◆ Outer Banks · Customer favorite

Cottonmouth Favorite Fish — What to Serve in Scale the Depths

Cottonmouth pays its best tip for Chain Pickerel — here is exactly when to save that catch, what to avoid, and how the base and variant payouts compare.

▶ TL;DR

Serve Cottonmouth Chain Pickerel for its favorite tip (up to 325 coins total). Avoid Fathead Minnow.

Outer Banks
Cottonmouth
Favorite
Chain Pickerel
Avoid
Fathead Minnow
Max payout
325 coins

◇ How to serve Cottonmouth

Cottonmouth appears in Outer Banks and pays a favorite tip for Chain Pickerel. Chain Pickerel is Cottonmouth's signature — no other customer treats it as a favorite, so any Chain Pickerel you land has exactly one ideal buyer.

There are two versions of Cottonmouth. The base pays up to 237 (190 base + 47 tip); the rarer variant pays up to 325, a 88-coin jump for the same fish. A variant of Cottonmouth is always worth serving over the base when both are on screen — same catch, bigger payout.

Keep Fathead Minnow away from Cottonmouth — it is the one fish that lowers its payout. Everything else is fair game as long as it fills the hunger of 275.

◇ Where to catch Cottonmouth’s favorite

Chain Pickerel is caught in Outer Banks — the same world where you meet Cottonmouth, so you can serve it fresh without backtracking. It has 50 health and a feed value of 110. Scale it cleanly to clear Cottonmouth’s favorite threshold and bank the 47-coin tip.

Full stats for every catch are in the fish almanac.

✓ Tips

  • If you can already satisfy Cottonmouth, its variant is free extra income — the favorite and dislike lists are identical, only the numbers scale up.
  • Keep the fish quality high: the 47-coin tip only lands if Chain Pickerel clears Cottonmouth's favorite threshold, so clean scaling matters more than speed here.

? Frequently asked

What is Cottonmouth's favorite fish in Scale the Depths?

Cottonmouth's favorite fish is Chain Pickerel. Serving it at a high enough scaling quality adds a 47-coin tip on top of the 190 base payment.

What fish does Cottonmouth dislike?

Cottonmouth dislikes Fathead Minnow. Serving any of these lowers the payout, so keep them for a customer who wants them instead.

How much does Cottonmouth pay in Scale the Depths?

The base Cottonmouth pays up to 237 coins and its rarer variant pays up to 325. Both share the same favorite and dislike lists.

▶ Put it into practice

Keep the full customer matchmaker open while you play, then match Cottonmouth to the right catch and bank the tip. Scale the Depths runs free in your browser.

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⌬ Sources