Fishing is one of the five professions / skills in Stardew Valley. Fishing is actually a really fun mini-game compared to many other games that have fishing.
In order to catch a fish players must keep the fish icon within the green bar, as seen in the picture above. The goal is to completely fill the bigger bar to the right of the fish icon. If the fish jumps out of the green bar, the bigger bar will begin to fall.
To control the small green box and keep the fish icon inside of it, repetitively left click the mouse. Holding down the left mouse button makes the bar rise, letting go lets it go down. Try using a combination of clicking the mouse and holding the mouse down.
Below is a youtube video explaining how fishing works, followed by more of this fishing guide, such as how to get a fishing rod, and much more about fishing.
How to get a fishing rod
In order to get started fishing players need to get their first fishing rod from Willy, the fishing shop owner. His shop is on the beach, which can be found south of the town.
On the second day players should get a letter in the mail from Willy informing them that he has returned form a fishing trip. After receiving this letter players can head on over to the beach which will activate a cutscene. In this cutscene Willy explains that he finally saved enough for a new fishing pole and wants to give away his old one to preserve the spirit of fishing.
With that players receive the bamboo fishing pole. This is the most basic fishing rod available to players. The later rods have attachments, the bamboo rod does not.
Fiberglass rod
The Stardew Valley fiberglass rod can be purchased from Willy at the fishing shop after the player gains a couple levels in fishing. The fiberglass rod costs 1,800 and offers a slot for bait, as well as a bigger green bar during the catching fish mini-game.
Fishing bait on the rod makes fish bite more quickly and decreases the chance of finding trash instead of fish. Fishing bait only costs 5 per bait at Willy's shop, or can be crafted with bug meat. Because of how cheap fishing bait is, it's advisable to only fish with the use of bait once it becomes avilable.
Iridium rod
The Stardew Valley iridium rod can be bought from Willy at the fishing shop once the player has gained several fishing levels. The iridium rod costs 7,500 and has two slots, one for bait and one for tackles. On top of that the iridium rod has the naturally biggest green bar for the catching fish mini-game.
Fishing tackles can be crafted or bought and offer bonuses while fishing. For example, one tackle makes the green bar slightly larger, and another tackle makes fish escape more slowly when out of the green bar.
Generall the fishing tackles aren't woth using while farming normal fish. The only time that using fishing tackles is financially a good idea is when trying to catch the five legendary fish. The fishing tackles break after multiple uses, so keep that in mind when using them.
Crab Pot fishing guide
The Stardew Valley crab pot is unlocked very early on, at fishing level 3. Once unlocked it can be bought for 1,500 at Willy's fishing shop, or can be crafted at the cost of 3 iron bars and 40 wood.
These items are pretty fun way to level up the fishing skill. Players can place these crab pots in any body of water, ponds, lakes, rivers, or the ocean. Every day players need to put a piece of bait into the trap, and when they return the following day the trap will have crab pot-specific fish, or trash in them.
There are fish that can only be caught using the crab pot. As examples players can catch snails and crayfish. Crab pots are also a fantastic way to farm trash to use in the recycling machine.
Benefits and effects of gaining fishing levels
Fishing is one of the most fun Stardew Valley skill to level up. Each level not only unlocks new crafting receipes, but dramatically affects the fishing mini-game. Fishing levels also decrease the amount of energy it takes to cast the fishing rod.
Fishing levels make the green bar in the game much bigger. Each level also decreases how quickly the fish jumps up and down, making them much easier to catch. Some fish are literally impossible to catch without being a high enough level. Fishing levels do not affect the crab pots at all.
Stardew Valley fishing locations
There are actually many different places that players can cast a fishing rod and catch fish with it. Each of these locations offer different fish, and different ratios of trash to fish. Some of the areas are probably not worth fishing at until higher fishing levels as well.
Stardew Valley farm fishing spot
The Stardew Valley farm pond fishing location is one of the worst spots to fish in general. While the fish that can be found in the farm pond aren't fantastic, players can still make a decent amount of money fishing here. The ratio of trash finds to fish is fairly high in this spot. While using bait helps a little, for commercial fishing it's generally better to fish at one of the other locations.
Stardew Valley ocean fishing
Fishing at the ocean isn't necessarily the best way to make money in Stardew Valley either. A lot of the fish here aren't worth very much, and the ratio of trash to fish is better than the farm lake, but not as good as some of the other areas. One of the perks to fishing at the ocean is that players can immediately sell their fish to Willy if they want to.
Stardew Valley town river fishing
The river that runs through Pelican Town is one of the best places to fish in the game. The average price of the river fish is fairly high, and the ratio of trash to fish is really good. With bait and high fishing level, players rarely find trash in the river.Most of the fish in the river are fairly easy to catch which is nice.
Stardew Valley forest river fishing
The section of river that is south of the farm in Stardew Valley is another great location to fish for money. The ratio of trash to fish is fairly decent here. The fish that can be found at this fishing spot are worth a decent amount of money. This is another pretty good area to farm fishing skill and make some money.
Stardew Valley mountain lake fishing
The mountain lake in Stardew Valley is another great location to go fishing. Most of the fish in this area are worth a decent amount of money. Also the ratio of fish to trash is pretty good here, just like the two river areas. The fastest way to get to the mountain lake is through the back path on the northern side of the farm.
Stardew Valley forest pond fishing
The forest pond is south of the farm and isn't very good for fishing. The fish here aren't very great and the amount of trash compared to fish isn't very good either. This isn't a very profitable place to fish compared to the river. The one nice part is that this pond is extremely close to farm.
Stardew Valley secret woods fishing
Stardew Valley secret woods fishing is surprisingly not very good. The fish here aren't extremely valuable. It's still a very quaint and interesting place to go fishing.
In order to unlock the secret woods players need to get the axe upgraded to steel, which is level 3. Then they need to break the big log to the north west of the foraging forest south of the farm.
Stardew Valley mines fishing
Surprisingly there are floors in the mine that have water that can be fished. There are fish that can only be caught down in the mines. In order to get to these fishing spots players have to fight their way through many floors of the mine. There are three floors in the mine that can be fished on and players will need to be fairly good at combat in order to make it to all of them.
Fishing at the floor 20 mines
Floor 20 is the first floor of the mines that players can fish in Stardew Valley. In this area there are three things that can be caught. The first is trash. For whatever reason there's a lot of trash when fishing in the mines. Players can also catch two fish on this floor: ghostfish and stonefish. The large majority of the time players catch trash and ghostfish with the stonefish being the rare catch here.
Fishing at the floor 60 mines
Floor 60 mine fishing is similar to floor 20. Players also catch a lot of trash here, plus ghost fish. The big difference between floor 60 and floor 20 is that players can catch ice pips instead of stonefish. These fish are dramatically harder to catch than the stonefish and may require as high as fishing level 10 in order to catch. In return, these fish are very valuable.
Fishing at the floor 100 mines
Floor 100 is hands down the most interesting place to fish in Stardew Valley by far. This place is terrible for fishing from a money per minute sense. Players almost only find trash on this floor. There are no ghostfish to catch at all. Once every 20 or so trash catches, players will actually hook a fish. Here players can catch the rarest non-legendary fish: the lava eel. This is the most valuable fish in the game, other than the 5 legendary fish, which can only be caught one time.
This is the hardest fish to catch in the entire game. If players don't have level 10 fishing, it's nearly impossible to catch. With how rarely players actually hook the fish instead of trash, it's not financially smart to fish here. The main reason to fish here is just to have fun catching the rarest, hardest to catch fish. In a certain way, this is the most fun place for Stardew Valley fishing
