Fishing: your first catch
Fishing starts free, at any level. It happens in The Glasswater, east of the Hollow and north of the Shore.
Get your starter kit
- Choose Learn fishing from the welcome card or the Menu's Tutorial tab. It takes you to Tavi Moss at Reed Bank.
- Practise with Tavi's borrowed gear. Land one practice fish and you earn your one-time starter kit: a Willow rod, 50 m of line and 20 hooks.
- Visit Mara Reed in town at (30, 12) for lessons and supplies, or Nell Reed by the Glasswater's south entrance.
After the kit, supplies cost materials: line is 1 Hide + 1 Straw + 1 Sap per metre, and a set of leaders is 4 Scrap + 2 Bone for 20 bites. Bait and better rods are optional. Practice casts never count as real catches.
Open your own kit anywhere
Your kit is the Fishing tab of the Wardrobe (Build, P); Fishing gear in your bag opens it too. Its pages are Rod, Bait, Attachment, Your supplies, Shopping list, Catch tray, In your bag and Journal. Mara, Nell and Tavi keep their own windows for supplies, services, lessons and practice. Aquariums belong in your stable's interior menu.
Cast, hook, reel
Stand on a dry edge of the lake and point at open water. Press E, or tap Use on mobile. On touch, tap the water to aim before casting. Your carried rod is enough; you do not open an NPC menu to fish.
The whole accessible coast works, including high banks. Your fishing area changes with your position. The target must clear the terrain, stay within your rod's reach and use at least 5 metres of line. Watch the distance marker. A longer throw deploys more line and increases wear; it can improve the weighting of ordinary non-common fish, but does not improve legendary or mythic odds.
| Moment | Desktop | Touch |
|---|---|---|
| Cast / hook a bite | E | Use / Hook |
| Bring the fish in | Hold Space to reel | Hold Reel |
| Ease the strain | Release reel; A / D pull against the fish | Release reel; use the left/right pull controls |
| Stop the cast | Escape retracts | Tap Retract |
| Landed fish | E collect, R release | Tap Collect or Release |
Base bite time is 6–38 seconds, with earlier bites more common. Wits, bait and the Spinner can shorten it. Hook when the float dips; the normal window is 3.2 seconds. Hold reel to gain ground, then let go when tension climbs. Pull against the indicated direction: pulling with the fish adds strain. Keeping the line too tight breaks it; leaving too much slack loses the fish.
Bring it out of the water
The fish lifts out on your line after a successful catch. You can carry it around before choosing Collect or Release. Collect packs that exact fish into your bag when space permits; your kit's Catch tray holds up to 120 fish. Releasing ordinary fish grants fishing experience. The golden mythic cannot be released.
Horse souls fish through their human companion. Mounted pairs pause for the cast; when riding with a landed catch, the human carries the rod. This does not require a separate horse-shaped rod.
Fishing rank is separate from player level. Real catches and Mara's lessons grow it; rank unlocks better rods. The journal tracks discoveries and your largest catch for each species. Undiscovered entries in the game show only the name and unknown icon. Practice does not add catches or leaderboard records.
Next: Rods, line and bait, Fish and catch records, Aquariums.
Reviewed 2026-09-27. Market prices and remaining world stock are live, not fixed by this guide.