Fishing Guide:
1. How To Fish In Stardew Valley
On the second day of your playthrough you will get some mail from Willie. Read this and then head to the beach. Willie has a gift for you! It’s his old hard rod! Your very own fishing rod, now the first thing you need to do is not use this thing dump it into the ocean…
Instead go into his store and buy a training rod. The training rod will ensure you succeed in the early game. You see, the training rod will only cause easy weak peasant fish to bite. I’m not saying you suck, we want easy fish in the early game. That’s because we can guarantee perfect caches.
A perfect catch will grant you bonus experience, which will then allow you to rapidly level up your fishing skill.
One tip I can give you here is, do not hold down the key.. Instead tap it, tap it over and over again. If you need to, tap the heck out of it…. You won’t regret it…
We need to zug zug on easy fish until level 2 fishing so that we can then instantly upgrade to a bamboo Fishing rod! Why do we care? Well this rod can take bait! And bait will drastically increase your ability to enjoy the fishing in this game… Bait will cause fish to bite onto your line considerably quicker. You need bait, without bait you’ll just be staring at the water endlessly waiting for a fish to nibble on… I am not patient enough for that..
2. Best Fishing Bait In Stardew Valley
Now that you have the ability to use bait, let’s go over all of the types of bait in this game so that you can catch the legendary fish!..
Regular bait is your bread and butter. You can craft five of these with a single bug meat and you can buy these from willie for only five gold each. At the bare minimum, you need to at least use regular bait.. Without it, you’ll be staring at your line forever..
Then we have Magnets! These are just as effective as regular bait for fish, however they also increase the chance to get a treasure chest by 15%! The only issue is that these cost one thousand gold each at Willie and an entire iron bar to craft.. So only use these when you actually want treasure chests.
Okay Wild Bait! You will get the recipe for this when you reach four hearts with linus and they’re a little trickier to craft… However these are most definitely worth it. Wild bait gives you a chance to pull in two fish instead of one! Since these are quite expensive to craft, only use Wild bait when you’re hunting for valuable fish like Lava eels or Sturgeons. Wild bait also causes fish to bite even quicker than regular bait.
Magic Bait! You can buy the recipe from Mr Qi’s Golden Walnut room for 20 QI Gems and yeah, they are also a little expensive to craft as they require radioactive ore… Regardless, these are insanely helpful for perfection. Magic Bait will allow you to catch any fish in any season or weather as long as you cast in the correct biome.
Now we get into some brand new bait in the latest 1.6 update!! Challenge bait!!! You can only craft challenge bait after you have obtained the elusive fishing mastery!! Challenge bait will give you the privilege to catch three fish at the same time!! However it’ll only work if you get a perfect catch!!! If a fish leaves the bar three times you’ll fail the catch! So challenge bait is high risk, high reward.. Personally,I don’t use the stuff.
Now for the ultimate best bait in the entire game! Deluxe Bait! You can even craft it, or you can get it for free using a deluxe bait bin. Since they’re kinda expensive to craft, I just use deluxe worm bins and slowly accumulate tons of the stuff. Deluxe bait is special because it will reduce the time between bites by 67%, the most out of any bait. Additionally it will also increase the size of your bar!! The only bait in the entire game that can do that!! Use deluxe bait for legendary fish!! There is no better alternative.
There is one more brand new type of bait in the game thanks to the 1.6 update. And you can only get this bait by using the brand new Bait Maker. It’s simple, just drop fish into this thing, and it will create bait for that type of fish. This bait will drastically increase the likelihood of catching that type of fish; This is incredible for events like the squid fest, and the trout derby. However I tend to only use the stuff on lava eels.
3. Best Stardew Valley Tackle.
That’s it for bait, now for the super power stardew valley fishing!! Tackle.. Tackle is what turns your rod into an absolute beast… To use tackle you need to get to level to level 6 Fishing so that you can buy an Iridium Fishing Rod. This will allow you to use a single tackle..
However thanks to the new 1.6 update, you can now get an Advanced Iridium fishing rod!!! That will allow you the ultimate privilege of using two Tackles at the same time! To get the advanced fishing rod, just get the Fishing Mastery… Now onto the different types of tackles and which you should use to absolutely conquer and destroy those legendary fish!
Before we show the tackles! You need to know that you can use Mayor Lewis’s shorts as tackle! This will cause your bobber to be Mayor Lewis’s shorts! Why would you do this ?? Well the truth is that you should only ever do this if you have the advanced iridium fishing rod. This is because there is a bug, if you use his shorts in the second slot, it will cause your first slow to be invincible. This means that the first tackle will never lose durability and last forever…
Straight off the bait we have the Spinner and the Dressed Spinner. This will reduce the time between bites, kind of like bait… The Spinner will reduce the time between bites by 3.75 seconds and the Dressed spinner will reduce the time by 7.5 Seconds.. Naturally you can use two of these at the same time to basically instantly get a bite every single time.. This is a great tackle if you’re trying to catch loads of easy to catch fish.
Ayt The Lead Bobber. This thing is useless.. It will add weight to your bar and prevent it from bouncing when it hits the bottom…. Listen, just tap on your way down and you’ll be fine… Don’t use this…
The Cork Bobber is kind of incredible! This little thing will increase the size of your bar, and if you use two of these your bar is going to be absolutely massive… I always use atleast one of these with the advanced iridium fishing rod to just have a massive bar for those legendary fish.
For the legendary fish I combine that cork bobber with the ultimate legendary fish destroyer.. The Trap Bobber… This is mandatory for legendary fish as it slows down the speed at wich the progress bar reduces by 33% when the fish is not in the bar.. Listen, hard fish will be out of the bar..The Trap Bobber makes catching them viable… use this for legendary fish or suffer in silence..
Do you ever want to catch fish without having to actually play the mini game?? Then the Barbed Hook is the perfect fishing tackle for you.. This will cause your bar to automatically move with the fish!! It’s not that reliable and won’t let you catch hard fish… Unless you have a massive bar! A huge fishing bar makes the Barbed hook incredibly reliable.. Use the cork bobber, the barbed hook, some seafoam pudding and the deluxe fishing bait to almost guarantee any fish without even touching the keyboard… It’s crazy convenient.
The Curiosity lure is hot Garbage.. Skip this every single time.. It causes certain fish to have a higher chance to bite onto your line, however is a very select few fish and the increase is so tiny that you should just completely ignore this thing..
This latest 1.6 Update has now given us the Brand new Sonar Bobber!! This tackle will show you what fish is hooked onto your line before you even catch it. This is kinda cool if you’re after a specific fish since you can just hit escape to cancel the minigame and re-case.. However, it’s not that useful…
The Treasure Hunter on the other hand is great!! If you’re after Treasure chests, then the treasure hunter FIshing Tackle will increase the chance of getting a chest by five percent, and yes if you use two of these it’ll be increased by ten percent… Combine that with magnets the correct professions and You;ll be absolutely swimming in fishing treasure!!!
4. Stardew Valley Fishing Professions
At Level Fish Fishing, you will get two options. The Fisher Profession which increases the sale price of fish by 25% and the Trapper which makes it cheaper to craft crab pots… I’m going to make this simple for you. Always use the Fisher Profession… That trapper profession is absolutely hot garbage.. Just don’t……
Fortunately at level ten things get a little more interesting. You can choose the Angler profession that will increase the sell price of fish to 50%, which is absolutely insane.. Or you can pick the Pirate Profession to increase the chance of finding Treasure chests by 15%… Both are incredible for different reasons… I will show you two incredible min-maxed use cases for both of these shorty.
5. Best Fishing Food in Stardew Valley
Fishing Food Is incredibly important !! Fishing food will increase your fishing level, and yes food can make you go past level 10.. If you struggle with legendary fish, add some fishing food and it’ll be a piece of cake.
The easiest food to get is Trout soup. You can just buy this from Willie to get plus one fishing. It’s great in the early game however we will quickly upgrade from this peasant food…
Because once we get Willie to friendship level 9, he will teach us the recipe to make Lobster Bisque. This will give you plus three to your fishing!!! And if you use Qi’s Special Seasoning, it’ll give you plus four to fishing!! As a huge added bonus, this stuff is extremely easy to craft requiring only one lobster and one serving of milk.. Kind of game breaking if you ask me…
Now if you want to absolutely ensure you catch those legendary fish, use Seafoam Pudding… Unfortunately this stuff is harder to cook as you need a flounder, a midnight carp and some squid ink.. Fortunately it is more than worth it as you will get plus four to your fishing level, or plus five if you use qi seasoning.. This increases your fishing bar by 50%… It’s a no brainer…
I learned this new trick recently where you can double stack cooked meal buffs!! First Get Some Buffed Up Seafoam Pudding To Get To Level 15 Fishing. Then Head To The Desert Festival And Talk To The Chef! Choose Shrimp And Pungent Garlic To Get Some Smell Of The Sea.. This Beautiful Meal Will Give Plus Three To Your Fishing Level, Putting You At Level 18!
6. Stardew Valley Best Fishing Enchantments
Let’s start off with the Master Enchantment. This one is simple, it will permanently increase your fishing level by 1, making your fishing rod ever so slightly bigger. This is great when stacked with other buffs as we saw earlier.
The auto-hook enchantment is great for lazy players like myself… When a fish bites onto your line, the game will automatically hook the fish and start the minigame.. Effectively allowing you to zone out a bit. Great for Netflix fishing and chill.
The Efficient enchantment will simply cause your fishing rod to use zero energy when being used. I can see some use for this, however by the time you get to this stage in the game, energy is most likely not an issue anymore… I would reroll if I got this.
The Preserving enchantment is another one of those that I would reroll! This will reduce how quickly tackle and bait get used up… It works on both bait and tackle and it’s just not that useful in my opinion.. I would usually always go with the Master Enchantment, and if im lazy the auto-hook enchantment.
7. Biggest possible Fishing Bar possible
Get to level 10 fishing. Get that Smell of the sea food from the desert festival Chef. Use the Master Enchantment, drink some buffed up sea-foam pudding and most importantly use two cork tackles on your Advanced Iridium Rod. This will be your fishing bar..
This is so unbalanced that there is no fish that could ever escape your treacherous grasps!! Use this combo on sturgeons or Lava Eels and you will be golden. If you have the extended family qi quest during the desert festival, they will be the easier legendary catches you have ever had.
8. Unlimited Treasure Chests While Fishing
The second combo will literally let you swim in fishing treasure chests. THis is important as this is the most reliable way to farm for Golden animal cracks.. First pick the Pirate profession. Wear two lucky rings, drink some buffed up Ginger Ale and eat some buffed up Spicy Eel.
Have two Treasure Hunter tackles on your rod and use magnets. If you also do this on the best possible luck day, you will have a crazy 65% chance of finding a treasure chest with every single cast… About 25% of those will be golden treasure chests, ensuring that you swim in golden animal crackers.
8. Get Super Rich With Fishing In Stardew Valley
This combination will make you literally swim in gold, it’ll be unfair… This is with the brand new Fish Smoker. You see, the fish smoker will turn your fish into Artisan goods increasing their sale price by 40%.
However since they are still technically fish, they will also gain the benefits of the angler profession increasing their value by 50%! It gets even better! Unlike wine and jelly, those fish will keep their quality! So if you take an Iridium quality lava eel, and drop it into a fish smoker.
You will make 5800 Gold for every single smoker iridium quality Lava eel.. That’s stupid.. That’s Insane.. Enjoy being rich.
That wraps up our complete Stardew Valley Fishing Guide for 1.6. After these Fishing Tips, you will now know how to level up faster, choose the best bait and tackle, and use powerful combinations to catch even the toughest legendary fish with ease. Whether you’re farming treasure chests, stacking buffs for an unstoppable fishing bar, or turning fish into massive profits with smokers, you’re now fully equipped to dominate this skill. Which of these fishing strategies are you going to try first? If you enjoyed that, you absolutely need to read this post Best Crops For Every Season In Stardew Valley to keep that grind going. Or check out my Stardew Valley Working Exploits and glitches to absolutly crush Stardew Valley. Either way, thanks for reading until the end. I appreciate you.
