Big Bass Secrets of the Golden Lake Review (Pragmatic Play)

The Big Bass Secrets of the Golden Lake slot has 5 reels, 3 rows and 10 fixed paylines. Landing 3 or more matching symbols from left to right, starting from the leftmost reel, and across any of the 10 paylines. With the highest value symbol, 2 or more are required. Only the highest payout per payline will be awarded naturally.

You can play from just 10p per spin. With the max bet at £250 a spin, some slot sites may limit or reduce the max bet to £10 or even £5 per spin. Changing your bet is simple: use the plus and/or minus buttons below the reels on a laptop or PC. If you’re a mobile/tablet player, use the Coins icon. Outside the UK, there are 10 to 1,000 auto spins with the Autoplay function as well as Quick and Turbo Spin modes.

The Big Bass Secrets of the Golden Lake RTP rate is 96.07%. Slightly higher than the 96% average for online slot games, there are 2 other RTP versions at 95.07% and 94.07%. Open the Paytable to determine which RTP you’re playing with.

With the volatility rating as high (5/5), expect a winning combination every 7 spins on average as the hit frequency rate is 14.29%. Triggering the free spins features will occur every 113 spins on average.

The Big Bass Secrets of the Golden Lake slot comes with 5,000 times bet max wins. One of the highest in the Big Bass slots series, the max win probability in 1 in 3,378,378 spins (3.38 million). Winning 1,000 times your total bet or more will occur every 62,459 spins on average.

Chris Taylor

The king of slots

Chris Taylor is an industry veteran originally from Gibraltar. Having worked in the online gambling industry since 2004, Chris loves slots and has reviewed over 10,000 online slot games. Running a slots-focused website for 13 years, Chris is the go-to guy for everything slots-related.

The 15^th game in the Big Bass slots series, the Big Bass Secrets of the Golden Lake slot has the obvious fishing theme. However, Pragmatic Play has thrown in an Arthurian Legend twist.

This watery adventure is set under the water where you’ll see a sunken castle and the infamous Excalibur sword. It’s a little odd in my opinion but Pragmatic Play needs to keep the popular fishing series alive somehow. The first thing you’ll notice is the jolly, medieval soundtrack which sets the tone.

On the reels, you’ll come across olde worlde-style A, K, Q, J and 10 royals. The higher-value symbols include money fish, tackle boxes, fishing rods, dragonflies and floats. Best paying is the float symbol with 200 times your total bet awarded if you land 5 across any payline. A screen full of floats will result in a 2,000 times bet payout.

Big Bass Secrets of the Golden Lake comes with various special symbols. First up is the Fisherman Wild symbol which resembles King Arthur (he has a beard and gold crown). Appearing only in the free spins, the wild substitutes for all paying symbols.

More importantly, you have the Hooked Bass Scatter which appears on all reels in the base game and is key to triggering the 2 free spins features. Below is a list of symbol payouts and functions:

• Q/J/10: 3, 4 or 5 = 0.2, 1 or 5 x bet
• A/K: 3, 4 or 5 = 0.2, 2.5 or 10 x bet
• Money Fish: 3, 4 or 5 = 1, 5 or 20 x bet
• Fishing Rod/Tackle Box: 3, 4 or 5 = 2, 10 or 50 x bet 
• Dragonfly: 3, 4 or 5 = 3, 15 or 100 x bet
• Float: 2, 3, 4 or 5 = 0.5, 5, 20 or 200 x bet
• Fisherman Wild: Substitutes + collects Money symbols during free spins
• Money Fish: Worth up to 5,000 x bet + collected in base game randomly & during free spins
• Hooked Bass Scatter: 3+ triggers Free Spins feature

Big Bass Secrets of the Golden Lake Mobile

Pragmatic Play slots are produced using HTML5 technology. This means that Big Bass Secrets of the Golden Lake is available to play on desktop, mobile and tablet devices. With a special Portrait Mode for iOS and Android smartphones, it occupies more of your handset screen for an enhanced playing experience.

The Big Bass Secrets of the Golden Lake slot comes with 5 bonus features. All the action begins when you land 3 or more Hooked Bass Scatter symbols anywhere during a base game spin.

You’ll be presented with a picker screen with 12 playing cards. With 1 pick allowed, unveiling a ‘Bonus’ card will see you play the Free Spins feature. If you uncover the ‘Golden Lake’ card, you’ll enter the Golden Lake Free Spins feature.

Random

If you land 2 Hooked Bass Scatters, the Random feature can be triggered. If the scatters can move down 1 position without leaving the reels a respin is triggered where the reels containing scatters shift down 1 position with the reels without scatters respinning. Randomly, 1 or more Hooked Bass Scatters can appear on the reels in random positions.

Free Spins 

In the Free Spins feature, you’ll begin with 10, 15 or 20 free spins. The number of free spins you get corresponds to the number of triggered Hooked Bass Scatters (3, 4 or 5).

Fish Money symbols appear on the reels during free spins. The Fish Money symbols will come with bet multiplier values of up to 5,000 times your total bet. These are collected when landing with Fisherman Wilds.

All Fisherman Wilds are also collected in the meter above the reels. Every 4^th Fisherman Wild collected will issue a retrigger for more free spins with a multiplier applying to Fish Money symbols collected. With 4 levels, you can play with a total of 50 free spins with a 10x Fish Money multiplier:

Golden Lake Free Spins 

If you enter the Golden Lake Free Spins feature, you’ll play with 10 free spins. These take place on a new set of reels containing only blanks, Fisherman Wilds and Fish Money symbols. If a winning combination with Fish Money symbols is formed, you’ll win their combined bet multiplier value.

Like in the Free Spins feature, Fisherman Wilds collect Fish Money values. They are also collected to award retriggers with additional free spins and a Fish Money multiplier up to 10x.

The Golden Lake free spins benefit from random extras to maximise your winning potential. They include:

• When Fisherman Wilds appear with no Fish Money symbols, Fish Money symbols can randomly appear.
• When Fish Money symbols appear but no Fisherman Wilds are present, a hook will randomly pull a reel up to add a Fisherman Wild onto that reel.
• A curtains animation can appear when a Fisherman Wild appears with no Fish Money symbols. All blanks change to give you a chance of landing Fish Money symbols or more Fishmern Wilds.

Ante Bet 

If you want to improve your chances of landing more Hooked Bass Scatters, you can use the optional Ante Bet feature. Costing 50% more per spin (so £1.50 per spin for a £1 spin) the RTP rate is lower at 96.06% (for the highest RTP setting). There is also the chance of 3 scatters landing in random positions when 2 scatters land.

Buy Free Spins

Finally, there is a Buy Free Spins feature for non-UK players. With 2 options, you can buy your way into the Free Spins or Golden Lake Free Spins features:

• Free Spins feature: 100 x bet
• Golden Lake Free Spins feature: 270 x bet

With the likes of Big Bass Splash and Big Bass Bonanza being so popular, the Big Bass Secrets of the Golden Lake slot has a lot to live up to. The setting is the Amazon River and the slight change graphically is welcome and gives the game its own identity in a series that is by en large nearly identical visually.

The Big Bass Secrets of the Golden Lake slot is the 15^th game from the popular series. Pragmatic Play must be running out of ideas if they believe adding an Arthurian Legend twist is the way to go. Surprisingly, it’s not as bad as it sounds. I quite like the soundtrack but the visuals are a little odd.

The gameplay focuses on landing 3 or more Hooked Bass Scatters. You then make a pick to play the free spins or Golden Lake free spins. As with all Big Bass online slots, Fisherman Wilds collect Fish Money values which are worth up to 5,000 times your total bet.

With a few random extras to boost your winning potential, the Golden Lake Free Spins feature contains only blanks, Fisherman Wilds and Fish Money symbols. Increasing your chances of landing bigger wins, you’ll end up playing the standard free spins more often than not.

If you compare it to the first game in the series, Big Bass Bonanza, Big Bass Secrets of the Golden Lake offers higher win potential (5,000 x bet vs 2,100 x bet) but a lower RTP rate (96.07% vs 96.71%). Big Bass Splash offers 5,000 x bet max wins with the same high 96.71% RTP rate.

If it’s win potential you’re after, Big Bass Hold & Spinner Megaways comes with 20,000 x bet max wins. Fancy fishing slots with a twist? My favourite is Big Bass Amazon Xtreme which comes with 10,000 x bet max win potential.

The Big Bass Secrets of the Golden Lake slot review was written by Chris Taylor from our OLBG Expert team who has written over 10,000 slot game reviews in an iGaming career spanning over 2 decades. It was then verified/checked by Jenny Mason, our prime Slot reviewer who has 17+ years working in online gambling, top UK brands. 

Jenny Mason

Slots content manager

Jenny Mason has more than 17 years of experience in the online gambling industry and has worked for some of the UK’s top betting brands. She started at OLBG in 2014 and her role involves creating great content and looking after the marketing activity. Jenny is knowledgeable in all areas of online sports betting and has an interest in slots and bingo.

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🎰🍒🍀 Jenny has become an expert with online slots completing hundreds of our various new slot reviews and creating and writing some of the slot articles found on site. She has become a firm fan of NoLimitCity and Hacksaw gaming slot in this process and always awaits the new releases with much anticipation