Willy's Hands-On Basic and Advanced Fishing Tips and Techniques

Willy offers you his "hands-on" advice for catching both easy fish and stubborn fish. These tips are good for beginners and experts alike.

Intro

Welcome to Willy's Hands-On Basic and Advanced Fishing Tips and Techniques! Here, I'm going to briefly go over a few basic and advanced techniques related to fishing in Stardew Valley.

The most important aspect of fishing is you can do it right from the beginning, no money necessary! Visit me (Willy) down by the ocean on the bottom-right part of your map and I'll hook you up with an old bamboo fishing rod I found in the dumpster when I was washing the barnacles off the pier.

I'll make you an expert in no time, young one!*

*Offer subject to change without notice. Your results may vary. Willy's Hands-On Basic and Advanced Fishing Tips and Techniques not intended to diagnose, prevent, treat, or cure any disease. If you are experiencing any symptoms, discontinue use and consult your doctor.

Beginner Tips

The most obvious tip is to upgrade your fishing skill as soon as possible by fishing a lot, so you can purchase the Fiberglass Rod (followed by the Iridium Rod). This will allow you to use bait while the Iridium Rod will allow you to utilize both bait and tackle. I recommend always baiting your rod because it will help you catch a LOT more fish (and catch them faster) than without bait.


The tackle that works best for catching the rare/legendary/pain in the butt fish is the Trap Bobber. When a fish is off your fishing bar, he will get away significantly more slowly!

If you run low on energy while fishing, it's easy to get more energy. Eat any algae you've caught first (they are common, nearly useless, and cheap). If you still need more energy, go ahead and eat one or two of the cheapest fish you've caught. You'll regain enough energy to catch half a dozen or more fish to replace it!

In the beginning, you'll need to sell most or all of your fish so you can get any gear you may need. You might want to upgrade your backpack, get some seeds so you can farm crops, etc. Fishing a full day (once you get good at catching fish) can easily net you 3,000 or more gold!

If you come across any treasures while fishing (in the early game) keep them in case you'll need them later. Ore, artifacts, and such usually have their uses and you can get money from the fish rather than selling the treasures you find.

Whenever you can afford to do it and it's worth doing (especially for the trickier fish), eat a Fish Stew or Trout Soup before fishing. They will grant you bonuses of +3 and +1, respectively, to your Fishing skill. It'll last for a few minutes of real time and give you an edge to catch those pesky legendary fish. This can also help you if you are a beginner and low-skill so you can get some help catching the fish.

Also note that the further you cast from any land or walkable area (deeper out into the ocean or closer to the center of a lake), the more likely you are to get the rare fish and silver-star and gold-star versions of the fish you are trying to catch. Always cast the farthest out you can unless it's going to get you close to another piece of land, a bridge, etc. This will maximize your effort and time to get the most money and value.

Here's my favorite spot to fish when I'm just fishing for money. I used it to max out my fishing and quickly upgrade my gear. It's in the upper-right side of the map, in the mountain area, past the mine and Adventurer's Guild.

Advanced Tips

OK, so you think you're a bigshot, huh? You know everything there is to know about fishing in Stardew Valley? Not quite. I'm sure I have a tip up my sleeve that you haven't yet discovered on your own.

If you are reasonably wealthy and/or skilled, you will want to stop selling fish you catch. Save them to use as gifts, for bundles, cooking, and so on. I keep several chests with nothing but hundreds of fish I've caught to use for cooking, gifts, quests, etc.

To keep hold of a difficult fish, the best way to hold the line is to rapidly tap the button to pull up on the fishing bar, rather than to hold the button down. This will allow you to fine-tune your bar location and react more quickly to any of the fish's sudden movements. Even if the fish is right near the top of the fishing zone, rapidly tapping the button will allow you to release the bar sooner if the fish dives, and the bar will have less upward momentum and will fall sooner.

For any fish that is not terribly difficult to catch (those than can only jerk up or down less than half the size of your fishing bar), you will want to keep the fish in the center of your bar at all times.


This is common sense but I posted it anyway, because...

For any fish that is more difficult (and can jerk up or down MORE than half the size of your fishing bar), you will want to keep the fish at the edge of your fishing bar. This is because if you keep him in the middle of your bar, he will always jerk far enough to start getting away; however, at the end of your bar, you have a 50/50 chance that he will jerk but stay on the bar (giving you time to adjust) or BARELY getting off the edge (also buying you time).


Using the second method, if the fish is within one fishing bar length from the top or bottom, keep your fishing bar on the opposite side of the fish. If the fish moves to the very end of the bar, it's far easier to adjust your position than if you hold against the bottom or top and he jerks too far away.


Also keep in mind that most fish have general patterns for their movement. For example, in my experience, the Rainbow Trout has a tendency to move upward somewhat rapidly near 3/4 of the way to the top and then drift down a bit more slowly. Using patterns, you can often predict the general movements of even the most difficult fish, enabling you to wait in the right area when they jump off your bar instead of pursuing them and letting them get away when they immediately jump back on the other side of your bar again.

When going for the legendary fish, don't forget your bait and trap bobber!

Outro

I hope you've enjoyed my brief guide but found it helpful. You can go from a fisherman like me to a corporate giant in no time if you stick with it and practice!

Also, make sure you buy your bait from me. Don't craft it yourself. I need the money to patch a hole in my dinghy.

Happy fishing!

[Josefki]

ok
thx

[Blaze, Syndicate Enforcer]

Click the bait in your inventory, which will "pick up" the bait. Then right-click on your fishing pole to add the bait. It works the same for the tackle. Keep in mind you can't bait the Bamboo Rod and you can only put tackle on the Iridium Rod.

[Josefki]

how do i bait

[Blaze, Syndicate Enforcer]

Crab Pots are helpful to upgrade your skill without a lot of work. I left them out because you have to get high enough level to craft them or spend a bunch of money on them and I was trying to help people get rich instead of spending money. He's right, though. :)

[Cramboui The Stupid]

Pro tip to upgrade your skils faster even if you're not good at fishing first : crab pots, even those gave me level skills even if I wasn't fishing a lot...

[Blaze, Syndicate Enforcer]

Yeah, I haven't really tried hardcore fishing all over the map to see what the "best" spot is. I just know that I explored the map early on and found that spot and got rich pretty quickly and invested the cash into upgrading my fishing gear, getting bait, and buying plenty of seeds to compound the income.

[swa]

Nice fishing spot! I got a largemouth bass the first day I tried it!

[Blaze, Syndicate Enforcer]

:)

[LunaLoupGarou]

Thank you!

[Blaze, Syndicate Enforcer]

Sure you can. Buy lots of seeds so you can plant tons of crops for cooking, bundles, profits, etc. Buy stone and wood and other supplies if you don't have enough for crafting, having Robin put buildings up, etc. Invest in other things like better gear to adventure (if you can) but keep plenty of cash for expenses and crops so you can increase your profits constantly!