Fishing

Casting

1. Craft a rod: a Bamboo Rod needs only bamboo or sticks and fibre.
2. Hold it and cast into open water.
3. Wait for a bite, then reel in.

Carry Fish Bait in your satchel and one is used each cast: bites come faster and rare fish come closer. Better rods cast further, and rare fish notice a shiny one.

Where and when

Each fish has its own waters, time of day and sometimes weather:

• Waters: rivers, lakes, the sea and wetland marshes.
• Time: dawn (about 4:48 to 7:12), day (to 18:00), dusk (to about 20:38) and night.
• Weather: some fish bite three times as often in rain, fog, clear skies or storms, and a few bite only in one weather.
• Depth: some big fish only live in deep water.

The table on Fish lists every fish with its hint. In the game, the almanac shows the same clue before you've caught one.

Junk and treasure

Now and then the line brings up an old boot, driftwood or pond weed. Driftwood snaps into sticks and pond weed makes compost, so even junk is useful. Rarely you'll pull up treasure: a bottle with a map, a River Pearl, a pouch of coins, a gold nugget, even moonstone. Better rods bring more treasure and less junk.

Trophies and legends

Rare fish and better are trophies: their length is kept with the fish. The legends of the valley are the ones everyone talks about:

• Old Whiskers, a giant catfish of deep rivers on rainy nights,
• the Golden Mango Koi, only at a clear dawn in calm lakes,
• the Glyph Sturgeon, in the deepest water at night, its scales glowing like moonstone.

Cooking your catch

Common and uncommon fish grill into Grilled Fish at a campfire (big ones give two). Grilled fish goes into fish stew and the fisher's rice bowl, which makes you a better angler for a while.