Big Bass Bonanza in Australia: fish, collect, repeat

What kind of pokie is Big Bass Bonanza 1000?

Both versions use a small board: 5 reels, 3 rows and 10 paylines. Next to the 6x5 tumbling grid of Gates of Olympus the base game feels quiet, and that’s by design. Its main job is to land scatters. The money sits in the free spins.

The 1000 is the version to learn first in Australia, because it’s the game SafeCasino’s first-deposit bonus round is played on. It’s filed under the lobby’s Popular, New and Bonus Buy sections. The 2020 original is still there too, with a slightly higher RTP and a much lower ceiling.

The original or the 1000: which to play

Pick by balance, not by the ceiling. The original’s extra 0.2 points of RTP is worth about A$2 on every A$1,000 you spin, and its 4-of-5 volatility gives a smoother ride. The 1000 lands a win on about 13% of spins (13.19% per two review sites), so about one spin in 7.6 pays anything, and the gaps between free-spin rounds can run long.

The 1000 also has an ante bet, which raises the cost of each spin in return for more chances at the free spins. Pragmatic keeps the RTP at 96.51% with ante on, but the top win drops from 20,000x to 13,334x, so ante trades ceiling for frequency.

The 20,000x is real but rare. Pragmatic’s own game config puts it at about 1 in 6.4 million spins, so treat it as a ceiling rather than a target. Our view: on A$20 to A$50, spin the original at 10c to 20c and learn the feature. With A$100 or more and patience for dry runs, the 1000 is the better game. Both are in demo mode if you’d like to compare first; free pokies explains how demo play works.

How the fisherman turns fish into cash

Three, four or five scatters start 10, 15 or 20 free spins. In the 1000, two scatters can also get a random helping hand: a third scatter drops in to trigger the round.

Inside the free spins, fish symbols carry cash values, each worth a multiple of your bet. They’re paid when a fisherman lands on the same spin. The fisherman is the wild, and he collects the value of every fish on the screen at once.

Say you’re on a A$1 spin and three fish are worth 2x, 5x and 10x. A fisherman lands and collects A$17. Land the same fisherman on a spin with no fish and he collects nothing, though he still counts toward the retrigger meter below. That’s the rhythm of the game: fish without a fisherman are only a promise, and a fisherman without fish is a step on the meter.

Retriggers: where 2x, 3x and 10x come from

Every fisherman you collect in the free spins is counted. Every fourth one retriggers the round and raises the multiplier on everything the fishermen collect after that:

It takes 12 fishermen to reach 10x, so the big results cluster in the long rounds. It also explains the volatility rating. A round that never gets past 1x pays only what its first few catches are worth, and a round that reaches 10x with fat fish on screen is where the 20,000x lives. For how RTP and volatility shape a session, see RTP and volatility explained.

Big Bass Bonanza for Australians: the round on deposit 1

SafeCasino’s welcome package matches each of your first four deposits 100% up to A$1,000 with up to 300 free spins. Deposit 1 has one extra that the others don’t: pay A$20 or more with the welcome card ticked and you get an instant bonus round in Big Bass Bonanza 1000, played the moment the deposit lands. If Pragmatic Play games aren’t available on your account, SafeCasino swaps in a BGaming round.

1. 1 Open an account in AUD Choose Australia and Australian dollars at sign-up. The minimum deposit is A$10, but the Big Bass round needs A$20.
2. 2 Tick the welcome card in the cashier The card has to be selected before you pay. Support can't attach it afterwards, and the round belongs to deposit 1 only.
3. 3 Deposit A$20 or more in one payment A$20 gets A$40 to play, 20 free spins and the round. A$200 gets A$400, 300 spins (100 a day for three days) and the round.
4. 4 Play the round, then the spins The Big Bass round runs straight away. The match and free-spin winnings carry x40 wagering on pokies.

Here’s what each first-deposit size gets you, with the x40 on the match in dollars:

The step from A$10 to A$20 is the cheapest upgrade on the list: one extra tenner doubles the spins and adds the round. The AU terms we read don’t say how winnings from the round itself are wagered, so check the bonus section of your profile after it plays. The first deposit guide compares A$20 with A$50 and A$200 in full.

Playing Big Bass with a bonus running

Once the match is in your balance, three rules shape how you play:

• A$8 per spin is the most you can bet while a bonus is active, and a bonus buy counts as one bet at its full price. The 1000’s 100x buy fits only at 8c a spin or less, and the 450x super free spins would need a bet of about 1.8c. In practice, let the scatters do the work until the bonus is cleared.
• Wagering is x40, so the A$20 stage-1 match means A$800 of pokies bets. At 40c a spin that’s 2,000 spins. On average, that turnover costs about A$28 at the 1000’s 96.51% and about A$26 at the original’s 96.71%, and wins recycle into it along the way.
• Real money goes first. Your own deposit is bet before the bonus, so an early win lands in your cash balance, not the bonus one.

In the catalogue we read, neither Big Bass title carried the flag that blocks bonus money, unlike the crash games. The bonus terms still carry a named list of excluded titles, so glance at it before a long session. The wagering requirements guide runs the sums for any deposit, and our bonus buy guide prices the buys across the lobby.

Other Big Bass games in SafeCasino’s lobby

The fishing theme runs across several Pragmatic Play titles at SafeCasino (catalogue checked 18 Sep 2026):

• Big Bass - Hold & Spinner sits in the Hold & Win section, the lobby’s home for respin games where symbols lock in place.
• Big Bass Crash is a crash game with a 95.5% RTP. It’s played from your cash balance only, because bonus money can’t be used on it. The crash games guide covers how cashing out works.
• Both Big Bass Bonanza versions are tagged for Drops & Wins, Pragmatic’s network promo, which puts up €2,000,000 in cash prizes a month. The weekly drops have no minimum bet, the daily tournaments count bets from €0.15, and the prizes carry no wagering. Prize drops and tournaments has the details.

For more titles by mechanic and RTP, the online pokies hub is the place to start. When you’re ready, open Big Bass Bonanza 1000 at SafeCasino, play a few rounds in demo, then switch to AUD.