So how do I actually catch fish?

[williams_482]

So, it's mid-May, and I'm hungry. I've got a rod. I've grunted up some worms and put them on the rod. I'm right next to an ocean so I cast the rod into the ocean and wait several minutes. Nothing. Move a few dozen blocks and try again with a similar wait. Nothing. I haven't seen any fish in the water, and nothing seems to be biting.

What am I doing wrong?

[LadyWYT]

26 minutes ago, williams_482 said:

What am I doing wrong?

Maybe try a different bait? Doesn't necessarily need to be stinkbait, since regular bushmeat and redmeat should work. I can't say that I know all the specifics of fishing, but different fish are supposed to take different bait and it might be that ocean fish don't like worms. 

[MKMoose]

The most likely option is that you happened to be in a place where there are no fish, as fish follow fish distributions similar to ores, although they're binary and not based on density - either there is fish, or there is no fish. More specifically, there's 10 groups of fish, each with a shared animal map, I think randomly assigned to different species, so you'll find some different species in different spots.

Worms should generally work as bait in any region, since juvenile fish bite worms. Then, once you fish out a juvenile of a larger species, then you can try meat for a chance at adults, or you can use small and tiny fish to specifically target larger adults. Stinkmeat and meat are generally the most universal type of bait, but they can be expensive, so it can be better to first check for fish with worms or stinkdough, and then target the larger ones (if present at all) with meat or with the small fish fished out in the process.

That said, I could be wrong, but there's also a chance that juvenile fish don't currently spawn at all, based on what I'm seeing in the assets. If you do find any juvenile fish, I would be greatly interested.

 

Here's the fishing guide text, for your convenience, since it's bugged in-game:

Quote

Equipment you will need

Getting started with fishing is very simple. You need only a fishing pole, bait, and a large body of water. You can make a worm grunter to get worms, or cook up some stink bait - both these baits will catch a wide array of smaller fish. You can also use raw meats, and smaller fish. You can even use no bait at all, but it will take a very long time to catch fish that way. Refer to the handbook entry for the fishing poles and the worm grunting stick to see how to use them.

With bait and a pole, you're ready to go find the fish!

 

Finding The Fish

Finding where the fish are is the most time-consuming step. Fish are of course divided into fresh and saltwater species, but both types use the same baits and are fished for in the same manner. There do not need to be visible fish present - if there are, they will respond to your bait if it lands close. But otherwise you will still get bites and fish, even if no visible fish are present. The body of water in which you fish should be fairly large. Small puddles are unlikely to have fish.

Each species of fish is present in certain climatic ranges, and even within that range they do not cover 100% of the map. In more moderate climates there should be enough fish types around that the odds of having no fish in a spot are very low, but at the extreme hot and cold ends (especially cold) there are fewer viable species, and the chance of having a dead zone of no fish is higher.

 

Using The Right Bait

Certain fish will only bite on certain types of bait. In general, worms will catch smaller fish, stink bait will catch small and medium fish, and the largest fish will only be caught with meat, or dead fish as bait (there are exceptions though). There are much fewer large fish species, so if you use bait that only large fish will bite on, you are much more likely to encounter 'dead zones' where no large species are. But if you switch to another bait, you might still catch smaller fish.

Juvenile fish - even of the large species - will generally bite on baits that smaller fish bite on. So a possible tactic is to use smaller baits, and note the areas where you catch juvenile versions of large species. Then you can come back to those spots with larger bait to try to catch the adults. You can also catch small fish in that spot, and then use them as bait for the larger fish.

 

Why Am I Not Catching Fish?

It is important to realize that a location can become 'fished out' if you catch a large number of fish in a short period of time. Fish populations do recover over time, including if you totally 'fish out' an area. Note that there are currently no mechanics that make fish respond to things like temperature, weather, or seasons, and the type of fish found in a given spot will not change over time.

If the area is not fished out, then you may not be catching fish because the species that are present, do not like the bait you are using. Otherwise, there may be actually no fish present in this area, in which case you'd need to move to another spot.

Note that there is intentionally no message to tell you when an area is fished out, or just has no fish. It is up to you to decide if you're not catching fish due to using the wrong bait, being in the wrong spot, or the area being fished out.

Edited yesterday at 02:13 PM by MKMoose

[williams_482]

Evidently I was just very unlucky about where I chose to fish. I've ranged out further, and most places I try with worm bait will usually yield fish within a minute.