Fishing

Fishing is accomplished by using a Fishing Pole while having a Bait item in your inventory. By standing on dry blocks and clicking a point over water, a line is cast into the water. Re-click when the bobber moves in order to reel in the line, and hopefully, a caught item.

Requirements
There is a minimum required size of 75 connected tiles of liquid for a successful fishing attempt. The shape and depth don't matter at all (at least as far as being able to fish at all is concerned): the player can successfully fish in a 1-tile deep pond as long as the 75-tile rule is observed. Likewise, distance of the bobber to the shore does not matter.

It is not possible to fish when submerged in liquid, even partially, and even if it's in a completely unrelated body of water. It is also not possible to fish while Mounted. Fishing can however be done while moving, flying, or while grappled to blocks.

Quest fish
Catching a quest fish for the Angler has some further requirements:


 * You must be fishing in the proper biome and height for the day's current quest, which can be determined by talking to the Angler. You need not talk to the Angler beforehand, or even have ever encountered him, but without knowing where to fish you're unlikely to get the quest fish.
 * The player must have not yet turned in the quest fish to the Angler.
 * The player must not have the quest fish in his or her inventory. Placing it in a container will allow another to be fished. A quest fish can also be dropped on the ground in order to fish another, but multiple identical quest fish cannot be picked up by the same character. Multiples can exist in a player's inventory, but can only be placed there manually; multiples cannot be picked up from the ground by any one player. If saving multiples for yourself, it is best to use a container (any storage item).


 * Tip: Collecting extra quest fish can be useful, as quests often repeat. Saving extras to give the Angler in future quests can save you the time of having to head out to the correct biome again, and save potion resources. Piggy Banks and Safes can be used for this purpose.

Factors
Given the prerequisites for fishing are fulfilled, a number of factors influence whether an item will be caught on a particular attempt, and what the quality/rarity of the caught item will be. All factors listed here are combined to determine the chances of higher-quality catches. See the sections below for possible fish types, and other items that can be caught.


 * The Fishing Power of the Fishing Pole used.
 * The Bait Power of the Bait used.
 * Equipped items and Potions.
 * The time the player is fishing.

The following details the equipment, potion, and time boosts or penalties that apply. Most equipment must be acquired by completing quests for the Angler, but the Potions can also be crafted normally.


 * *Moon phases are numbered according to the graphic shown on the Moon page.
 * Bait Power also influences the chances that a Bait item will be consumed from the player's inventory. Items with higher Bait Powers will tend to last through more fishing attempts, as their chances for consumption will be lower.

Tips
There seems to be a direct correlation between size of the lake and quality of the catch: personal testing indicates lakes with upwards of ~200 tiles net no trash items, and at least in Forests it's only possible to catch Salmon in lakes several dozen tiles wide and deep (for reference, a 15-tile wide moat only began to yield Salmon, Iron Crates and even Gold Crates when it was dug 70 tiles deep).

When fishing, the bobber will move two or three times per "catch", after which the fish will go away but the line will remain cast. It doesn't seem to be necessary to reel in as soon as the bobbing starts, the player will get the catch as long as they click before the animation ends. The timing doesn't seem to affect the quality of the catch, either, at least across different tries in the same place.

It is possible to get a day's quest fish without having asked the Angler about it, though it's a lucky event since the player won't know where to fish in the first place. Taking it to him will then successfully complete the quest, but a day must still pass before the player can get another quest.

The most reliable way of obtaining Bait seems to be fishing in a surface forest, at night, close to one's base: staying still and restricting the spawns to critters will result in a lot of Fireflies spawning, and if alternating fishing and catching it's easy to end with dozens more bait. Water Candles and Battle Potions can be used to increase the spawn rate of critters.

To fish in a particular biome, the player only needs to be standing in it in such a way the background music and backdrop change to those specific to that biome. One notable exception to this is the Ocean: the player must specifically fish in a body of water whose surface is connected to the world's edge for it to count as Ocean fishing. Doing so in an unconnected lake, or in the ocean with an unconnected surface, while inside the Ocean biome will just net Bass and similars.

It is possible to fish in lava but only when using specifically the Hotline Fishing Hook (not even the Golden Fishing Rod will work in lava). This seems to take longer than fishing in water.

History
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