While there are many treasures to be found on the ocean floor, fishing for the depths in The Wind Waker has always been a bit unwieldy. Since the exact spot where the treasures can be fished up disappears as you get close, it’s somewhat of a guessing game to actually fish up the goods. Many who have traveled the Great Sea probably have memories of struggling to fish up some treasure only to keep barely missing, and some of them might remember pulling up a strange jar covered in barnacles, followed by an Ocean Octorok spawning next to them. This little Easter egg is likely a reference to the “Octopus Pot”, a method of fishing for octopus used in Japan.
While they are not used very much these days, as they are considered an inefficient method of fishing for octopus, the octopus pot is a method for capturing octopus that took advantage of the unique way that octopi act around hollow spaces on the sea floor. It turns out that octopi are rather fond of hiding as they like to lie in wait both to pounce on prey and to hide from predators. Since the octopus is convinced the hiding place is of it’s own making, the octopus pot ends up being a surprisingly effective trap, despite not actually trapping anything inside the pot. When the pot is pulled up, however, the octopus will often not come out easily, so it’ll have to be coaxed out with some form of salt so that it can be properly captured.
The reason why octopus fishing isn’t used as much anymore is mostly because it’s very slow. Since every pot will likely only be able to hold one octopus, it’s not nearly as efficient as regular net fishing. However, pot fishing does not damage the octopus anywhere near as much as net fishing, so octopus caught from pot fishing tend to be valued especially highly.
Unfortunately, while Link is able to do some octopus pot fishing in The Wind Waker, he will not be rewarded with a highly valuable octopus, and instead be greeted with an enraged Octorok ready to pelt him with a face full of rocks. Though it’s only a small Easter egg, I’m pleasantly surprised with the fishing rabbit hole this little event has sent me down, and I can’t help but find myself incredibly curious as to just how different an octopus fished from a pot tastes from a net fished octopus.
