Stardew Valley - Fish

Fish are caught with a rod in the rivers, lakes, ocean and caves, or taken from crab pots left in the water. Each fish keeps to its own water, season, weather and time of day, and the harder ones fight the line in their own pattern. Fish feed the kitchen, the Community Center bundles and a good part of early income.

Fish Groups

Fish that are caught a special way.

Overview

Fishing is the one trade in the valley that pays from the first morning and keeps paying for the rest of the save. A rod cast into any water will catch something, and because fish cost nothing to raise, every catch is pure income at a point when the fields are still dirt. The branch also happens to be the largest single collection in the game, which gives a farm a reason to keep fishing long after it has stopped needing the gold.

Every fish keeps its own conditions. A species belongs to a stretch of water, to one or more seasons, often to a range of hours, and sometimes to the weather, and all four have to line up before it will bite. That is why a rainy Spring evening on the town river and a sunny Summer midday at the beach catch entirely different things, and why a fish missed in its season waits a year.

What happens after the bite is a reflex test. The hooked fish bobs up and down inside a vertical bar while the farmer holds a green block over it, and the catch meter fills while the two overlap and drains while they do not. Each species has a difficulty rating and one of five movement habits: steady, drifting upwards, sinking, mixed, or darting about at random. A farmer who learns the habits can usually name the fish before it lands.

Keeping the block on the fish for the whole fight earns a perfect catch, which raises the grade of anything that was already silver and multiplies the experience by more than twice over. Perfect catches are where fishing levels actually come from, and the levels are what widen the block and make the next fish easier, so the branch compounds faster than any other skill in the game.

Groups

Five bodies of water divide most of the branch. The ocean at the beach holds the sardines, tuna, halibut and the pufferfish, and it is the most forgiving water for a beginner. The river running through town and the forest holds the bream, shad, catfish and the two trout. The mountain lake holds the bass, bullhead, sturgeon and carp. The forest ponds and waterfalls hold the Midnight Carp and the goby. Beyond those are the strange waters: three cave fish behind mine floors, a sandfish and a Scorpion Carp in the desert, a monstrous carp in the sewers, a salmon in the witch's swamp, a slime-coated fish in the bug lair, and the whole tropical list around Ginger Island.

Then there are the fish that are not caught in open water at all. Three deep-sea species live only in the submarine at the winter Night Market. Shellfish and crustaceans come up in crab pots rather than on a line. And five fish are classed as legendary, each one appearing in a single spot under its own conditions, wearing a crown in the minigame and available only once per save.

The legendary five have a second generation. While one of Mr. Qi's commissions is active, the same five spots hold their successors instead, with the season and weather requirements lifted and no limit on how many can be caught. Four of the five have to be landed to unlock every bobber style at the bobber machine.

Locations

Rain is the single most useful condition in the branch. Several of the better fish bite only in wet weather, and a rainy day is worth clearing the schedule for: the catfish on the river, the eel and Red Snapper at the beach, the walleye on the lake and the shad on the river all belong to the rain, and a Rain Totem can manufacture the day in a season where the fish would otherwise be out of reach.

Night is the second condition worth planning around. The bream wakes at dusk, the eel comes in from late afternoon, the squid and the Midnight Carp are strictly after dark, and the walleye runs from midday until the small hours. A fishing trip that starts in the evening and ends at two in the morning covers a list no daytime trip can touch.

Depth replaces season underground. The fish on the twentieth and sixtieth mine floors and in the lava of the hundredth ignore the calendar entirely, which makes them the branch's reliable catches: a cold Winter with nothing biting outdoors is a good week to take a rod into the mine.

The branch's best single trick is the bubbling patch of water that drifts across a map. Fish bite several times faster inside it and the catch bar is wider, so a morning spent standing in one is worth several spent anywhere else. Dropping the bobber on the very edge of the patch spreads the bonus to the tiles beside it.

Uses

The Community Center's Fish Tank is the branch's first real goal, asking for river, lake, ocean, night and specialty sets, and its scrolls are why a farmer keeps one of everything caught. Some of those slots are awkward on purpose: the specialty set wants a sandfish from the desert, which opens only once the bus runs.

The kitchen is the other great consumer. Dozens of dishes take a named fish, and several of them exist to make fishing easier, since the puddings and stews that raise the fishing level by three or four are themselves cooked from fish. That loop is how a farm gets from the middling levels to the legendary catches.

Fish also buy friendship cheaply. Willy loves the catfish, the octopus, the sturgeon and the Sea Cucumber, the Wizard loves the Super Cucumber, the dwarf underground loves the Lava Eel, Abigail loves the pufferfish and Penny loves the sandfish. A spare fish from the morning's trip is a better present than most things that can be bought.

Prices

Fish are sold by grade, and the gap between a normal and an iridium catch is double, which is why perfect catches matter to the wallet as well as to the skill. On top of that, the Fisher profession at the fifth level adds a quarter to every price and Angler at the tenth adds a half, and that bonus applies to every fish forever, which makes it one of the most valuable choices in the game.

By raw price the branch has a clear ladder. The king of the mountain lake is worth more than anything else that swims, the Lava Eel is the best of the ordinary catches, and the Ice Pip and the deep-sea blobfish sit behind it. At the other end a carp or an anchovy is pocket change, and those cheap fish are better turned into something else: a cheap fish becomes sashimi worth more than the fish, and a smoker doubles the value of anything put into it.

The Fish Pond is where the branch turns into a business. A pond stocked with a fish produces roe every few days, a jar or a keg ages that roe into something worth several times as much, and a sturgeon's roe becomes caviar outright. A pond of lava eels or blobfish is among the highest daily incomes in the game once it has filled up, and the catch is simply that filling it takes most of a season.

Strategy

Fish the weather rather than the plan. A rainy morning in any season is worth abandoning the watering can for, since crops water themselves in the rain and the rain fish are the ones that pay.

Attach the right tackle before worrying about the rod. A Trap Bobber slows the catch meter's decline, a Cork Bobber widens the green block, a Barbed Hook pulls it towards the fish, and a Treasure Hunter stops a chest costing the fish. Those four change the minigame far more than another tier of rod does.

Eat before a session. The dishes that raise the fishing level stack on top of the farm's own skill, which is the difference between a legendary fish that thrashes beyond reach and one that can be held.

Keep the collection in mind from the first Spring. Catching every species earns the branch's achievement and adds to the perfection goal, and most of the misses that cost a farm a year are seasonal fish let slip rather than hard ones lost.

Notes

The first fish a farmer ever hooks is always landed. The game picks it from a short list of common species, suspends the draining catch meter and runs a tutorial, so the first catch is free whatever the water.

Magic bait ignores water, weather, season and clock together, which is the only way to catch a Night Market fish in Spring or a summer fish in Winter. The bobber machine at Willy's shop unlocks new bobber styles as the collection fills, and the purple shorts of local legend make a bobber of their own.

All Fish

Every entry in this group, with its key details.

Name	Image	Location	Season	Price
Albacore		Ocean	Fall; Winter	75g
Anchovy		Ocean	Spring; Fall	30g
Angler		Pelican Town	Fall	900g
Blobfish		Submarine at Night Market	Winter	500g
Blue Discus		Ginger Island	All	120g
Bream		River	All	45g
Bullhead		Mountain Lake	All	75g
Carp		Mountain Lake; Secret Woods; The Sewers; Mutant Bug Lair	Spring; Summer; Fall in The Mountain Lake; All in Secret Woods, The Sewers, or Mutant Bug Lair	30g
Catfish		River; Secret Woods; Witch's Swamp	Spring; Fall Secret Woods / Witch's Swamp:; Spring; Summer; Fall Only with Rain Totem: Winter	200g
Chub		Mountain Lake; Forest River	All	50g
Clam		-	All	50g
Cockle		-	All	50g
Crab		-	All	100g
Crayfish		-	All	75g
Crimsonfish		Ocean	Summer	1500g
Dorado		Forest River	Summer	100g
Eel		Ocean	Spring; Fall	85g
Flounder		Ocean; Ginger Island	Spring; Summer	100g
Ghostfish		Floors 20 and 60 of The Mines	All	45g
Glacierfish		Cindersap Forest	Winter	1000g
Glacierfish Jr.		Cindersap Forest	All	1000g
Goby		Cindersap Forest Waterfalls	All	150g
Halibut		Ocean	Spring; Summer; Winter	80g
Herring		Ocean	Spring; Winter	30g
Ice Pip		The Mines, Floor 60	All	500g
Largemouth Bass		Mountain Lake; Wilderness Farm	All	100g
Lava Eel		Floor 100 of The Mines; Volcano Caldera	All	700g
Legend		Mountain Lake	Spring	5000g
Legend II		Mountain Lake	All	5000g
Lingcod		River; Mountain Lake	Winter	120g
Lionfish		Ginger Island	All	100g
Lobster		-	All	120g
Midnight Carp		Mountain Lake; Forest Pond; Ginger Island North & West (freshwater)	Fall; Winter	150g
Midnight Squid		Submarine at Night Market	Winter	100g
Ms. Angler		Pelican Town	All	900g
Mussel		-	All	30g
Mutant Carp		The Sewers	All	1000g
Octopus		The Beach; Ginger Island; Submarine at Night Market	Summer; Winter (during Night Market (15-17)); All (Ginger Island)	150g
Oyster		-	All	40g
Perch		River; Mountain Lake; Forest Pond	Winter	55g
Periwinkle		-	All	20g
Pike		River; Forest Pond	Summer; Winter	100g
Pufferfish		Ocean; Ginger Island	Summer	200g
Radioactive Carp		The Sewers	All	1000g
Rainbow Trout		River; Mountain Lake	Summer	65g
Red Mullet		Ocean	Summer; Winter	75g
Red Snapper		Ocean; Beach Farm	Summer; Fall; Winter with Rain Totem	50g
Salmon		River	Fall	75g
Sandfish		The Desert	All	75g
Sardine		Ocean	Spring; Fall; Winter	40g
Scorpion Carp		The Desert	All	150g
Sea Cucumber		Ocean; Submarine at Night Market	Fall; Winter	75g
Shad		River	Spring; Summer; Fall	60g
Shrimp		-	All	60g
Slimejack		Mutant Bug Lair	All	100g
Smallmouth Bass		Town River; Forest Pond	Spring; Fall	50g
Snail		-	All	65g
Son of Crimsonfish		Ocean	All	1500g
Spook Fish		Submarine at Night Market	Winter	220g
Squid		Ocean	Winter	80g
Stingray		Pirate Cove	All	180g
Stonefish		Floor 20 of The Mines	All	300g
Sturgeon		Mountain Lake	Summer; Winter	200g
Sunfish		River	Spring; Summer	30g
Super Cucumber		Ocean; Ginger Island; Submarine at Night Market	Summer; Fall; Winter during Night Market (15-17)	250g
Tiger Trout		River	Fall; Winter	150g
Tilapia		Ocean; Ginger Island	Summer; Fall	75g
Tuna		Ocean; Ginger Island	Summer; Winter; Ginger Island (except Island North): All	100g
Void Salmon		Witch's Swamp	All	150g
Walleye		River; Mountain Lake; Forest Pond; Forest Farm Pond	Fall; Winter with Rain Totem	105g
Woodskip		Secret Woods; Forest Farm	All	75g