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.

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Whatever your interest in fishing there are a number of things to keep in mind. 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 you need to know about fishing and how to get better.

Nothing happens without a fishing rod so it’s important to know how to obtain one. The simplest method is to simply craft one 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.

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 signifying 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 can recast.

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.

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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. It’s also advised to either properly heat the water or avoid cold environments so the water doesn’t turn into ice blocks.

Ideal conditions to minimize the time it takes to catch something is having a water block unobstructed from the sky and for it to be raining.

Then finally, players shouldn’t have anything standing between them and the water. Whatever is caught and the experience orbs will get stuck on the obstacle and not reach the player. Because of this, player’s should have nothing obstructing them or a Hopper placed nearby to catch the items.

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. It’s considered a luxury enchantment because it is possible to obtain Rods by fishing to either repair or replace over time.

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.

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.

Pufferfish has all the same uses as Cod and Salmon. It also can be used as a brewing ingredient to make Mundane Potions and Potions of Water Breathing.

Tropical Fish is solely decorative and has no practical use.

When using an Unenchanted Fishing Rod there is a 5% chance the resulting item will be 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:

• Bow
• Enchanted Book
• Fishing Rod
• Name Tag
• Nautilus Shell
• Saddle

All items have a 16.7% chance of appearing.

Bows aren’t terribly valuable as they’re cheap to craft and Enchanted Bows can be traded for.

Enchanted Books are incredibly valuable given how hard they are to obtain. They are perhaps the primary reason players fish outside of obtaining experience or gathering Fish. Fishing is also perhaps the best way to farm for these items.

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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 is a solid upgrade from the current Rod.

Name Tags are only useful for players who want to name the Mobs.

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 is by Wandering Traders.

Saddles are handy but there are better ways to obtain them. They can be found in many Chests and Leatherworker Villagers can sometimes trade them.

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 are Ink Sacs at 1%.

Its 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 and in the Bedrock version AFK fishing isn’t possible. Fishing must be done manually short of cheats or bugs that can be exploited.

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