Fish can be caught in oceans, lakes, rivers, and certain underground locations. Most fish can be caught with a fishing pole. The others require crab pots to catch. Some fish spawn only at certain times of the day, during certain seasons, or during certain weather. Upon catching a fish, the name of the fish and its length are displayed. Players can keep track of how many fish they've caught and their record lengths in their Collections menu. Fish can be used as ingredients in cooking and are required to restore the Fish Tank in the Community Center.
While players can fish near any body of water, some places have lower rates of success. These areas are more likely to produce trash, most of which can be turned into useful items using the Recycling Machine which unlocks at fishing level 4.
All fish can be caught regardless of weather, time, or season using Magic Bait.
Whenever a fish is hooked, a minigame which allows the player to catch it is triggered. In this minigame, a fish-like icon moves up and down inside a vertical space. The player controls a green bar, which ascends while the left mouse button is pressed and drops while it's not. The green bar bounces when it reaches the bottom boundary of the minigame unless a Lead Bobber is equipped.
A catch meter increases while the fish is kept inside the green area and decreases while it's not. Once the catch meter is fulfilled, the fish is caught. The fish escapes if the meter becomes empty.
If the player catches a fish without letting it slip out the green area once, the catch is considered "perfect", and that word is displayed above the minigame. Perfection increases the fish quality provided the fish was at least silver quality initially: silver quality fish become gold quality and gold quality fish become iridium quality. It also increases fishing experience by a multiplicative factor of 2.4.
It's only possible to know what fish is hooked after it's caught, as the minigame shows no information about the specimen. The player can, however, deduce it by observing its behavior and knowing the circumstances under which the fish was hooked, such as season, time, weather, and location. The only exception is with legendary fish, which can be seen wearing an orange crown in the fishing minigame.
Upon catching a fish, the name of the fish and its size are displayed. If the player got a new record length for the fish, an animation saying "New record!" is shown. Upon catching a legendary fish, a message saying "You've caught one of the legendary fish." is shown.
Behavior
There are 5 types of behavior that fish can have in the mini-game:
Mixed: These fish use the basic movement pattern.
Smooth: These fish have a more steady movement pattern.
Sinker: These fish have a faster downwards acceleration.
Floater: These fish have a faster upwards acceleration.
Dart: These fish move more random with a [2 x difficulty]% higher possible amplitude in both directions, moving erratically up and down the fishing bar.
These fish can be caught in the submarine ride at the Night Market during Winter 15-17, while the market is open (5pm – 2am). They can also be caught regardless of weather, time, or season using Magic Bait in the southwest corner of The Beach.
There are five fish in the game classified as "legendary". These fish are caught in specific places and have a high difficulty. These fish are shown wearing a crown during the fishing minigame. Legendary fish can only be caught once per save file, or once per player in Multiplayer.
The high difficulty of these fish makes catching them challenging. Higher fishing skills than required just to hook the fish may be necessary, especially from food bonuses (e.g., from Seafoam Pudding). Having the Iridium Rod and using a Tackle such as the Trap Bobber or Cork Bobber can also help. Ultimately, catching these fish can depend more on luck than on good reactions. Simply try again and again until the fish doesn't move too fiercely.
It is impossible to catch these fish while Mr. Qi's Extended Family quest is active because the corresponding Legendary Fish II fish will be hooked instead.
There are five legendary fish II that can be caught during Qi's Extended Family quest. They are caught in the same locations and have the same difficulties as the older generation of fish. Note that the fishing bar is the standard fish bar and not distinctly marked as it is with the original legendary fish. In addition, unlike the original legendary fish, it is possible to catch these fish more than once.
It is impossible to catch them when the quest is not active. The percent chances of hooking these fish are the same as for the original legendaries. Catching these fish is not required to obtain the Master Angler achievement.
Fish caught in crab pots are always normal quality are worth 5 fishing XP. Only foraged fish can be of normal, silver, gold, or iridium quality and are affected by the Botanist profession bonus. Some are only catchable using a baited Crab Pot.
Items gathered via foraging or from monster drops will not count towards the Fish collection nor assigned a catch length. They must be caught using a Crab Pot to count. Cockles, Oysters, and Mussels caught using a fishing pole on the Beach Farm will also count towards the collection.
While none of these items can be eaten directly, all crab pot fish can be used in cooking recipes that require a "fish" and some have specific recipes of their own. Most catch of normal quality except Crab, Lobster, and Crayfish is worth less than data-sort-value="75">75g, making it more profitable to turn them into Sashimi rather than to sell these items. (This changes with the Fisher and Angler professions and the quality of foraged items.)[1]
Constantly filters water to find food. In the process, it removes dangerous toxins from the environment.
data-sort-value="40"
40g
50g
60g
80g
data-sort-value="50"
50g
62g
75g
100g
data-sort-value="60"
60g
75g
90g
120g
Ocean
10%
14%
1–5
Other Catchables
There are some non-junk items players can reel in while fishing. They do not trigger the fishing mini-game but are instead immediately picked up. Each gives 3 fishing XP when caught and is always standard quality.
All three are displayed in the Fish section of the collection tab and count towards the four fishing achievements.[2] However, they are not otherwise considered to be a fish, and therefore cannot be sold to Willy at the Fish Shop nor used in place of "Any Fish" in recipes.
Below is a quick reference table showing when it is profitable to turn fish into Sashimi based on the quality of the fish. Fish that never make a profit when turned into Sashimi are not listed (Crab, Crayfish, Lobster, Legendary Fish, etc.). Fish whose sell price is data-sort-value="75">75g, the same as Sashimi, are not listed.
*Turning Sardines into Dish O' The Sea to temporarily increase fishing level may be a better choice.
**Turning Rainbow Trout into Trout Soup is more profitable, and Trout Soup temporarily increases fishing level.
References
↑Crab pot contents are determined by CrabPot::DayUpdate. For mariners, there is no chance of junk, and all creatures are equally likely. For non-mariners, there is a 20% chance of junk, then each creature is checked sequentially using the chances specified in Fish.xnb. One result of this algorithm is that the actual chance of finding a given creature is smaller than the value in the input file, because it can only be found if junk items and all previous creatures failed their tests.
↑In the game data (ObjectInformation.xnb) the type assigned to Seaweed and Algae is "Fish", but it is not assigned the Fish category (-4). The label displayed in-game and most uses are controlled by the category.
1.4: Added the ability to catch iridium quality fish with perfect catches. Added Flounder and Midnight Carp. The Legend can now be caught only once per save file. Snails are now a loved gift for Vincent.