Animal Crossing New Horizons: When Does CJ Come to My Island?

If you've been playing Animal Crossing New Horizons for a while, you've probably met CJ the beaver, who deals in fishing challenges and personalised statues. Here we'll tell you when CJ will come to you island and how you can get the most out of his visit.

On this page:

• When Does CJ Come to My Island In Animal Crossing New Horizons?
• Where to Find CJ
• How to Beat CJ's Seasports Challenges
• Seasports Challenge Rewards
• Should I Sell Fish to CJ?
• How to Get Fish Statues From CJ
• CJ's Fishing Tourneys Explained
• Fishing Tourney Rewards

When Does CJ Come to My Island In Animal Crossing New Horizons?

CJ can show up on your island in two capacities - either in random visits, which can happen any time but usually will be at least once a fortnight, or as the head of a Fishing Tourney. These Tourneys are structured and occur four times a year, on the second Saturday of January, April, July and October. These dates don't change according to Northern and Southern hemispheres, and either way he'll be present for the whole day.

Where to Find CJ

On this random visits CJ will just be wandering the island at random, he won't even announce himself in advance. But when it's a Tourney, he'll set up a small stall in the main plaza outside the town hall.

How to Beat CJ's Seasports Challenges

When showing up for a flying visit, CJ will offer you the opportunity to conduct Seasports Challenges, in which you'll be tasked to catch three fish of the same size in a row, having to start again if you fail at any point or let one of the fish get away. There's no real penalty for failure, but if you want to be sure about it, use fish bait to keep spawning fish in the water until you see one of a familiar size.

Seasports Challenge Rewards

CJ won't give you an immediate reward when you complete a challenge, but you will be able to sell to him that day, essentially making him a fish buyer. This includes any fish you've caught as part of the challenge, which you can either keep or sell to him.

Should I Sell Fish to CJ?

Yes, assuming you have no other use for them or were going to sell them anyway. CJ buys fish at a 50% increased price over the Nooks, so that a big coelacanth worth 15,000 bells will sell for 22,500 if you give it to CJ. Why wouldn't you do that?

How to Get Fish Statues From CJ

CJ will mention in passing that he's partnered with another person who likes to make statues - that's Flick - and offers you this business in the same way. If you have three of the same kind of fish and give them up to CJ for free, he'll have a statue of that fish sent to your mailbox the next day. Make sure you know which one you want - he'll only commission one statue per visit.

CJ's Fishing Tourneys Explained

When a Tourney happens, it's a different matter, with CJ setting up 3-minute challenges in which players have to catch as many fish as possible. Here you can sign up for challenges between 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM, and though you can do it as many times as you like, any attempt after the first free challenge will cost you 500 bells. Like with the Seasports challenge, it's best to have a stack of fish bait to throw into the water so you don't have to worry about finding fish in the rivers and coasts.

Fishing Tourney Rewards

Players are awarded a point for every fish they catch, not to mention a bonus two points if they catch more than three fish in one challenge (the species of fish does not matter). You can keep the fish you catch or sell them to CJ at their higher value, and you can also redeem the points for fish-based swag. Every 10 points will get you a random item from a pool of 13 items, such as a satchel or piece of furniture.

Not only that, but acquiring enough points over the course of the day will have CJ send you a trophy on the day afterwards. Acquire 100 points to get a gold trophy, 200 points to get a silver trophy, and a whopping 300 points to get a gold trophy.

Now that we're done carping, there's even better Animal Crossing content here at USgamer. Caty's heartfelt review of New Horizons is waiting for you here, or follow this link to see our tribute to Tarantula Island. Yuck.