Deduce #65: The fishing dock — the solution

The Deduce puzzle from October 18, 2026, worked through clue by clue: 8 clues, 4 rounds of crossing off, and no guessing anywhere.

The puzzle

Four people — Jake, Tanya, Gina and Bobby — and three things to work out about each: their fish, bait and time. The clues only ever rule things out.

1. The one who caught the carp is earlier than the one using leeches.
2. The one using leeches is not the one fishing at 8am.
3. The one using flies is the one fishing at 7am.
4. The one using worms is not the one fishing at 8am.
5. Tanya is earlier than the one who caught the salmon.
6. Gina is earlier than the one who caught the sturgeon.
7. Tanya is the one fishing at 7am.
8. Bobby is the one who caught the trout.

The walkthrough

A round is one pass over the clues. Each round applies what the last one settled; every step below is an elimination the clues force, in the order a solver would take them.

Round 1

Start with every possibility open, and take the clues in order.

Clue 5, “Tanya is earlier than the one who caught the salmon”: salmon comes off Tanya; 8am comes off Tanya.

Clue 6, “Gina is earlier than the one who caught the sturgeon”: sturgeon comes off Gina; 8am comes off Gina.

Clue 7, “Tanya is the one fishing at 7am”: 7am comes off Jake, Gina and Bobby. That settles it: Tanya is fishing at 7am.

Clue 8, “Bobby is the one who caught the trout”: trout comes off Jake, Tanya and Gina. That settles it: Bobby’s fish is trout.

Round 2

Go back over the clues with the new facts in hand.

Clue 3, “The one using flies is the one fishing at 7am”: flies comes off Jake, Gina and Bobby. That settles it: Tanya’s bait is flies.

Clue 5, “Tanya is earlier than the one who caught the salmon”: salmon comes off Gina; 5am and 6am come off Jake. That settles it: Gina’s fish is carp and Jake is fishing at 8am.

Round 3

Go back over the clues with the new facts in hand.

Carp is Gina’s, so it comes off Jake and Tanya. That settles it: Tanya’s fish is sturgeon.

Nobody but Jake can still have salmon, so Jake’s fish is salmon.

8am is Jake’s, so it comes off Bobby.

Clue 1, “The one who caught the carp is earlier than the one using leeches”: leeches comes off Gina.

Clue 2, “The one using leeches is not the one fishing at 8am”: leeches comes off Jake.

Clue 4, “The one using worms is not the one fishing at 8am”: worms comes off Jake. That settles it: Jake’s bait is crickets.

Round 4

Go back over the clues with the new facts in hand.

Crickets is Jake’s, so it comes off Gina and Bobby. That settles it: Gina’s bait is worms.

Worms is Gina’s, so it comes off Bobby. That settles it: Bobby’s bait is leeches.

Clue 1, “The one who caught the carp is earlier than the one using leeches”: 6am comes off Gina; 5am comes off Bobby. That settles it: Gina is fishing at 5am and Bobby is fishing at 6am.

The answer

Previous: Deduce #64 (Sat, Oct 17) · Next: Deduce #66 (Mon, Oct 19) · All Deduce solutions

About Deduce

Deduce is Noggin’s daily logic grid: four people, three things to work out about each, and clues that never hand you an answer. Every puzzle has exactly one solution and can be finished by crossing off alone. How to play Deduce, or play today’s.