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


For a successful fishing attempt, 75 connected tiles of liquid are required (or 1,000 for oceans, 50 for honey). The game first counts tiles of liquid to the left and right of the bobber before hitting solid blocks, then the depth below those tiles. A pond holding more than 75 tiles may still not be fishable, if its shape causes the game to calculate a number less than 75. The player may successfully fish in a 1 tile-wide pond, as long as it's 75 tiles deep.

It is not possible to fish when the player is submerged in liquid, even partially, and even within a completely unrelated body of water. It is also not possible to fish while Mounted. Fishing can however be done while moving, flying, while grappled to blocks, or while standing on top of water, such as when using Water Walking Boots.

Fishing in lava requires the Hotline Fishing Hook (not even the Golden Fishing Rod will work in lava). This seems to take longer than fishing in water.

The distance of the bobber to the shore does not matter, as long as the above requirements are otherwise met.

Quest fishing
Catching a quest fish for the Angler NPC requires 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 speak to him beforehand, nor have even encountered him, but the chances of finding the correct area to fish for a quest are much lower without speaking to the Angler first.

The quest fish cannot be caught if the player already has the quest fish in their inventory, nor if the quest fish was already turned in that day. Placing a quest fish in a container instead will allow another to be fished. Piggy Banks and Safes can be used for this purpose. Saving extras for future quests can save time and potion resources, as quests often repeat.

Multiple Quest fish can exist in a player's inventory, but can only be placed there manually from a storage item. Multiples cannot be picked up from the ground by any one player.

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 size of the lake: a lake  times smaller than 300 tiles (200 for honey) results in   times less fishing power. However, a lake larger than 300 tiles does not increase fishing power.

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.

Item priority

 * Some biomes override other biomes. The biome order for fishing is: Lava > Honey > Corruption = Crimson > Hallow > Snow > Jungle > Mushroom > Ocean > Forest.
 * Additionally, each biome has its own list of catches that each occupy "rarity slots". Each fishing attempt yields a particular slot. When fishing in overlapping biomes, a fishing attempt yields a certain rarity slot, and the higher-priority biome's catch occupying that slot will be caught. A fish from the lower-priority biome will only be caught if the higher-priority biome has no fish occupying that slot.
 * Most quest fish occupy the uncommon slot, with the exceptions of the Mirage Fish and Pixiefish, which are rare.
 * Quest fish have a higher priority within their native biome than other uncommon fish.
 * The Ocean overrides all lower priority biomes and defaults to catching Trout.
 * All other biomes default to catching Bass.

Tips

 * A good way to grind for Lightning Bugs is to either convert a large slab of land to Hallow, or one can dig a large hole (lined with dirt) and convert it to Hallow.
 * The most reliable way of obtaining Bait seems to be fishing in a surface forest, at night, close to NPCs: 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, while the NPCs still prevent enemy spawns.
 * To obtain all possible catches, a total of 16 liquid bodies must be found or created: Surface: Forest, Ocean, Jungle, Corruption, Crimson, Hallow, Snow, Honey; Underground: Forest, Snow, Hallow, Jungle, Mushroom; Cavern: Snow + Hallow/Corruption/Crimson; Floating Island; Lava (any Layer).

Trout.png Fish
These items can be caught at any time. Most can serve as crafting material for Food and other Potions. Some can also craft other item types, or serve as Bait. Most can be sold to NPCs.

Slimefish.png Quest fish
These are fish items that can be caught only when their particular quest is active, and serve no purpose other than acquiring quest rewards. You can determine the day's quest by speaking to the Angler NPC.

Scaly Truffle.png Usable items
These items can be used directly without further crafting. Some are Tools, while others are Weapons, Accessories, Potions, or Mount- or Pet-summoning items.

Wooden Crate.png Crates
Crates are grab bag-type items that can each contain random loot. They can be right-clicked from within the player's inventory, which will unload their contents. Rarer Crate types contain more valuable loot. Each Crate type can be stacked up to 99 in a single inventory slot.

Tin Can.png Junk
These items have no use or coin value. They can each be stacked up to 99 in a single inventory slot.

Trivia

 * Currently, the Neon Tetra has no use, though it can be sold.
 * The Clownfish quest description is a reference to the 2003 Walt Disney film, Finding Nemo.
 * The Bumblebee Tuna might be a reference to the "Bumble Bee" seafood brand.

History
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