch, including the Gajau, Speartuna, and Great Trevally. First, equip your fishing rod by holding left bumper on the controller and selecting it in the wheel, then cycle through your lures to the Starduster Rig that Kanya gave you. All prepped? Then here's how to catch a whopper:

• Once the fish bites pull the rod in the direction it's swimming
• After a while, your hunter will raise the rod, indicating the fish is tired, and you can start reeling it in the way you would normally
• If at any point the whopper jumps out of the water, watch for the direction it's going to fall (either left, right, or down) and then move the left stick in that direction and press RT to stop it freeing itself

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If you do all of this right, you'll catch that big fish. A few other things to be aware of are that it's really hard to get whoppers to bite, especially as they're frequently far away and underwater. You'll want to cast as far as possible and then pan the camera to judge where the fish actually is relative to your lure. If you find a patch of disturbed water with flying monsters feeding on fish, this is usually also a good place to catch a whopper like a Gajau or Swordfish.

Since whoppers pull from side to side, you'll also want to ensure you're fishing for one in an open section of water with no obstacles that might obstruct the line, since that'll make things far harder. Final tip: if you're really struggling but you've unlocked decoration melding, you can craft and slot a level one Ranger jewel to get the Outdoorsman skill that makes fishing easier.

Take your whopper back to Kanya and you'll get five gunpowderfish scales, five honey, and 200 Guild Points.