Bigger Bass Bonanza Slot Review

RTP: 96.71%
Volatility level: High
Max cash prize: 4,000x
Layout: 5x4
Paylines and ways: 12 Lines
Released: 16/09/2021

RTP: 96.71%
Max cash prize: 4,000x
Paylines and ways: 12 Lines

A Larger Lake, the Same Patient Fisherman

Bigger Bass Bonanza arrived as the second entry in what would become a very long family, and it plays like a deliberate correction of scale: the grid grows to five reels and four rows, the Lines count rises to twelve, and the round cap doubles to 4,000x. The collector architecture stays intact, with the fisherman Wild appearing only during Free Spins to sweep up every tagged fish on screen, and each fourth Wild banked in the tracker adding spins plus a Multiplier step. What distinguishes this build inside the sequence is restraint elsewhere: no bonus buy, a 96.71% return that later entries mostly undercut, and High volatility left to resolve naturally.

Bigger Bass Bonanza: 4000x Under Very Specific Conditions

A Bigger Grid That Promises More Than It Pays

Pragmatic Play's Bigger Bass Bonanza, released in 2021-09-16, stretches the original 5x3 frame to 5 reels and 4 rows with 12 fixed Lines. The published return is 96.71%, but volatility is High, and the base game reflects that: only the boat pays on two of a kind, the royals share an identical low payout table, and the line wins multiply the bet per line with only the highest win paid per line. The result is a base game that produces small returns while keeping the session dependent on the feature round. The '4X5 REELS FOR EXTRA BONUS CHANCE' promise on the splash screen is accurate as far as it goes, but the paytable shows that the extra row mostly adds chances to see money fish you cannot collect, not to turn them into credit. The game advertises scale; the math still gates the value.

The Collector's Math, Step by Step

Everything material happens in Free Spins. Three, four or five Scatter symbols award 10, 15 or 20 Free Spins, and during that round every Wild that lands collects the cash values of every Money symbol visible on the grid. Those Money symbols draw their values from 2x, 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 50x or 4000x the total bet. The retrigger schedule sets a steep climb: every fourth Wild awards 10 more spins and applies a collection multiplier of x2 on the first retrigger, x3 on the second, and x10 on the third and final one; after that the feature cannot retrigger. With no ante bet and no bonus buy, you cannot shortcut into that ladder. The round that produced the documentation ended with $99.00 and only 3 of the 4 Wilds needed for the first retrigger collected. The gap between the advertised 4000x and the observed result is not a defect. It is the mechanic working as designed.

Trigger screen announces 10 FREESPINS with the fisherman mascot, rod, and stacked fish catches.

How This Build Sits Among Its Series Peers

96.71% is the same published return as the original Big Bass Bonanza, Christmas Big Bass Bonanza, Big Bass Splash, Big Bass Christmas Bash, Big Bass Halloween 2.
Big Bass Bonanza Megaways is the only entry in the list with a published return higher than this game.
Big Bass – Keeping it Reel and Bigger Bass Blizzard – Christmas Catch are among the entries with a published return lower than this game.
The minimum bet of $0.12 is shared with Bigger Bass Blizzard; most other entries accept $0.10, and Megaways and Football Bonanza require $0.20.
It is one of only three entries in the list with no bonus buy; the other two are Big Bass Bonanza and Big Bass Bonanza Megaways.

Getting started: step by step

Bigger Bass Bonanza is a High volatility slot from Pragmatic Play played on a 5x4 grid with 12 Lines. You set a stake, spin, and repeat until three or more Scatter symbols anywhere on the reels open the Free Spins round, where the Wild fisherman collects Money values.

Set your stake

Use the plus and minus buttons beside the spin control to raise or lower the total bet. The CREDIT and BET readouts update as you adjust, and tapping either label switches the display between coins and cash.
Spin the reels

Press the large spin button to start a round on the 5x4 grid. Symbols pay left to right from the leftmost reel across the 12 Lines, and only the highest win on each line counts toward the total.
Trigger Free Spins

Keep spinning until three, four or five Scatter medallions land anywhere on the grid. That awards ten, fifteen or twenty Free Spins, and a splash screen appears before the feature begins.
Collect with the Wild

During Free Spins the Wild fisherman lands on any reel and gathers every visible Money value through the Money Collect feature. Every fourth Wild collected retriggers the round with a growing Multiplier, up to a 4000x cap.

How volatility shapes your session

Bigger Bass Bonanza leaves you two deliberate levers outside the spin itself: how much you stake on each round, and how the spins are run through autoplay and speed settings. Each changes a different part of the session, and neither alters the random outcome of any round.

Set the stake before you spin

You choose a total bet between $0.12 and $240.00 before any spin. Because every Money value is drawn as a multiple of that bet and the 4000x win cap is also measured against it, a larger stake scales both collections and the ceiling in cash terms. It does not change how often anything lands.

Hand the reel work to autoplay

Autoplay runs up to 100 spins on its own, with optional Turbo Spin, Quick Spin and Skip Screens to shorten each round. This changes pace and the number of clicks, not the odds; spins still stop on the same random results, and you can end the sequence by pressing the button again.

How the symbols pay out

First paytable page details payouts for the boat, rod, lure, tackle box, money fish, letters, wild, and scatter symbols.

Game symbol	Function	x2	x3	x4	x5
Fishing boat / dinghy	High	0.50	5.00	20.00	200.00
Fishing rod & reel	High		3.00	15.00	100.00
Fishing lure (feathered jig)	High		2.00	10.00	50.00
Tackle box	High		2.00	10.00	50.00
MONEY symbol (bass / fish pile)	Other
A	Low		0.50	2.50	10.00
K	Low		0.50	2.50	10.00
Q	Low		0.50	2.50	10.00
J	Low		0.50	2.50	10.00
10	Low		0.50	2.50	10.00
WILD (Fisherman mascot)	Wild
SCATTER (leaping bass)	Scatter

Base game, free spins and more

Free spins reel shows multiple $12.00 and $6.00 money tags with 7 free spins remaining below.

Bigger Bass Bonanza runs on two connected states. Ordinary spins produce the line wins and SCATTERs that decide whether the feature begins, and the feature then reuses the same MONEY fish under a collector that only exists there.

Base Game

Every round starts here, on a 5x4 grid with 12 fixed lines paying left to right from the leftmost reel. Fish symbols carry random cash values, yet in this state they pay only through the paytable, because nothing collects those values until the feature opens.
Free Spins

Three, four or five SCATTERs anywhere move play out of the base state and award 10, 15 or 20 spins. Only now does the fisherman WILD appear, substituting and sweeping up every MONEY value on screen; each fourth WILD collected adds 10 spins with a x2, x3 then x10 collection multiplier, capped at 4000x bet.

See the game in action

Tracker shows three collected wilds while the reels pay WIN $74.40 with 5 free spins left.

Base reels line up tackle boxes and royal letters, with a hold-space turbo spin hint below.

An Epic Win overlay reads $10.23 as gold RK coins fall over fish and letter symbols.

Autoplay run shows a scatter symbol beside money-tagged fish worth $12.00, $6.00, and $2.40.

Theme and setting

Angling

Available bonuses

Buy-a-bonus: No

Meet the developer

Pragmatic Play

Pragmatic Play is a Gibraltar-headquartered supplier, led by CEO Julian Jarvis, that delivers its games to operators through a single API and holds licences from the Malta Gaming Authority and the UK Gambling Commission among more than thirty jurisdictions. In the catalogue mirrored here, its output runs from 2014 onward and leans heavily on video slots, many built as sequels and spin-offs. Series such as Big Bass, Gates of Olympus and The Dog House show a studio that returns to proven mechanics — hold-and-spin rounds, tumbling reels, money collects — rather than reinventing itself with each release.

Wager sizes

Lowest bet allowed	0.12
Bet ceiling	240.00
Currency of bets	USD

Bonus features

Free Spins
Money Collect
Multiplier
Scatter
Wild

Compatibility

Has autoplay: Yes

Series

Number of games in series: 33

Big Bass

Few slot families have been reworked as relentlessly as Big Bass, Pragmatic Play and Reel Kingdom's fishing saga. Most entries share one engine: scatter-triggered free spins where the fisherman wild appears only inside the feature, collects money-symbol values, and every fourth wild retriggers with a rising multiplier.

Around that core the family branches constantly: Christmas and Halloween reskins, a Megaways and a 3-reel variant, a hold-and-spin offshoot, plus themed detours into horse racing, boxing, football and Vegas. Extras such as ante bets, bonus buys, super free spins, dual wild meters and pick rounds mark how the design evolved, with RTP in the mid-96s.

Final verdict

Key advantages	WILD collector retriggers stack x2, x3 and x10 multipliers, giving the 4000x cap a clear, earned route
Key advantages	5x4 grid with 12 lines and fish paying as MONEY symbols keeps the base game busier than the 10-line original
Key advantages	96.71% RTP sits above the usual Pragmatic default, with no bonus buy or ante bet diluting the math
Drawbacks	WILDs appear only in free spins, so base-game MONEY values land dead and uncollected

Bigger Bass Bonanza widens the fishing format to 5x4 with 12 lines, but its real weight sits in a free-spins round where collected fishermen retrigger with rising multipliers toward the 4000x cap. High volatility and a base game that cannot collect its own money values make it a title for readers who accept long flat stretches as the price of a layered feature.

Common questions about the game

How does the Money Collect feature work in Bigger Bass Bonanza?: During Free Spins, every Wild that lands collects the cash values of all Money symbols currently visible on the reels. Each Money symbol carries a random value of 2x, 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 50x or 4000x the total bet, assigned independently every spin. The fisherman Wild only appears inside the feature, so base-game Money tags stay uncollected.
How many free spins do the Scatters award, and can the round retrigger?: Three, four or five Scatters anywhere on the 5x4 grid award 10, 15 or 20 free spins respectively. The round can retrigger through Wild collection: every fourth Wild gathered adds 10 more spins, with a collection multiplier of x2, then x3, then x10. After the third retrigger the feature cannot be extended again.
What is the maximum win in Bigger Bass Bonanza and what happens when it is reached?: The maximum win is capped at 4,000x the total bet. If a round's total win reaches that figure, the round ends immediately, the win is paid up to the cap, and any remaining free spins or features are forfeited. A single Money symbol can also carry the full 4000x value on its own.
What RTP and volatility does Bigger Bass Bonanza use?: The theoretical RTP is 96.71%, and volatility is rated High, shown in the rules with all five lightning-bolt indicators lit. High volatility means payouts arrive less often on average, but the chance of landing a large win within a short span is higher. No alternate RTP variant or bonus buy version is offered in this build.
Why does the Wild never appear during the base game here?: The fisherman Wild is reserved exclusively for the Free Spins round, where it substitutes for all symbols except the Scatter and doubles as the Money collector. This is a deliberate structural choice: the base game runs on line wins and Money-symbol teases only, so the entire collection economy is concentrated inside the feature.
How many paylines does Bigger Bass Bonanza have and how do wins pay?: The game uses 12 fixed paylines across its 5-reel, 4-row grid, one of the changes from the original 5x3 Big Bass Bonanza. All symbols pay left to right on adjacent reels starting from the leftmost reel, only the highest win is paid per line, and wins on multiple lines are added together.
What does the Wild collection tracker above the reels show during Free Spins?: The tracker bar tallies every Wild collected during the round, with milestone tiles marking the retrigger thresholds. Each fourth Wild lights a '+10 FREE SPINS' tile carrying a x2, x3 or x10 multiplier that applies to subsequent Money collections. The bar makes it possible to read at a glance how close the round is to its next extension.
What is the betting range and are there any extra stake options like an ante bet?: Bets run from $0.12 to $240.00 per spin across the 12 fixed lines. There is no ante bet, no bonus buy and no jackpot meter anywhere in this build; the only way into Free Spins is landing three or more Scatters naturally. A coins-or-cash display toggle is available by clicking the Credit or Bet labels.

Where to play

1XBET Every Wednesday, the previous seven days of settled stakes from real-money balances are totalled automatically; if they close below zero, 8 percent comes back as withdrawable cash, capped at $200, with bonus play left out. Go to site

18+ This page contains paid or affiliate links to casino operators. Treat this as fun rather than a source of income, and set yourself a spending limit beforehand.

Explore more titles from this studio

Published 08/09/2026 Last revised 08/09/2026

Bigger Bass Bonanza Real-money play