Big Bass - Keeping it Reel Demo & review

In Big Bass - Keeping it Reel, the fish a fisherman misses are not lost: they drop into a landing net that only the GOLDEN WILD can empty. Pragmatic Play's Reel Kingdom studio released it in October 2022 as a Big Bass Bonanza follow-up, and the demo's logo still reads Big Bass Bonanza Keeping it Reel. It suits series regulars who want a weak round to have a second chance, with a bonus buy and an ante on top.

The base game before our first spin, with the ante off and the buy priced at $100. FluxPlays demo test, 1 November 2026.

How Big Bass - Keeping it Reel works

Fish carry cash values on every spin, but only a fisherman WILD in the free spins can collect them. On the reels it is ordinary line play over 10 fixed lines, and a line pays only its highest combination. The top regular symbol pays 200x for five and is the only one that pays for two. The fish are paying symbols too, and as FISH MONEY each one shows a random value of up to 1,000x the bet.

Everything worth having happens in the free spins, and five parts feed each other there:

1. Three, four or five scatters open the round, and a hook can add the third.
2. Each fisherman WILD collects every FISH MONEY value on screen.
3. Fish that nobody collects drop into the landing net, which loses one fish a spin.
4. A GOLDEN WILD collects the screen and the whole net.
5. Every fourth WILD adds ten spins and raises the collection multiplier.

The ladder in step 5 still carries the game, as in every Big Bass. The net is what this one adds.

Free spins: how they trigger

Three scatters award 10 free spins, four award 15 and five award 20. In the base game, when two scatters land without a third, a hook can rise onto the screen and bring the third one, so a near miss can still open the round. The bonus buy and the ante are the other two ways in, covered below.

Spin 3: two scatters landed and the hook rose on reel 5 to bring the third. FluxPlays demo test, 1 November 2026.

How the landing net and GOLDEN WILD work

The net fills on any free spin where FISH MONEY lands and no fisherman collects it. Every value left on the reels is added to the counter above reel 1. It does not keep them safely, though: at every free spin a random fish escapes, and its value comes off the total.

Only the GOLDEN WILD empties it. That wild appears in free spins only, collects the fish on screen like a normal fisherman, and also takes the net's current value. Our round from spin 3 shows what happens without one: the result screen read $27.00, and $44.40 was still in the net when it closed.

Free spins from base spin 3, part-way through: the net at the top left holds the fish no fisherman has collected. FluxPlays demo test, 1 November 2026.

The round from base spin 3 ended at $27.00 with $44.40 left in the net. FluxPlays demo test, 1 November 2026.

The retrigger ladder

Every WILD and GOLDEN WILD is counted on the trail under the reels until the round ends. The fourth adds ten spins and doubles every FISH MONEY collection, the eighth adds 10 more at triple, and the twelfth adds 10 more at ten times. The new spins play after the current batch, and after that fourth level the round cannot retrigger again.

The round from our spin 89 climbed one step: its fourth fisherman added ten spins at double collection, and the round paid $47.20 in all.

The round from base spin 89, after its fourth fisherman added 10 spins at x2. The win line shows the round total. FluxPlays demo test, 1 November 2026.

Random extras

Three random events can change a spin. Dynamite adds fish to the reels, the hook pulls a reel round to bring in a fisherman, and a boat drags a net across that adds more fish. None of them appeared in our session, so they are described from the game's help pages.

Bonus buy and ante: prices and what you get

The two paid options pull in opposite directions: the buy skips the wait, the ante pays extra per spin for more scatters and locks the buy.

The game carries one volatility label, so both cells repeat it.

RTP, volatility and max win

All three modes share one RTP, 96.07%, so neither paid option costs you anything on paper. That is the version in the build we played. Casinos can run lower ones, so check the game information at your casino. Several listings call the game high volatility, but its rules page labels it Low, and that is the rating here.

The ceiling is 10,000x your stake, lowered to 6,666x when the ante is on. By the rules, the top FISH MONEY value collected at the ladder's top level reaches the cap on its own, but that level needs twelve WILDs in one round.

Our Big Bass - Keeping it Reel demo test

No GOLDEN WILD landed in any of our four rounds, so the net was never collected. The bought round was the clearest case: one fisherman arrived, no GOLDEN WILD followed, and $96.10 sat in the net at the end while the round paid back about a tenth of its price.

Our bought round paid $10.20 while $96.10 stayed in the net. FluxPlays demo test, 1 November 2026.

Free spins came three times in the base game and made up most of its return. The other spins added $20.80 between them, all from line wins. The ten ante spins brought no round and two small wins.

The GOLDEN WILD, the triple and ten-times levels and the random extras did not turn up for us. Four rounds is far too few to judge how often the net pays out.

Is Big Bass - Keeping it Reel worth playing?

For a Big Bass regular, yes. For someone new to the series, start with the original. The free spins work as they always have, and the net adds one real idea: a round with fish everywhere and not enough fishermen is not finished until it ends, because one GOLDEN WILD can still cash the lot.

Pick Big Bass Bonanza if you want the formula with nothing new to track and a 2,100x cap. Choose Keeping it Reel if you want the net, the much higher ceiling and a buy, at a slightly lower RTP than the original's top version.

In the demo, buy the round once and keep an eye on the net counter. What it shows when the round closes is the price of a missing GOLDEN WILD.