Stardew valley fishing is impossible at times

[Flowerdough]

So i have the iridium rod AND THE TRAP LURE AND THE BAIT FROM LINUS, i try to catch certain fish but when they appear some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ psychopath created these fish in some godforsaken nazi laboratory because the fish thing goes INSANE and the best i can possibly do is fight for a half hour solid irl and lose it anyway. i've been playing stardew valley since it came out and the best i could ever do was mostly complete that damned fish tank. and yet the dev says he aint fixin this

[Spawn of Totoro]

There are mods to make it easier.

[Chocice75]

What's your character's fishing skill? Each level increases the size of the fishing bar.
It's possible to get above level 10 for a short period of time by eating certain food items which have a Fishing modifier, such as Trout Soup.

I also recommend using the Cork Bobber and not the Trap Bobber, since the Cork Bobber increases the size of your fishing bar by 24 pixels (with no scaling).

[ehyder]

I have also noticed a certain amount of variance in how difficult the fish are to catch. Sometimes it is easier to catch a very hard fish than a hard fish. And sometimes the medium fish are painful to catch, other times not. Besides the advice already given I do suggest some patience, you may luck out and catch the fish on its "slow" day.

[argenex]

It's pretty terri-bad and not fun, and if you have severe carpal tunnel in both wrists like I do, it's pretty much impossible.

It's honestly the one thing in the game that is way off and stinks like an ape turd.

[ehyder]

I don’t have wrist problems fortunately, but I did switch to a controller because I was having a lot of trouble with the repetitive mouse actions. I still use mouse for some actions but using a controller helps me reposition if necessary, and has helped me master the fishing.

[RamboRusina]

Personally I hated fishing, after I got skill to 10 and every fish I quit it entirely. For me it came down to just memorizing patterns more than catching fish then and there. Sure some fish you can catch on first try but the harder ones are way easier after 1-2 tries. I never had any fun fishing TBH. It was just easy way to make money early game and complete some community house quests.

[SashaMkai]

Because of my arthritis I use a mod called Skip Fishing Minigame. If you have problems with your hands I fully recommend this mod. For that matter I fully recommend it even if you don't have problems. I too hated the fishing.

[Vinyl Scratch]

Other than Octopus, Legend, and Glacier I disagree.
Fishing is quite easy, and a good way to get early game money.

(also your fishing bait is irrelevant to how difficult it is to catch fish)

[pcdeltalink]

The only vanilla solutions I can think of are two things.

1. Any food that raises fishing levels should also increase the size of the green bar making the fish easier to catch.
2. Trap bobbers. They slow down how quickly the fish escapes and can really make a difference on those harder fish.

Aside from that mods are your best friend. They can range from instant fishing success or a full bar or just lowering the difficulty slightly. Some mods are even configurable and let you tweak how much easier you want the fish to be so it doesn't completely become an afk task.

[parapara42]

Originally posted by pcdeltalink:

1. Any food that raises fishing levels should also increase the size of the green bar making the fish easier to catch.

this^ and each fish has fave spot and fave weather if you are really on the stage of just collecting the most stubborn ones. It is a bit difficult, but I guess I am one of the weird ones that sometimes turn stardew valley up just to go fish a bit xD Trap bobber is alright thingy, but I think the food gives you the best advantage.

[Dimensional Traveler]

Originally posted by parapara42:

Originally posted by pcdeltalink:

1. Any food that raises fishing levels should also increase the size of the green bar making the fish easier to catch.

this^ and each fish has fave spot and fave weather if you are really on the stage of just collecting the most stubborn ones. It is a bit difficult, but I guess I am one of the weird ones that sometimes turn stardew valley up just to go fish a bit xD Trap bobber is alright thingy, but I think the food gives you the best advantage.

No reason you can't use both.

[Karras]

I am also missing some of the 90+ difficulty fish, like the Octopus etc. I think I am lvl 9 in fishing and so far I have used the tackle that reduces fishing bar 'decay' by 66% instead of the cork bobber that seems to be increasing it. Which is better? I am asking because I think I am only like 10-15 fish away from completing the collection.

Edit: If I cannot make it happen, does installing mods break achievements?