Need advice on fishing in B42.2

[engager6]

I wanna ask survivors playing B42.2 how and when do you do your fishing? I've been reciently leveling my fishing skill and caught quite a lot, but when mid september came i seem to fail catch fish anywhere all the sudden. I also noted that some days have very little or no fish at all, while some have plenty of this.

At first i assumed that weather somehow affecting it, so i'm refering to fishing window to tell me how good conditions are. It turns out all conditions in this window are the same, but one day it's a lot of fish while another - it's nothing while conditions are the same and shown to be good. I also had noted that you appear only to be able to catch fish only when you see "splashes" on the water around your spot, and those also seem to present or not depending on a day, unrelated to "general" fishing conditions shown in the fishing window.

What is really annoying is where is no way to know if you will be able to catch something today or how is it related to weather or anything. It appears, that game is straight lying to you about fishing in corresponding window. The only true way to know if you will be able to catch something is to see actual spashes on the water, if they are present - you will catch something, if not - you wont it's that simple, and that fishing window is straight up lies to you. Even more, while standing on the pier fishing, after catching certain amount of fish, all other "splashes" suddenly disappear and you can't catch anything any longer.

I snooped around inside game files and found that where is something else going on entirely - it appears that game has preset fishing zones and each zone has number of fish actually contained with it. So when you fish that all - no more fish will be caught no matter if you will stand on the pier whole day long. Each "zone" appear to have certains chances for small, medium and big fish as well. Sadly i had not found the way to see those "fishing zones" or "fishing debug window" with actual fish numbers and chances, even in dev mode.

So, overalll my question is: Where and when do you fish? Are you only fish around splashes or you do fish without them as well? How do you guys know if where will be fish to be caught at certain day/place? Is where any way to predict presense of "splashes" and their amount. Do you experience those no fish days as well (sometimes many many in a row)? How fishing is related to the weather and season variation? Is the fish types you catch related to particular location, or distribution is same everywhere?

This new fishing system appears to be more complex than it's understood and we do not have any answers. My hope is to collect all information we have so far in this thread and try to get at least some basic understanding of this new fishing system, what is never described inside the game anywhere and brings about a lot of frustration. If you have some experience to share, you are welcome!

[katsuragi]

Well you clearly know a lot more about it than I do... I was just;

1- Casting past the ripples then dragging the line into it and waiting for a bite.

2- Not grinding Fishing, but just fishing for food.

3- Just feeding myself, mixing the fish in with dry beans (1:3 ratio) to make stew so 1 good catch (like a nearly 40.0wt fish) would last for several days.

4- Fishing the same small lake each time, but as mentioned above, not grinding the skill or fishing every day.

I came home with a decent catch every time, so I would assume spots "regenerate" fish the same way Forage regenerates, or I've just done it too little to hit a cap.

I use past tense because I have since moved to LV and am still "settling in" to my new home and haven't hit the waters here yet.

In conclusion, from what you say it seems that if you intend to grind Fishing, you're going to have to rotate fishing spots to avoid the fish cap.

Edit: Oh yeah... on days I do fish, it would always be around 7Am until maybe noon or 1Pm. Caught plenty of plastic bottles, dirty rags, and bait fish, but I'd also always get at least 1 good fillet worthy fish.

[namorufa]

I fish only on the pier north of west point at random times whenever I ran out of fattening food, but I prefer rain and dawn/dusk since the game says so.

I always throw my lure at splashes, since early on I tried on non-splashes and never succeeded.

I don't actually know if I'd get any fish, I just visit the place and return home when there are no splashes.

I notice splashes are not visible in thick fog, but otherwise I don't pay attention to the amount of splashes since one splashy spot is good enough for me to get what I wanted.

I did experience periods of no splashes when I couldn't stop fishing and the splashes just stopped appearing. Possible overfishing?

Starting in winter I notice I'm getting fewer catches from splashes, especially when the temperature is sub-zero. Tried fishing in a snowstorm, it was a waste of time.

Not sure about the distribution, but my fishing list is currently only missing two fish variants just from fishing on that west point pier.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3421355801

And by the way I've never succeeded fishing with caught little bait fish (uncooked) as a lure.

[The early worm deserves the bird]

Splash areas are where the fish are at. You can get more splashes by making chum. Recipe here: https://pzwiki.net/wiki/Chum

Sound is also important now, fish will hear sound like a generator, shotgun, shouting, etc. and get scared off so be aware of that.

Fishing goes down from November to February by 20% (At least in Build 41. Possibly more in Build 42) You get a bonus 10% to fishing by fishing between the times of 04:00-06:59 and 18:00-20:59.

In 41 you could over fish a pond for a day but it would repopulate the next day, although I only fished on the river when testing that.

In Build 42 you won't be able to spear fish any more.

[engager6]

Originally posted by namorufa:

I did experience periods of no splashes when I couldn't stop fishing and the splashes just stopped appearing. Possible overfishing?

This seems to be valuable information. It appears to confirm my observations and implies that some fishing hard cap indeed does exist. It's interesting to understand the nature of this cap and how often it gets reset and splashes re-appear...

Also, you mentioned that you had no success with small fish as the bait. I did had some success with that, it appears to be attracting big predator type fish like gators. I had caught some using small fish bait.

[engager6]

Originally posted by The early worm deserves the bird:

Splash areas are where the fish are at. You can get more splashes by making chum. Recipe here: https://pzwiki.net/wiki/Chum

Interesting. Are you talking about splashes "group up" closer to chum, or chums actually induce appearance of new splashes once placed?

[engager6]

Originally posted by katsuragi:

Edit: Oh yeah... on days I do fish, it would always be around 7Am until maybe noon or 1Pm. Caught plenty of plastic bottles, dirty rags, and bait fish, but I'd also always get at least 1 good fillet worthy fish.

Well, i have the same experience. I'm currently at fishing level 8 and i still get plenty of junk. Also i had seen in the files that where is certain junk chance attached to the fishing zone, do not really know more about it, but at level 8 i'm still getting a lot of junk. Also take note that junk amount does not depend on your rod, line or bait, it still baffles me how i'm able to catch plastic bottles using small live fish as the bait and bait gets wasted catching that bottle.

[The early worm deserves the bird]

Originally posted by engager6:

Originally posted by The early worm deserves the bird:

Splash areas are where the fish are at. You can get more splashes by making chum. Recipe here: https://pzwiki.net/wiki/Chum

Interesting. Are you talking about splashes "group up" closer to chum, or chums actually induce appearance of new splashes once placed?

Should create new splashes.

Also I've always found the river to be the best place to fish. There's a new place on the map way down south that has one huge lake and like 20-30 smaller lakes around it that I want to try fishing at. You may have a lot more success with fishing moving your base to that area as you'll have a lot more fishing spots to choose from.

[J128MM]

Maggots. Always pick up the maggots. They're common, lightweight, never go bad, and make great fishing bait.

[engager6]

Originally posted by The early worm deserves the bird:

Should create new splashes.

Also I've always found the river to be the best place to fish. There's a new place on the map way down south that has one huge lake and like 20-30 smaller lakes around it that I want to try fishing at. You may have a lot more success with fishing moving your base to that area as you'll have a lot more fishing spots to choose from.

I should try this chum as well.

By the way this big lake is called Dark Wallow lake and it's exactly the place i fish constantly. I occupy one of the large houses at eastern shore. Lake is generally good for fishing, beside days when where are no splashes at all, and i actually built bridges to access the islands in the center. Small lakes around are generally useless, focus on big one.

Edit: This chum is indeed working. Tried that on 3 lakes near Mauldragh when no splashes were seen around anywhere. Placing a chum did indeed provided the splashes and fish to catch. Snatched quite a few of them until it appear to stop working. This is great find, so chum can be used to "create" the fish to catch on demand. Just now cautgh 211 cm Big Paddlefish using a chum stacked with earthworms.

[engager6]

Originally posted by J128MM:

Maggots. Always pick up the maggots. They're common, lightweight, never go bad, and make great fishing bait.

From what i had seen in the files, currently all baits have exact same effect. I may be wrong about that, but that's what how it seems to be.

[J128MM]

It's possible all baits have the same effect. I'm not sure. However, maggots are easy to find in corpses. I noticed worms become rotten now. Insects like cockroaches are harder to find but still worth picking up. I suggest maggots not because they're better but because they're the easiest to get, provided you're killing zombies as well. Can forage for bugs, attempt to catch bait fish, dig and hope to find worms, randomly find bugs in containers. Piles of corpses will always have maggots.

[katsuragi]

Let me ask you then. How do lures fare vs bait? I've yet to try a lure because I do grind forage and loot trash bins so I have bugs aplenty.

[The early worm deserves the bird]

Originally posted by engager6:

Originally posted by The early worm deserves the bird:

Should create new splashes.

Also I've always found the river to be the best place to fish. There's a new place on the map way down south that has one huge lake and like 20-30 smaller lakes around it that I want to try fishing at. You may have a lot more success with fishing moving your base to that area as you'll have a lot more fishing spots to choose from.

Edit: This chum is indeed working. Tried that on 3 lakes near Mauldragh when no splashes were seen around anywhere. Placing a chum did indeed provided the splashes and fish to catch. Snatched quite a few of them until it appear to stop working. This is great find, so chum can be used to "create" the fish to catch on demand. Just now cautgh 211 cm Big Paddlefish using a chum stacked with earthworms.

WOOT!

[engager6]

Ok. Here are some tips for fishing in current B42.2:

1. Only fish near the splashes, they are the marker of fish actually present in the area. If where are none, you won't catch anything (or you have tiny chance of doing so). Do not trust the fishing window and conditions it shows. Those only affect the overage time until you get a bite, not the presence of actual fish itself.

2. Once you fish long enough you hit "the cap" (e.g. you caught all fish that actually existed in this fishing zone) when all spashes disappear all of the sudden, it can take at least few days until they"respawn" again and reappear. Precise time it takes to respawn maybe variable, or depend on season or weather, for now it's still unknown.

3, All baits, including live bait fish from traps produce virtually the same results. Factory lures appear to have better chance to attract bigger fish and can be used several times, they do get damaged however (expect something like 8-10 catches max).

4. Placing chum, seeded with several baits produces "fish on demand", e.g. generates splashes around it, even if before that water body was clear of the fish. This alone makes it's number 1 friend of the fisherman. Always make them, always have them on you along spare fishing line, hooks and normal bait.

5. You can easily guess what kind of game you are trying to pull of by observing the minigame behaviour. If you see "water trail" behind once you reel in, this means you are pulling real fish, not a junk. Another maker is tension, if it oscillates - you have live catch, it's is constant - you have junk. Strong big fish produce insane line tension rollercoaster, they pull away long and hard, and it's hard to reel those in, especially without damage to the fishing gear. Overal rule is simple - stronger oscillations - bigger the fish.

6. Pay attention to your gear, it will make a difference in the minigame. Better lines will allow you more intense chases in minigame and will allow you to pull in bigger and stronger fish. Factory lines are much better than twine, and premium yellow line is much better than green factory line. Same pattern applies to hooks, best hooks are factory ones and forged ones. Lures are great but get damaged during use and you can't repair them, so try to keep them until you will be higher level fisherman or your situation for food would be desperate.

7. When doing minigame, try to keep your tension in black area, going beyond that will damage your line and that can possibly rupture and you will loose both hook and the line. Trying to pull big fish can be tricky, you should get handle of things first, try to note how often and strong fish pulls to get the timing. Game with the fish, trying gradually pull it a bit closer to you, while keeping reeling in and releasing tension when it goes out of black area. When it's somewhat close (no more than, let's say 7-10 tiles away) - it's time for decisive action, you should "go for broke", trying to reel in the fish in one strong pull, before it will destroy your hook and the line. Once you caught the fish move timing, allow it pull away fist when tension builds up, and when it drops, start strong pull immidately without any regard about tension red zone (line & hook damage) or whatever. When did correctly this allows you to pull any fish in the game, including 200+ cm monsters.

8. So far i had not seen any difference between the fishing spots, results on the river and darkwallow lake or whereever else will be aproximately the same as long as where are splashes in the area. From what i've seen so far, any fish can be caught at any water body.

More investigation to follow :)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3423477126

This is "an example" haul from one Chum, seeded 8 times with foraged cockroaches, grasshoppers and earth worms. Fishing level 8, fishing perion 9:30 - 18:20, fishing location Dark Wallow lake, after middle of September (used infinite carry weight to get all caught fish for screenshot).

[The early worm deserves the bird]

Awesome experimenting!!! Couple of questions since you are experimenting and are really digging into this:


In the old system the best times to fish were between dawn and dusk or from 04:00-06:59 and 18:00-20:59. It used to give a 10% fishing bonus. Does this still apply? If so do you catch more fish/less junk during this time or are their more splashes? Likewise is November to February still the worst time to fish?

Does rain effect how many splashes/fish you get in an area?

How long is a few days? 3-4?

If you do not over fish an area can you continually fish from that spot? If so how many fish would you say it's safe to catch without over fishing?

You can bait chum with up to ten bugs. Does this look like a percentage chance to attract fish? I.e. 1 bug = 10% chance fish will come, 5 bugs = 50%, 10 = 100% or is it more random?

Before there was an issue where you could catch a fish so big that when you cut it up the pieces would be to big to fit in an oven. Have you encountered this issue?