Fishing Strategy
| Fishing Strategy | |
|---|---|
| Type | Mechanic |
Fishing strategy comes down to two separate problems: getting the fish to bite, and landing it once it does. The first is a matter of standing in the right water at the right hour, in the right season and the right weather, and casting as far out as the rod will reach. The second is a matter of the green bar in the catching minigame, because the longer that bar is, the easier every fish in the game becomes. Fishing level, tackle, rod enchantments and food all push the bar's length up, and stacking them is what turns the legendary fish and the Octopus from impossible into routine. Everything else, from where to put a Crab Pot to which profession to take, follows from those two ideas.
Overview
Four conditions decide what is swimming where. The body of water comes first, and the usual grouping into ocean, lake and river is only a rough guide, because the map matters as well: the river running through Cindersap Forest holds a different list from the river in Pelican Town, and the forest's pond and waterfalls are different again. Ponds generally hold a short list, and the shorter a spot's list is the more often the rod comes back with rubbish. Season, hour and weather then narrow the list further, and the narrowest windows are where the valuable fish live. A rainy Fall afternoon by the town river is a Walleye and Catfish trip; a sunny Summer midday at The Beach is the only time a Pufferfish will bite.
Where the bobber lands matters as much as where the farmer stands. Casting as far from land as possible is almost always right. Distance raises the quality of what is caught and shifts the odds towards the harder, more profitable fish, even though every fish except the legendaries can technically be hooked from a single tile out. Casting east or west reaches further than casting north or south, and open water helps again. In practice that means fishing from a dock, from the wide stretches of a river or out across the mountain lake, and avoiding the pinched middle of a river where both banks are within walking distance. A spot that returns trash half the time is the wrong spot.
Bubbles are the one thing worth moving for. A patch of bubbles makes fish bite far faster and changes which fish are likely, and the bonus applies to the tiles around the patch as well as the patch itself. Dropping the bobber on the outer edge of the bubbles keeps the faster bites while sitting that bit further from shore, which stacks the two advantages together.
The catching bar is the heart of the whole system. Each fishing level makes it longer, and because level can be pushed above ten with food buffs, the bar can grow well past its natural maximum. A rod carrying the Master enchantment lengthens it again, Deluxe Bait adds a slice, and a Cork Bobber adds the largest single increase of any piece of tackle. Food is the other half: Seafoam Pudding, Dish O' The Sea, Lobster Bisque and Fish Stew all raise fishing level temporarily, and a dish prepared with Qi Seasoning raises it further still.
Stacking all of that is how the hardest fish are caught. An Iridium Rod at the top of the skill, a Cork Bobber, the Master enchantment and a fishing dish between them produce a bar long enough that the legendary fish and the Octopus stop being a test of reflexes. A Trap Bobber is the other half of the answer, since it slows the rate at which a fish drags the progress bar back down, which gives a slip-up time to be recovered. The Blessing Of Waters, when it is granted, cuts the difficulty of every fish and halves the speed at which progress drains away.
Levelling the skill is fastest in the least pleasant place in the valley. The Sewers mostly hold Carp, the easiest fish in the game, so almost every cast there lands a quick catch or a Treasure Chest rather than a fight. Crab pots are the other route: they are unlocked partway up the skill, they catch overnight without any input, and their catches still count towards the skill and towards the Crab Pot Bundle.
The gear ladder runs through Willy's shop. The Bamboo Rod casts and nothing more. The Fiberglass Rod accepts bait, which speeds up bites, and the Iridium Rod accepts tackle on top of that, which is where the real tuning starts. Spinners speed bites further, a Barbed Hook helps the bar hold onto a fish, a Lead Bobber steadies it against bouncing, and a Treasure Hunter or a bag of Magnet bait raises the chance of hooking a chest. Bait and tackle are attached by picking them up and using them on the rod.
The professions split along the same two lines. Fisher raises the value of every fish and leads either to Angler, which raises it much further, or Pirate, which roughly doubles the Treasure Chest rate. Trapper makes crab pots cheap to build and leads to Mariner, which stops pots catching rubbish at all, or Luremaster, which stops them needing bait. A farmer fishing for money takes the first branch; a farmer fishing for museum pieces takes Pirate; a farmer running a long line of pots takes the second.
Some fish only exist in odd corners. The mine's own pools hold Ghostfish and Stonefish partway down, Ghostfish and the Ice Pip deeper, and the Lava Eel at the bottom. The Secret Woods pond holds Woodskip. The desert holds Sandfish and Scorpion Carp. The Mutant Bug Lair holds Slimejack, the Witch's Swamp holds Void Salmon, and both of those also give White Algae. Out on Ginger Island the fresh water holds Blue Discus and the ocean holds Lionfish, with Stingray waiting in the Pirate Cove.
Notes
Trash is worth keeping rather than selling. A Recycling Machine turns Broken Glasses, CDs, soggy newspapers, driftwood and plain trash into materials worth more than the rubbish itself, which quietly makes early fishing in a poor spot profitable anyway.
Treasure chests are the second reason to fish at all. They turn up alongside the fish, and their contents include artifacts for the Museum, which makes a long fishing session a reasonable substitute for digging.
The Stardew Valley Fair runs a fishing game of its own, and the prize counter there sells a Stardrop. That makes a pocketful of gold on the sixteenth of Fall worth more than a day's catch, since a Stardrop raises maximum energy for the rest of the save.
All Mechanics
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
