Fishing, from first cast to full museum
How the fishing system actually works: rods and cast range, bait, shadow sizes, water types, and the habits that fill the fish museum fastest.
The short answer
Fishing works by casting into water and reeling in whatever shadow bites. Rods control cast range, bait summons a specific rarity of shadow, and each water type holds a different catch list. Any catch costs 12 stamina regardless of size, so stamina management matters more than precision.
The gear: rods and cast range
Rods are bought at Tackle Shop on the beach. Each upgrade extends how far you can cast, which matters because bigger fish tend to sit further out:
| Rod | Cost | Cast range |
|---|---|---|
| Worn Fishing Rod | 500g | 6 |
| Copper Fishing Rod | 1,000g | 8 |
| Iron Fishing Rod | 2,000g | 10 |
| Silver Fishing Rod | 3,000g | 12 |
| Gold Fishing Rod | 4,000g | 14 |
| Mistril Fishing Rod | 5,000g | 16 |
The rod tier is gated by your fishing skill level at the shop, so the ladder comes with practice, not just gold. The fish page shows every catchable fish with its conditions, and the fishing planner filters by season, water and weather.
How a catch actually works
Casting into water produces a shadow — small, medium, large or giant. Each shadow type draws from a different part of the water’s catch table, and which size appears is a property of the fishing spot, not the water type. In practice: a beach spot might roll mostly small shadows while a river spot rolls large ones, and giant shadows are always the rarest.
Every catch — whatever its size — costs 12 stamina. That is the real limit: a full stamina bar is roughly ten casts, so bring food or cook before a long fishing session.
Two more rules shape the routine:
- Water type matters more than location. River, pond, ocean and mine water each have their own catch list. The same season in a river and a pond gives different fish.
- Bait forces the shadow’s rarity. Common Fish Bait (50g) summons a common shadow, Uncommon Fish Bait (100g) an uncommon one, and Rare Fish Bait (150g) a rare one. Bait is how you target the fish you actually need instead of waiting on the pool.
Bait: the targeting tool
Bait is the difference between fishing for money and fishing for a specific museum set. A rare bait in the right water and season is the fastest way to a rare fish — and the four legendary fish need exactly that kind of targeting, plus a weather event. The legendary fish guide covers them in detail.
Common bait is also used by fish traps, which passively catch fish while you do something else (diving and traps guide).
The fishing perks worth taking
The fishing skill tree has a few standout perks. Catch of the Day and the reeling perks make catches easier; Perfect Catch rewards clean timing; and the treasure-oriented perks raise the odds of chests and relics in the catch pool. The full tree with tiers is on the skills page, and Legendary is the one that makes the four legendary fish catchable at all — without it, they do not appear even in the right weather.
Diving and the beach economy
Besides casting, the beach and rivers have dive spots that you can pick up free of stamina cost. Dive spots yield shells, seaweed and sometimes artifacts, and they are the only source of a few museum items. The diving guide covers where they appear and what they drop.
A week-one fishing routine
- Buy the worn rod early — it pays for itself in a day of river fishing.
- Fish the town river in spring: common fish like Chub and Perch bin for 40–45g each and keep the shipping box full.
- Bank every new fish once for the museum before selling duplicates; the fish wing is one of the fastest museum sets to complete (museum guide).
- Save rare fish for museum sets or requests rather than selling them — a rare fish in the right set pays more as a reward than in the bin.