How to fish in Stardew Valley

There are numerous activities and ways you can expand your farm in Stardew Valley. The most obvious answer is to work on the fields, harvesting the various crops and crafting specific recipes from those harvests, such as making hops in the summer and creating pale ale in the fall and winter months. But one activity that can be just as equally time-consuming and useful to expand your farm is fishing. There are certain starting farms you can do right on your property, but most of the time, you’ll have to grab a fishing rod and visit a unique water source to acquire fish.

If you’re looking for a specific fish to catch in Stardew Valley, we’ve listed out all of the fish and their locations. We’ve also listed some of the best fish to use in fish ponds.

You won’t be able to start fishing on your first day in Stardew Valley. The second day needs to happen, and when it does, Willy sends you a letter in the mail notifying you that he’s returned from a fishing trip. Once you receive that letter, you can visit him at the beach, and you’ll receive your starting fishing rod that you can use when you first begin. Luckily, regardless of what level of fishing or different pole you use, the concept remains the same.

Once you have your fishing pole, equip it on your hotbar, and then activate it to build up the energy to cast it out. The further up the bar you go, the further out your character will cast your fishing line. Your line will go out, rest in the water, and you’ll be waiting to see an exclamation point appear above your character.

When this happens, click the activation button again, and a small mini-game appears. Your goal in the mini-game is to keep the green bar where the fish icon is, and the fish icon will move up and down the bar. You can adjust the green bar’s height by hitting the activation button repeatedly, moving with the fish. Once the growing bar on the right side of the fish reaches the top, you’ll have caught the fish. While your green bar is not on the fish, you lose progress, and if you reach the bottom, the fish gets away. Potentially, there will be a treasure chest that appears on the bar that you can get that gives you treasure if you capture both the treasure chest and the fish. You cannot receive the treasure if you only receive that, and the fish gets away.

While fishing in Stardew Valley, you might see small bubbles on the water. These locations have four times the chance of a fish biting on your line and increasing the fishing zone, the green bar, by one rank, giving you more chance to capture a fish than it being trash. You can only receive this bonus if you cast your line into the bubbles and you see sparkles appearing over it while fishing.

As you level up your farmer’s fishing rank and acquire additional fishing lines, bait, and lures, you’ll increase the quality of fish you capture, the fish you encounter, and the chance to sell them on the market. It never hurts to kick back, relax, and enjoy a day of fishing when you’re not busy worrying about your farm.