Cork Bobber
| Cork Bobber | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Tackle |
| Location | Fish Shop; Crafting |
| Recipe | Fishing (Level 7) |
| Sell Price | 250g |
The Cork Bobber makes the green bar in the fishing minigame bigger, and a bigger bar means the fish spends more of its time inside it. Twenty-four extra pixels does not sound like a gift until it is set against the short bar a low-level angler starts with, where the bonus is a large slice of the whole thing. Wood, Hardwood and Slime make one, so nothing has to be mined for it. It unlocks at Fishing level seven and stays useful long after, because every fish in the game gets easier when the bar is wider. Crafting one also turns a tidy profit over selling the materials.
Recipe
These are the ingredients one batch needs.
| Name | Image | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Wood | 
|
10 |
| Hardwood | 
|
5 |
| Slime | 
|
10 |
Use
The bar's length grows with the Fishing skill, which is why the Cork Bobber feels strongest early. At low levels the extra width can be close to a quarter again of the original, and at level ten it is a smaller share of a much longer bar. The advice that follows is simple: fit one as soon as the recipe appears, and keep it on until something more specialised is wanted.
It helps most against fish with small, twitchy movements. A fish that jiggles a few pixels up and down stays inside a wide bar without the bar having to move at all, which means fewer corrections and a much better chance of a perfect catch. Fish that sweep from top to bottom still demand real work, and for those a Trap Bobber is the better companion.
On an Advanced Iridium Rod a pair of Cork Bobbers adds forty-eight pixels, doubling the bonus and turning the bar into something genuinely generous. One Cork Bobber beside one Trap Bobber is the more balanced arrangement, since the two cover different failure modes.
Deluxe Bait widens the bar as well, by a smaller amount, and the two effects add together. A rod with Deluxe Bait and a Cork Bobber is about as forgiving as fishing gets.
Upgrades
The recipe wants ten pieces of Wood, five of Hardwood and ten of Slime. Hardwood comes from stumps and logs on the farm or from the Secret Woods, and Slime piles up from any trip into the mines, so the whole list is farm clutter. Willy stocks the finished tackle for seven hundred and fifty gold from Fishing level seven, and the Traveling Cart offers one at a worse price from time to time. Mystery Boxes and Golden Mystery Boxes also contain one once Fishing level six has been reached.
The crafting margin is real: a finished Cork Bobber sells for well over a hundred gold more than its parts. The usual caveat applies, in that pressing Slime into a Slime Egg and running Hardwood through a Wood Chipper earns slightly more on average, so the recipe is a convenience rather than a strategy.
Notes
A piece survives about twenty bites, so the Cork Bobber's cheapness is part of the appeal. Unlike the metal tackles, replacing one costs nothing but a walk round the farm.
The bobber floating on the water changes to a cork float while it is fitted, which is a quick way to check what is loaded without opening the inventory.
A used piece fetches less at the shop than a fresh one, so the surplus is best left in a chest beside the fishing spot.
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 |