Fishing Rod

Fishing Rod (, Fishing) is Isabelle's side special move in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Overview
Isabelle pulls out a fishing rod and casts out the line. Isabelle can use this move to grab faraway enemies (even while airborne) and throw them afterwards, pick up items, or as a tether recovery. Upon capture, Isabelle is subsequently capable of throwing the opponent in up to four directions, much like traditional grabs. If she misses the opponent, she can leave the fishing rod out until she inputs it again, potentially capturing the enemy.

If Fishing Rod is inputted as a smash special move, the line moves faster forward and covers a longer distance. The hook functions as a hit grab, meaning that despite functioning like a grab on affected opponents, it can be blocked by shields. The hook is also unable to grab opponents using moves that reflect and counterattack (barring Counter Throw, Witch Time, and Revenge), and is even blocked by passive shields.

The damage output for the throws is directly proportional to how fast the fishing rod's bobber was moving at the time of capturing the opponent, much like the damage output for thrown items. As a result, the damage they inflict is highly variable, and is approximately at its highest if the move is smash-inputted and the opponent is caught inbetween the middle and the end of the rod's full length. Additionally, the throws' variance in damage output fully counts towards the knockback formula, causing the forward and up throws to KO noticeably earlier if the bobber catches the opponent at a sufficiently fast speed. However, due to the extremely precise nature of the bobber's movement speed, as well as its inconsistent physics (such as when it is left hanging over an edge), and even the size of the opponent's hurtbox, consistently yielding the highest damage output for Fishing Rod's throws is impossible in practice.

Origin
This attack is based on the fishing rod item from the Animal Crossing series. The rod is used to catch fish and other items from rivers and other bodies of water. In the original games, the player must wait for the shadow of a fish to bite their rod, and once that occurs, the player must react with a timely button press in order to properly catch the fish.

Although Isabelle is not typically associated with fishing in the Animal Crossing games, she and other characters can use a fishing rod in ' (and its minigame, which was later added to ' in an update).

Trivia

 * In older versions of Ultimate, if two Isabelles used Fishing Rod to grab onto an Assist Trophy, one would grab on, and the other would not; the result would be the former infinitely spawning the same Assist Trophy until she got hit. This glitch was patched out in version 2.0.0.
 * Fishing Rod is the only move in Ultimate known to still be affected by port priority; if the hook's grabbox connects with both players at the same time, the player with the higher controller slot will be grabbed.
 * If Isabelle is flipped before she casts the hook, the hook will still travel where she was previously facing.