How to fish?

[SalgoudTF]

Would someone please tell me how to land a fish? The only fish I have ever caught is the first one with Jack. I have tried at least 20 times and the line always breaks. So frustrating! A detailed tutorial would really be appreciated.

[CrabApples]

Fishing is pretty basic. Once you go through the thing with Jack, you should be able to fish freely.

This video might give you some help on things though:

 

[Mizz-Lucy]

I have this weird thing where sometimes I can't cast the line. My character she just wobbles about (it is funny though) and  Other times I can cast real easy.

Does anyone else have this?

[flu007]

Ok, I'll try my hand at a basic how-to-fish for PC...

- First off, bait determines what type of fish you'll catch. To put it simply: the food bait (bread, cheese etc.) is for small fish, the lures are for medium and large fish. I think the crickets and worms can catch medium fish too, but I never bothered with those beyond the story missions where they make you. Once you can get the lures, I use those for medium and large fish. (There are river, lake and swamp lures.)

- Once you cast, you use the space bar to reel the bait in very slowly. The R anf F keys determine the speed of the reeling-in; R to speed up, F to slow down.

In practice: usually when you cast, it'll automatically be on the slowest reel-in speed, so you just cast and keep the space bar pressed and it'll slowly pull the bait closer to you...

- Until the fish bites. Usually it'll nibble a little first, then it bites. When it does, click the left mouse button to hook it. Figuring out the right time to click takes a little bit of practice, but not all that much, the visual and audio cues should be pretty obvious, and once you get the hang of it, it's really easy.

- Then, very important, once it bites, release the space bar (stop reeling it in) until it stops trashing about. When the fish goes quiet, start reeling again. When the fish starts trashing again, stop reeling. That's how you break the line.

- When you've hooked a fish and are reeling it in, that's when you need the R key to speed up the reeling. Otherwise it'll keep reeling in very slowly and it'll take forever.

- So in practice: you hooked the fish, release the space bar until it stops trashing about. When it goes quiet, hold space again and tap the R key a couple of times to speed it up. When it trashes again, release space bar. Goes quiet again, hold space again, and press R a few times again. And so on, until you land it. That's the basics.

- Then also: you'll see this tip pop up in the top left corner of the screen every time you hook a fish, I think. Something like, move the stick back and then reel in quickly while moving forward, or something. What this means in practice is: so you hooked a fish, it stopped moving, so you hold the space bar and press R a few times to reel in faster. Then start moving the mouse left and right. This will make your dude pull the stick back to the left, then move it forward again then back to the right, then forward again, and each time you do that, the fish gets pulled a few feet closer, and it'll considerably speed up the time it takes to reel it in. (I hope this makes sense, but I'm sure it will once you actually try it.) This is especially important when you hooked a big fish, otherwise it takes forever.

And that's pretty much it, really. It's very easy once you get the hang of it.

Oh, one more tip: if you use Eagle Eye (CAPS Lock) with the rod equipped, or even while fishing, you can see the fish under water. This is very useful to determine if there are fish, and what size they are, so you can decide on what bait to use.

Hope this helps. Happy fishing!

[SalgoudTF]

Now THAT was just what I needed, flu007! Thank you very much. Thanks to the other responders as well. And I knew there had to be a way to reel in faster! R, of course! That is awesome! I am going to be trying that tonite! Thanks, again!

[Vonjager]

23 minutes ago, SalgoudTF said:

Now THAT was just what I needed, flu007! Thank you very much. Thanks to the other responders as well. And I knew there had to be a way to reel in faster! R, of course! That is awesome! I am going to be trying that tonite! Thanks, again!

Don't tap R too fast after landing a fish. If it's a big fish, just increasing your reeling speed quickly can cause the line to snap.

[Vonjager]

1 hour ago, flu007 said:

-snip-

REALLY useful tip in the Eagle Eye thing. I had no idea. That is SO nice. Thanks, flu!

[SalgoudTF]

That video is really good, CrabApples. I got a lot of good tips out of it. Thanks! I keep going back to that for lots of info.

[Jstevensdk7]

Greetings,

I'm following all of these steps, but when I go to land the fish, the fish no matter where, what lake or river, the fish just drops off and I cannot land (grab) it. I have tried different LMB, RMB and other combinations to no avail. To reel in I have to hold LMB while pressing space bar, when it struggles release space bar but when I get the fish to shore and just keep holding RMB and space bar, fish just drops down in the water and keeps looking at me.

Any thoughts?

Edited November 26, 2021 by Kean_1
fixed response tied into quote

[Kean_1]

@Jstevensdk7

I fixed your post for you.  It got tied into your quote from the OP.

[cybapete]

On 12/7/2019 at 1:35 AM, SalgoudTF said:

Would someone please tell me how to land a fish? The only fish I have ever caught is the first one with Jack. I have tried at least 20 times and the line always breaks. So frustrating! A detailed tutorial would really be appreciated.

as you are reeling the fish in at times it will struggle (you'll know because the water will go white & foamy) it's very important that you STOP REELING IN or the line will break and move the pole in the direction the fish is moving
when that stops you can reel in again this will happen 2-4 times before you finally land the fish