Children and fishing? It’s a risky move in the real world. Mainly because fishing can involve sitting quietly for hours at a time – not part of the average child’s core skills.

Kapu Fishing, on the other hand, is much more fun. It involves children controlling a fishing fox, casting his line and then picking up as many colourful fish as he can (who all, note, go back into the water later on).

It’s a digital play-toy rather than a game, with no scoring system or goals to complete. Children can simply motor around the virtual lake picking suitable spots, and catching whatever they can.

There’s a creative aspect too though: children can create their own lures to go on the end of their line, adding hooks, eyes and other decorations as well as colouring it in. Developer Kapu Toys reckons different combinations will attract different fish, so it’s worth experimenting.

We’ve been testing Kapu Fishing, and it’s really fun: while it may seem repetitive at first glance, the lure design and different fish give it much more depth to its, ahem, depths.

Kapu Fishing costs £1.49 for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, and £1.99 for Android from the Google Play store.