A Fishing Connoisseur in a Fishy Competition!

### Written by

Sonic876, Punkasaurus0530, Frogadier55, NegimaLover, TMNTHedgehog5, and DragonSpore18

### Directed by

Sonic876 and NegimaLover

***A Fishing Connoisseur in a Fishy Competition!*** is 37th episode of *Josh's Adventures of Pokémon: Black and White*.

## Plot

Ash, Cilan, and Iris continue on their journey to Nimbasa City. They notice everyone crowding around a certain area--naturally, all of them get curious. Ash was just about to go in and see what was going on, when he is suddenly knocked into a wall-enclosed river by Bianca, who apologizes, halting his attempts. Meanwhile after Ash was knocked into the water, a female Frillish notices him. While trying to dry his clothes with a fire, Ash asks her why she was in such a hurry. She tells him that she was going to enter a fishing competition. This convinces Ash, Iris, and Cilan to enter as well. Cilan becomes very ecstatic, exclaiming that he is a Fishing Connoisseur. During his Connoisseur lecture, he was picturing that he was fishing on a boat.
When they get there, Team Rocket (in disguise) is handing out the fishing rods and Fishing Poké Balls. They say that the grand prize is a golden fishing rod, causing Cilan to get extremely excited. Bianca tries to choose a certain fishing rod, but Cilan explains that there is a better one more suited for the beginner fisherman. Cilan brings out what looks like a pen, and opens it up to show off his own personal Fishing Rod.

While everyone begins to fish, Bianca winds up her fishing rod but hooks onto Ash's jacket. Cilan had to unhook the rod after it got caught. Cilan begins to demonstrate the proper way to use the fishing rod. He explains to everyone that they must be patient waiting for the Pokémon to grab onto the line. When the Pokémon does grab onto the line, he explains that they must wait patiently for the Pokémon to full tug on the line and then reel it in. Cilan reels in a blue-striped Basculin which flops around in the water after being reeled in. Ash looks up Basculin in his Pokédex. Cilan reels Basculin to the surface ready for battle. He brings out Pansage for battle. Basculin uses Water Gun to knock Pansage into the water. Basculin uses Bite while Pansage tries to swim to the surface. Pansage tries to swim away while Basculin uses Aqua Tail. Pansage jumps out to use Bullet Seed and then Solar Beam to knock out Basculin. Cilan throws a Fishing Poké Ball to capture Basculin. Red-striped Basculin, Alomomola, and Blue-striped Basculin were battled and caught by other Trainers. Iris tries to fish but becomes bored with it taking so long for a Pokémon to bite the line that she went into the water to grab a Pokémon herself. Iris grabs a Blue-Striped Basculin and is both whistled and yellow carded by James.

Cilan hands in his Poké Ball containing the Basculin that he caught and asks Jessie about when they get the results of the contest and what they will do with the Poké Balls handed in. Jessie explains that they will let everyone know the results later on. Bianca attempts to toss her fishing line into the water, this time a Pokémon grabs onto the line. Everyone tries to help her reel in the Pokémon, but Cilan had to step in and reel it out of the water. A female Frillish comes out of the water and uses Constrict on Ash and won't let go. Everyone tries to force the Frillish to let go, but they had no choice but to have Pikachu use Thunderbolt to send Frillish away back into the water.

Team Rocket grabs the Poké Balls and heads out to the boat to make their getaway, but notice that the boat is getting away. A female Frillish moves the boat away from them. Everyone finds Team Rocket and realizes that the whole competition was fake and they were trying to steal all of the Poké Balls. Team Rocket calls out Woobat and Yamask, while Ash scans Yamask with his Pokédex. Pikachu uses Thunderbolt and Pansage uses Bullet Seed which Yamask blocks to protect Woobat. Pikachu uses Iron Tail on Yamask, and Pansage uses Bite on Woobat to defeat them. Everyone begins to notice that all of the Poké Balls are empty and that the female Frillish released them. Team Rocket gets away on their jet packs after Yamask uses Haze. Cilan searches for the golden fishing rod and discovers that it was only painted gold and was destroyed in Team Rocket's escape. Bianca tells them that she is going to the Desert Resort to train hard and leaves them.

## Major events

* Ash and his friends encounter Bianca again.
* Cilan catches a Blue-Striped Basculin. However, it is later released.
* Bianca encounters Team Rocket for the first time.
* James's Yamask is revealed to know Haze.

## Characters

### Humans

* Ash
* Iris
* Cilan
* Jessie
* James
* Bianca
* Participants
* Citizens

### Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?: Basculin (Red-Striped and Blue-Striped)

* Pikachu (Ash's)
* Meowth (Team Rocket)
* Axew (Iris's)
* Pansage (Cilan's)
* Basculin (Cilan's; Blue-Striped; new; released; debut)
* Woobat (Jessie's)
* Yamask (James's)
* Patrat (Trainer's)
* Minccino (Trainer's)
* Basculin (Red-Striped and Blue-Striped; multiple; debut)
* Frillish (female)
* Alomomola
* Pidove

## Transcript

*Main article: A Fishing Connoisseur in a Fishy Competition!/Transcript*
## Trivia

* Professor Oak's Pokémon Live Caster: Scraggy
* This episode was originally supposed to be the 26th episode of *Pokémon the Series: Black & White* and was supposed to fall in between *Battling For The Love of Bug-Types!* and *Emolga the Irresistible!*, formerly the 25th and 27th episodes, respectively. It was also originally titled **ヒウンシティのつり大会！釣りソムリエ・デント登場！！** *Fishing Conference of Hiun City! Fisher Sommelier - Dent Appears!!* in Japan before it was postponed.
* Clips from this episode were first shown in the Professor Oak's Pokémon Live Caster following *Iris and Excadrill Against the Dragon Buster!*.
* In order to ensure better continuity from being placed between *Archeops In The Modern World!* and *Movie Time! Zorua in "The Legend of the Pokémon Knight"!*, this episode went through a couple of minor retcons:
	+ All references to the group being in Castelia City have been removed.
	+ The ending has been altered to show Bianca leaving the group, contradicting the two episodes following where it was intended to air, in which she is traveling with them.
* Had this episode aired in time, it would have marked only the second time Cilan meets Team Rocket.
* A Trainer who looks very similar to Hilbert appears as a contestant in one wide-angle shot of the competition.