Fishing is one of the more underrated activities in Minecraft. For many players, it’s used to simply relax and soak in the atmosphere of an interesting biome or recent build. For other players, it can be a great source of supplies and experience.
Whatever the player is looking to get out of fishing, there are a few things to keep in mind in Minecraft. It’s important to ensure that certain steps are followed to fish properly, what to look for in a good Fishing Rod, and some helpful tips to make things easier and more enjoyable. Here’s everything players need to know about fishing and how to get better.
Updated on April 17th, 2022, by Russ Boswell: Although Fishing has changed quite a bit since Minecraft first introduced the mechanic, it's still an important part of the overall experience. Players that understand how fishing works can quickly stock up on a viable food source as well as some treasure items if they're lucky enough. There are some important and useful items that can drop during a fishing excursion that will give players quite the boost in the early game and put them on the path to quickly eliminating the Ender Dragon. To better showcase how useful Fishing can be, as well as some other interesting facts about it, the following guide has been updated with even more information.
How To Obtain A Fishing Rod
Nothing happens without a fishing rod so it’s important to know how to obtain one. The simplest method is to simply craft a fishing rod using two Strings and three Sticks on a Crafting Table. The Sticks must be placed in a diagonal from the bottom left to the top right. The two Strings are placed below the top right stick in a vertical column.
There are some ways to find a Fishing Rod in the game outside of crafting:
- Enchanted Fishing Rods can be caught as “treasure” while fishing.
- Unenchanted Fishing Rods can be caught as “junk” while fishing.
- Journeyman-level Fisherman Villagers sell Enchanted Rods for six Emeralds.
- Enchanted Fishing Rods can be found in Small or Big Chests in Underwater Ruins.
- Using a Carrot On A Stick or Warped Fungus On A Stick to zero durability.
- Dropped from Drowned mobs.
Casting A Line
The Fishing Rod will cast a line into the water with a small bobber that floats on top of the water. After a few seconds, a small stream of bubbles will approach the bobber. Upon reaching it the bobber will dip into the water, which means something has caught onto the hook.
The player has a half-second window to reel the Fishing Rod in and obtain whatever has caught on the hook. If the player misses this window they must either wait for something else to come along or they can recast.
There is a casting distance that players should be aware of, as it's possible to move around freely once the line has been cast and the bobber is in the water. Although players won't be able to toss their line to the maximum of 33 blocks, they can achieve the same effect by tossing the line into the water and walking backward away from the fishing spot. At 33 blocks, the line will snap and players will need to cast again.
It's also possible for players to toss their line into a waterfall. Doing so will cause the waterfall to move the bobber towards the top of the structure and if it moves past the maximum casting distance, it will break.
Where To Fish
Any area that has at least a single block of water can be fished in. That being said there are more ideal conditions that can make fishing much more enjoyable. It’s recommended to have at least a five-by-five pool that’s at least two blocks deep. This makes it easier to see the bubble particles and the player doesn’t have to be as precise when casting. Larger bodies of water are necessary especially when fishing for treasure.
It’s also advised to either properly heat the water or avoid cold environments so the water doesn’t turn into ice blocks. The ideal conditions to minimize the time it takes to catch something is to have a water block unobstructed from the sky and for it to be raining. Players shouldn’t have anything standing between them and the water. Whatever is caught, and the experience orbs will get stuck on any obstacles and not reach the player.
Players Can Create Their Own Fishing Areas
The best part about fishing in Minecraft is that players don't have to find an organic location to catch fish. Although a five-by-five (two deep) pool is ideal conditions, players are capable of fishing in a single block of water, assuming they can hit the "skill shot" of casting into the confined space. The only drawback is that players will likely be waiting a long time for any fish to show up, even with some hefty enchantments. Ideal fishing conditions can produce fish at a rather accelerated rate, but those that wish to fish in confined areas will have to wait longer between each catch.
That said, those that are stuck in specific locations while waiting for daylight or those that are deep in cave systems and need nourishment can simply create their own fishing pond. It may take a bit to get a bite, but it works in a pinch. In fact, players can even improve their cave-bound fishing by cutting a hole to the surface that will let sunlight and rain inside. Fishing in caves is definitely not a viable speed running tactic, but it can mean the difference between life and death for a player that is "miles" from the surface thanks to the new Caves and Cliffs update.
Enchantments
Fishing Rods can have the following enchantments placed on them:
- Lure
- Luck Of The Sea
- Unbreaking
- Mending
- Curse Of Vanishing
Lure is highly recommended as it decreases the amount of time it takes for something to appear by five seconds at each level. The average wait time is between five and 30 seconds. So with Lure III, something will appear near-instantaneously or up to fifteen seconds.
Luck Of The Sea increases the odds of treasure appearing by 2% per level up to 6%. It also decreases the odds of junk appearing to 4.2% at III. This is very useful for players wanting to catch something other than fish. Though even for players wanting fish this is recommended as it minimizes the amount of junk that appears.
Unbreaking increases the durability of the Fishing Rod. Normally the Rod has 64 uses before breaking. With Unbreaking III a Fishing Rod can be used 256 times.
Mending is a luxury enchantment that causes the Fishing Rod to be repaired by the experience gained while fishing. Even without Unbreaking, it’s possible for the Fishing Rod to self-repair without ever breaking, essentially making a Fishing Rod infinite use. Mending can't be acquired from enchantment tables, so if a player finds or acquires a Mending rod, they should hold on to it and combine it with another good rod using an anvil.
Curse Of Vanishing causes the Fishing Rod to disappear if the player dies while holding it. As fishing tends to be a passive activity that can be done in complete safety this isn’t too problematic.
Saving On Durability
Players can save on durability when it comes to their favorite rods by simply switching between rods AFTER a line has been cast. Due to the way that Minecraft's inventory system works, it's possible to cast out with one rod and then switch to another while leaving the bobber in the water and the line cast. Once a fish is caught, the durability check will take place on the currently equipped rod. Savvy players can freely swap back and forth between rods in this manner to keep their enchanted items safe from breaking.
Fish
When fishing there is an 85% chance that an Unenchanted Fishing Rod will catch a fish. With Luck Of The Sea III, this decreases to 84.5%. There are four Fish that can be caught while fishing:
- Raw Cod
- Raw Salmon
- Pufferfish
- Tropical Fish
Raw Cod is the most common fish and can be caught 60% of the time, Raw Salmon appears 25% of the time, Pufferfish 13%, and Tropical Fish is the rarest at 2%.
Raw Cod and Raw Salmon are functionally interchangeable. Both can be cooked for food, traded with Fisherman Villagers, used to tame Cats, heal Wolves, and befriend Dolphins. In terms of hunger saturation, Cooked Salmon has better stats than Cooked Cod, however.
Pufferfish is a type of poisonous fish that can nearly kill the player and give them a powerful poisoned status effect with some fun in-game visuals. It also can be used as a brewing ingredient to make Mundane Potions and Potions of Water Breathing.
Tropical Fish restores a very small amount of hunger and is useless unless acquired with a bucket instead of a fishing rod. Once in a bucket, it can be used to feed axolotls since the 1.17 update. Other fish can also be caught with a bucket, which will unlock the Tactical Fishing achievement within the game.
Treasure
When using an Unenchanted Fishing Rod there is a 5% chance the resulting item will be a treasure. With Luck of The Sea III, this increases to 11.3%. There are a number of treasure items that can be obtained through fishing. As of 1.16, however, AFK fishing farms that were previously used to fish for treasure are obsolete. Treasure items now require a larger body of water to fish from in order to appear.
All items have a 16.7% chance of appearing:
- Bow
- Enchanted Book
- Fishing Rod
- Name Tag
- Nautilus Shell
- Saddle
Bows aren’t terribly valuable as they’re cheap to craft and Enchanted Bows can be traded for. However, if players happen to fish for bows with the Mending enchantment, they should hold on to them and combine them with other powerful bows. Keep in mind that Infinity and Mending cannot exist on the same bow.
Enchanted Books are incredibly valuable given how hard they are to obtain. Since 1.16, however, fishing for enchanted books is trickier and more time-consuming. It's much better to use villager farms instead to farm for enchanted books. Still, Fishing is one way of getting rare enchantments like Mending.
Fishing Rods are only really handy if the current Fishing Rod needs to be repaired or breaks. Sometimes one can be caught with helpful enchantments, making it a solid upgrade from the current Rod.
Name Tags are only useful for players who want to name any Mobs and prevent them from despawning.
Nautilus Shells are only used for creating Conduits which are very valuable for underwater building, mining, and defense. The only other way to obtain these otherwise is by Wandering Traders, or by slaying Drowned mobs carrying these shells in their hand.
Saddles are handy for riding horses, striders in the Nether, and pigs but there are better ways to obtain them. They can be found in many Chests and Leatherworker Villagers can sometimes trade them.
Junk
Junk items have a 10% chance of appearing when using an Unenchanted Fishing Rod. With Luck Of The Sea III, they have a 4.2% chance of appearing. The following items appear:
- Lily Pad
- Bowl
- Unenchanted and broken Fishing Rod
- Leather
- Leather Boots
- Rotten Flesh
- Stick
- String
- Water Bottle
- Bone
- Ink Sac
- Tripwire Hook
In Jungle Biomes the player can also catch:
- Bamboo
- Cocoa Beans
By and large these items are largely useless to the player outside of niche circumstances. The most common junk that will appear are Lily Pads at 17% and the rarest is Ink Sacs at 1%. At the beginning of the game, and especially in survival maps where the player might be stuck on an island, some of these items can be highly valuable, such as string, bone, and leather.
Final Notes
It's recommended players keep the Particle Video Setting in their options menu set to anything above Minimal. On Minimal, the bubble particles no longer appear and players will only have the bobber to notify them of a catch.
As of 1.16, AFK Fishing is possible, but will not yield any treasure items and is only useful for experience points, food, and junk items. Treasure fishing requires a larger body of water to fish from, so players wanting to get their hands on enchanted books are better off making villager farms instead.
Minecraft was released on November 18, 2011, and is available on PC, Android, iOS, Raspberry Pi, Windows Phone, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation Vita, and Nintendo Switch.