Bait
| Bait | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Tackle |
Bait is the consumable that sits in a fishing rod's bait slot and makes fish notice the line sooner. A rod casts perfectly well without it, but the wait between casts is long enough to turn a morning at the river into a slow one. Several kinds exist, from plain Bait pressed out of Bug Meat to Magic Bait that ignores the calendar and the clock. Each kind cuts the delay before a nibble, and the specialised ones add a second trick on top: extra fish on the line, better treasure odds, or a thumb on the scales for one species. Crab Pots want bait as well, and a pot left unloaded sits empty all night. One piece leaves the stack with every cast, so bait is a running cost that any serious fishing day has to budget for.
Use
Three rods have a bait slot. The Fiberglass Rod is the first of them, and the Iridium Rod and the Advanced Iridium Rod carry the slot forward. The Bamboo Pole and the Training Rod have nowhere to put bait at all, so the first step towards faster bites is buying a rod that can hold it.
Attaching it takes two clicks on a keyboard. A left click picks the bait up out of the inventory, and a right click on the rod loads it. A right click on the rod on its own pulls the bait back off. Controllers follow the same order with their select and attach buttons. On a phone or tablet the bait is dragged onto the rod instead, and dropping a different kind on top is the way to swap: the old stack slides back into the inventory. Bait can also be loaded straight from a fishing Treasure Chest without going through the inventory first.
Every cast spends one piece. When the last one goes, a notice appears to say the stack is finished, which is easy to miss in the middle of a long session at the pier.
A Crab Pot is loaded by standing beside it and using the bait on the pot after it is already in the water. The pot then fishes overnight on its own. The Luremaster profession at Fishing level ten takes the chore away entirely and lets pots work empty, which frees a large amount of bait on a farm running a dozen traps.
Upgrades
The ladder of bait follows the Fishing skill. Plain Bait arrives at level two and turns a single piece of Bug Meat into five. Deluxe Bait follows at level four and is the strongest of the lot for bite speed. The Magnet comes late, at level nine, and swaps bite speed for treasure. Wild Bait sits outside the skill track and is taught by Linus once he is on four hearts. Challenge Bait waits until Fishing Mastery has been claimed. Targeted Bait is made by feeding any fish into a Bait Maker. Magic Bait is bought with Qi Gems in Qi's Walnut Room, either ready made or as a recipe.
Bite speed is where the kinds separate. Plain Bait halves the wait. Wild Bait and Challenge Bait take off a little under two thirds. Deluxe Bait is the quickest, shaving off a full two thirds and widening the fishing bar at the same time. The Magnet, Magic Bait and Targeted Bait all bite at plain Bait's pace, because their value lies elsewhere.
Some kinds change what a Crab Pot brings up. Deluxe Bait lifts pot catches to silver quality and cuts the junk. Wild Bait cuts junk too and gives a quarter chance of a doubled haul. Targeted Bait skews a pot towards one shellfish, doubling most odds and quadrupling Lobster. The Mariner profession overrides all of that, since pots under Mariner already refuse to catch rubbish.
Notes
A rod carrying the Preserving enchantment from the Volcano Forge gives each nibble a half chance of leaving the bait untouched, which roughly doubles how far a stack goes. The Advanced Iridium Rod rolls that chance separately for its bait and each of its two tackle slots.
Bait turns up in fishing treasure chests, at the Traveling Cart for a steep mark-up, and from a Worm Bin left standing anywhere on the farm. The Worm Bin is the quiet favourite, since it hands over a few pieces every morning for no further effort and can be set down next to a favourite fishing spot.
Bait makes a poor present. The pieces sell for almost nothing, so a surplus is better kept in a chest by the water than carried to the shipping bin.
All Tackle and Bait
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
| Name | Image | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Bait | 
|
- |
| Bait (item) | 
|
1g |
| Barbed Hook | 
|
500g |
| Challenge Bait | 
|
1g |
| Cork Bobber | 
|
250g |
| Curiosity Lure | 
|
500g |
| Deluxe Bait | 
|
1g |
| Dressed Spinner | 
|
500g |
| Lead Bobber | 
|
150g |
| Magic Bait | 
|
1g |
| Magnet | 
|
15g |
| Quality Bobber | 
|
300g |
| Sonar Bobber | 
|
250g |
| Spinner | 
|
250g |
| Tackle | - | - |
| Targeted Bait | 
|
0.1 × Fish Price |
| Trap Bobber | 
|
200g |
| Treasure Hunter | 
|
250g |
| Wild Bait | 
|
15g |