Lead Bobber
| Lead Bobber | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Tackle |
| Location | Fish Shop; Traveling Cart |
| Sell Price | 150g |
The Lead Bobber weighs down the fishing bar so that it stops bouncing when it reaches the bottom of the window. It is the cheapest tackle Willy sells, it is one of only two pieces that no recipe ever covers, and it is widely regarded as the weakest of the set. The bounce it removes is easy to prevent by hand: a click just before the bar hits the floor slows it enough to settle. That makes the Lead Bobber a convenience rather than an advantage, useful mostly to a new angler who has not yet learnt the timing, or as a cheap second piece in an Advanced Iridium Rod's spare slot.
Use
In the minigame the bar is pulled downwards all the time and pushed up by clicking. Left alone it falls to the bottom of the window and rebounds, and that rebound carries it past where it was wanted. A fish sitting low in the window is therefore awkward to track, because every attempt to hold the bar down ends in a bounce upwards.
The Lead Bobber adds weight and kills the rebound, so the bar sits against the floor instead of springing off it. Fish that lurk near the bottom, and the slow sinking fish in particular, become steadier to hold.
Experienced anglers rarely feel the benefit, because tapping the button lightly just before the bar lands achieves the same thing. That is the honest assessment of the piece: it automates a skill rather than granting a new one.
On an Advanced Iridium Rod a pair of Lead Bobbers weighs the bar down further still, although the second slot almost always earns more carrying something else. A Lead Bobber alongside a Quality Bobber or a Treasure Hunter is a reasonable pairing for anyone who happens to have one and nothing better to hand.
Upgrades
Willy's Fish Shop is where Lead Bobbers come from, at two hundred gold apiece from Fishing level six. That price is a fraction of what the other tackles cost and is the one genuinely attractive thing about the piece. The Traveling Cart stocks them occasionally as well, usually at several times Willy's price, which is never worth taking.
With no recipe behind it, the Fish Shop is effectively the only reliable supply, so stocking up on a visit to the beach is the sensible habit. The Curiosity Lure shares that lack of a recipe, but it comes from monsters and crates rather than a shop, which makes the Lead Bobber the only tackle whose supply is a straightforward purchase.
Notes
Durability works the same way as it does for the rest of the tackle box: around twenty bites and the piece is gone. At two hundred gold a replacement, that is the cheapest running cost in fishing, which is part of why the Lead Bobber turns up in so many early-game rods.
The weight changes the bobber floating on the water to a small lead sinker, so it is easy to see at a glance which piece is fitted.
Nobody in the valley wants a lead weight as a gift, and the sell price is low enough that buying them to resell is a losing trade.
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 |