trouble catching new/rare fish - bad luck?

[Slow Peach]

I've been trying to catch new fish for the museum, and have already caught/donated all the common ones - bluefish, spotted flathead, garfish, etc.

I've gone to billabongs/rivers/north and south oceans all over the map from day til late and still haven't caught anything new. is it just bad luck?

I've also tried reloading my game to get around the animal spawn issue and still nothing.

not sure if it's just my luck, or if I need to increase my fishing level for more fish to unlock, similar to unlocking copper after hitting a higher mining level?

[ROORnNUGZ]

it seemed like new fish started spawning as I upgraded to copper and iron rods but I'm not positive. The time of year also factors into what fish are spawning. Get 45 things donated to the museum and fishing gets a whole lot easier.

[Slow Peach]

Originally posted by ROORnNUGZ:

it seemed like new fish started spawning as I upgraded to copper and iron rods but I'm not positive. The time of year also factors into what fish are spawning. Get 45 things donated to the museum and fishing gets a whole lot easier.

I just unlocked the last fishing licence (iron rod/crab pots), have been trying the fishing since autumn and now in winter with no luck. hmmm

I have donated 20 ish bugs, and like 16 fish so far, and some critters to the museum, dunno if critters count toward anything, but i noticed i can't donate the same thing twice, hence my attempt at finding new fish to donate so I can eventually get the fish book XD

[GoldenOuroboros]

Originally posted by Slow Peach :: 慢桃子:

Originally posted by ROORnNUGZ:

it seemed like new fish started spawning as I upgraded to copper and iron rods but I'm not positive. The time of year also factors into what fish are spawning. Get 45 things donated to the museum and fishing gets a whole lot easier.

I just unlocked the last fishing licence (iron rod/crab pots), have been trying the fishing since autumn and now in winter with no luck. hmmm

I have donated 20 ish bugs, and like 16 fish so far, and some critters to the museum, dunno if critters count toward anything, but i noticed i can't donate the same thing twice, hence my attempt at finding new fish to donate so I can eventually get the fish book XD

Try fishing at night in other locations. If you can get hold of the jetski from franklyn that is great

[jshepler]

Some only spawn in certain seasons of the year. Some only spawn in certain times of the day (morning: 7-12, afternoon: 12-6, night: 6-next morning). Some only spawn in certain biomes (displayed on map when hovering over areas).

Details are in the wiki, https://dinkum.fandom.com/wiki/Fish

You can also check the pedia (escape menu, pedia tab) to see the ones you've already found, which will have a little museum icon on the ones that you've donated - so you can see which ones you've found but not yet donated. They also detail the season/time of day/areas, but only for the ones already found unfortunately.

There might be public mods that help with this.

[m.e.o.w.]

The correct times of day are as follows:

Morning: 5-11
Day: 11-18 (6pm)
Night: 18-5 (LATE starts at midnight)

List to keep track[listium.com] of what you have and have not caught.

The Wiki tells you all you need to know[dinkum.fandom.com] for fish details, beyond what is in the list above.

Others have pointed it out already but I'll include this info here just to be thorough -- some fish can only be found at certain locations, seasons and certain times of day. You can use the tools above to make it easier on yourself to find them and keep track of what you have caught.

[jshepler]

Originally posted by Aiona0001:

LATE: after midnight

Talking about specific times of the day for what fish (or bugs) can spawn, after midnight is still night. By separating it into a 4th category "Late", you make it sound like things that only spawn at night stop spawning at midnight and that is not the case.

In fact, the code considers it night until 5am, or "the next morning". Here's a snippet of the code that determines which time of drops to get for summer:

if (RealWorldTimeLight.time.currentHour >= 5 && RealWorldTimeLight.time.currentHour < 11)
{
	return this.summerMorning.getRandomDropWithAddedLuck(num);
}
if (RealWorldTimeLight.time.currentHour >= 5 && RealWorldTimeLight.time.currentHour < 18)
{
	return this.summerDay.getRandomDropWithAddedLuck(num);
}
return this.summerNight.getRandomDropWithAddedLuck(num);

edit: Note that hour < 11 is still true for 10:59 and hour < 18 is still true for 17:59.

Morning: 5-11
Day: 11-18 (6pm)
Night: 18-5

The code is the same for the other seasons.

[m.e.o.w.]

Originally posted by jshepler:

Talking about specific times of the day for what fish (or bugs) can spawn, after midnight is still night. By separating it into a 4th category "Late", you make it sound like things that only spawn at night stop spawning at midnight and that is not the case.
...

You're right, that is not relevant here. Thank you for pointing that out, I will correct it post haste.
I often list both Evening and LATE when explaining things to new players -- an old habit that apparently confuses people more than it helps.

Originally posted by jshepler:

Morning: 5-11
Day: 11-18 (6pm)
Night: 18-5
The code is the same for the other seasons.

You are correct.

I think I confused the time with the time set by the devCommands: setTimeDay and setTimeNight: which is 10am and 7pm respectively. I'll correct that as well. :)

[Slow Peach]

hmm it's a bit odd that 5am is indicated there, possibly confusing for some, since in game, the time shows as "late" from midnight onward

[m.e.o.w.]

Originally posted by Slow Peach :: 慢桃子:

hmm it's a bit odd that 5am is indicated there, possibly confusing for some, since in game, the time shows as "late" from midnight onward

LATE just means after midnight. Your stamina drops really low but you can otherwise play indefinitely. The game won't continue on from "LATE" until you sleep/save, exit, or change the time using dev commands.

Edit: I added a note about LATE/Midnight. Hopefully that makes sense.

Originally posted by jshepler:

Originally posted by Aiona0001:

LATE: after midnight

...
By separating it into a 4th category "Late", you make it sound like things that only spawn at night stop spawning at midnight and that is not the case.
...

As I was saying, there's a reason why I include an explanation of LATE.
You can argue about the code all you want but "LATE" does change game play, and not discussing or at least mentioning it can confuse new players. Ha-ha :)

Edit: Also a fun fact, all of the in-game clocks stops at midnight. So time does actually stop at midnight.

[jshepler]

Originally posted by Slow Peach :: 慢桃子:

hmm it's a bit odd that 5am is indicated there, possibly confusing for some, since in game, the time shows as "late" from midnight onward

There is no "onward", really... Time stops at midnight, showing "Late". You can stay up indefinitely and it'll never become morning again. The day won't advance until you sleep (or pass out from running out of stamina or get killed).

[jshepler]

Originally posted by Aiona0001:

but "LATE" does change game play, and not discussing or at least mentioning it can confuse new players. Ha-ha :)

I don't disagree, but within the scope of this thread, talking about when bugs/fish can spawn, "Late" is meaningless. Adding a blub about Late being considered night for these kinds of things should be sufficient to not confuse people either way. /shrug