The title track of Fishing For Fishies is an upbeat song with country-twang guitars and a drum beat like a rolling train. The lyrics are straightforward — a simple denouncement of recreational fishing, arguing that fish would be better off swimming unharmed than hooked for sport.
When asked what inspired the song/album title, Stu wrote “hunting makes me sad” — a simple encapsulation of the track’s purpose. The vocals are split between Stu and Ambrose, with Stu taking the verses and post-choruses, and Ambrose adding the bridges and choruses. While the lyrics are simple, the music uses intricate guitar riffs, a walking bassline, and two different drum parts.
A demo for the song was released on Demos Vol. 1: Music To Kill Bad People To. An instrumental with a different groove than the final version, as well as alternate riffs and a different structure (the “I don’t want to be fishing for fish” melodic lines are notably missing), it also features a “Cut Throat Boogie”-esque break, which Ambrose is heard faintly singing or playing harmonica over.
In an interview for RockZone Stu mentioned that the song came out of a jam. Liner notes state that “Fishing For Fishies” was recorded at TFS Studios by Gareth Liddiard in May of 2018, with additional overdubs by Cook and Stu in Melbourne from July to November. Cavs (drums), Eric (drums), Stu (vocals/electric guitar/Mellotron/keyboards), Ambrose (vocals/harmonica), Cook (bass/electric guitar) and Joey (electric guitar) would all play on the track, which was mixed by Sam Joseph. Footage from the TFS sessions was included in How to gut a Fishie. From these shots, we see that Cavs had a hard time doing the part and chose to split it with Eric who took the fills. The title track of Fishing For Fishies saw a release on April 26th, 2019.
The song was later featured in the 2020 video game Sackboy: A Big Adventure. According to the band’s 2020 Reddit AMA, they were asked for the instrumental stems, although they had lost the files. The audio heard in the game was created by Sumo Digital using AI splitting tools.
A music video for the song by Jason Galea was released on March 11th, 2019. It shows Stu (wearing a yellow long sleeve shirt, overalls and a black helmet) waking up on a raft and fishing. He is joined by small versions of the rest of the band in red outfits with white helmets decorated with two cartoon-y eyes, who play the song on seashell-decorated guitars and conch shells. Stu dives into the water to find a pearl and another decorated guitar, which he plays alongside animated fish. Continuing on his raft, Stu and the band go down a river accompanied by fish playing flutes and the gator seen in the video for “The River.” The director of photography was John Angus Stewart, who would go on to work with the band on other music videos (notably the next three videos from the band for Infest the Rats’ Nest) as well as films like Chunky Shrapnel and Sleeping Monster. Some of the props from the video (the fish statue and Joey’s guitar) were put on display at the Flightless 168 store following the video’s release, and also appeared during the Record Store Day sale at Flightless HQ. Iconography from the video would be referenced on show posters such as for 2019-07-05 and 2019-07-13 as well as the cover for Demos Vol. 1 + Vol. 2. Behind the scenes photos from the shoot were uploaded throughout March to Jason Galea’s Instagram.
“Fishing For Fishies” has never been played live and is the only song from the album not to see the stage. It was, however, meant to appear on tour in 2019. In a 2020 Reddit AMA Stu said “we rehearsed FFF but it sounded shit haha. We'll try again next tour.” Lucas repeated this later that year, saying that the band had attempted to play the song but that it “sounded pretty crap.” In their 2022 Reddit AMA Ambrose said that he hoped they would eventually play the track. While Gizzard has yet to play the track, Cavs gave it a shot during his drum seminar at Drumtek in Northcote.