Wild Bait
| Wild Bait | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Tackle |
| Location | Crafting |
| Recipe | Linus (4-heart event) |
| Sell Price | 15g |
Wild Bait is Linus's own recipe, handed over at his campfire once the friendship between him and the farmer is deep enough. It smells terrible and works beautifully: fish come to the hook quickly, and sometimes two of them arrive on the same cast. Fiber, Slime and Bug Meat are the whole ingredient list, and all three are picked up for free while clearing land or walking the mines. For years it was the best bait in the game, and it is still the one that doubles a day's catch without asking for any extra skill at the minigame. Dropped in a Crab Pot it cuts the junk and sometimes doubles the haul as well.
Recipe
These are the ingredients one batch needs.
| Name | Image | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Fiber | 
|
10 |
| Slime | 
|
5 |
| Bug Meat | 
|
5 |
Use
The double catch is what Wild Bait is for. Roughly a quarter of the time a cast brings up two of the same fish, and a lucky day pushes that chance higher still, since daily luck feeds directly into it. Fishing on a day the Fortune Teller calls favourable is therefore worth planning around.
The faster bite is the half that works every cast. Fish commit sooner than they do to plain Bait, not quite as fast as with Deluxe Bait, which keeps Wild Bait comfortable for long sessions.
Two fish on one cast do not pay double experience, so Wild Bait does not speed up the climb to Fishing level ten. They do both count towards a fishing quest or a special order, which makes the bait excellent for a "catch fifteen of these" request. The double catch does not apply to the Legendary Fish, although the second-generation Legendary Fish from the Extended Family quest can be caught in pairs, which is a neat way to bank a spare.
Loaded into a Crab Pot, Wild Bait cuts the chance of hauling up rubbish and gives a quarter chance of double the items. That stacks with the bonus from reading The Art O' Crabbing, so a line of pots with a stack of Wild Bait behind it becomes a serious morning income.
Upgrades
The recipe comes from Linus during his four-heart cutscene, which means a season or two of small gifts at the tent above the mountain lake. Each batch takes ten Fiber, five Slime and five pieces of Bug Meat and yields five pieces of bait. Fiber comes off weeds and the tall grass tufts, Slime drops from slimes anywhere in the mines, and Bug Meat comes from the same grubs, so a single trip underground usually covers several batches.
Once the recipe is known, Wild Bait also starts appearing inside ordinary fishing treasure chests and the golden ones that Fishing Mastery unlocks. Artifact spots on Ginger Island hold it too, and those turn it up even before Linus has shown the recipe, which is an odd back door for anyone who reached the island early.
Notes
Fish Pond quests sometimes ask for a piece or a small stack of Wild Bait, so a few spare pieces in a chest save a trip back to the farm to craft more.
Dropped into the spool of the Sewing Machine, Wild Bait produces a shirt, which is one of the stranger tailoring results in the valley.
Linus is the one resident who will accept a handful of Wild Bait without pulling a face, which fits, since he wrote the recipe in the first place.
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 |