🎣 Fishing Guide: Every Season, Weather & Legendary Fish

How the Fishing Bar Works

The minigame is a vertical bar: keep the fish icon inside your green rectangle until the progress bar on the right fills. The green bar is 96 pixels tall at Fishing level 0 and grows 8 pixels per level, up to roughly 284 pixels at extreme buffed levels - that growth is why fishing literally gets easier as you level. Tap the use button to nudge the bar up, hold it to rise faster, release to fall; the real enemy is momentum, so make small corrections and let gravity work for you on dart-type fish.

A 'Perfect' catch - the fish never left the bar - multiplies XP by 2.4 and upgrades silver/gold quality fish by one tier, which is the only route to iridium-quality fish without a Quality Bobber. Treasure chests appear in about 15% of catches (more with a Magnet, the Treasure Hunter tackle, or the Pirate profession), and losing the fish loses the chest, so prioritize keeping the fish hooked while nudging the bar over the chest icon.

Learning to Fish: Rods, Bait, Distance

If the minigame frustrates you at level 0, buy the 25g Training Rod - it only catches common fish but sets your effective skill to 5 for bar size. Upgrade to the Fiberglass Rod at Fishing 2 (1,800g, accepts bait) and the Iridium Rod at Fishing 6 (7,500g, bait plus tackle). Bait halves bite time; the sparkle pools on the water called bubbles make fish bite four times faster and count as one extra tile of distance from land.

Distance from land matters more than cast length: the game tracks up to 5 tiles from any shore, and bobbers further out catch less trash, larger and higher-quality fish, and are required for some species. Stand at the widest, straightest stretch of water you can find, cast toward the middle, and aim for bubbles whenever they appear.

Best Money Fish by Season

A season-by-season shopping list (base values are approximate; quality, the Fisher/Angler professions and the Fish Smoker raise them significantly):

| Season | Fish | Where / When | Base value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spring | Catfish | River, rainy days | 200g |
| Spring | Largemouth Bass | Mountain lake, all day | ~100g |
| Summer | Sturgeon | Mountain lake (also caviar ponds) | 200g |
| Summer | Dorado | River, daytime | ~100g |
| Fall | Walleye | River and lake, night, rain | ~105g |
| Fall | Salmon | River | ~75g |
| Winter | Squid | Ocean, night | ~80g |
| Winter | Lingcod | Any freshwater | ~100g |
| Any | Lava Eel | Mines floors 60+, Volcano Forge | 700g |
| Any | Ice Pip | Mines floors 60+ | 500g |

Rainy days are always the best fishing days: exclusive species like Catfish and Eel come out, and you are not losing farming time. The Night Market submarine (Winter 15-17) is the only source of Blobfish, Spook Fish and Midnight Squid.

The Five Legendary Fish

Each legend is one catch per save file (per player in multiplayer). Bubbles allow the bobber to sit one tile closer to land, a Curiosity Lure raises hook odds on most of them, and Magic Bait lets any legend bite regardless of season:

| Fish | Season | Weather | Location | Fishing level | Hook chance | Base value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Legend | Spring | Rain | Mountain lake, cast 4+ tiles from land | 10 | 10% (20% with lure) | 5,000g |
| Crimsonfish | Summer | Any | Far east end of the beach, past the 300-wood bridge | 5 | 18% | 1,500g |
| Angler | Fall | Any | River north of JojaMart, stand by the plank bridge | 3 | 20% | 900g |
| Glacierfish | Winter | Any | Southernmost tip of Arrowhead Island | 6 | 50% | 1,000g |
| Mutant Carp | Any | Any | The Sewers, every cast has a chance | 0 | 10% | 1,000g |

Fishing buffs from food count toward the level requirements, so a Seafoam Pudding (+4) can unlock the Legend before you are naturally level 10. The Angler has no distance-from-land requirement - you simply have to stand in the right spot.

Legendary Fish II: The Extended Family

After you have caught all five originals, Mr. Qi's Walnut Room offers the Extended Family Special Order. While it is active, five harder second-generation legends appear at the same five spots simultaneously: Legend II, Son of Crimsonfish, Ms. Angler, Glacierfish Jr. and the Radioactive Carp. They are the rarest entries in the fishing collection and only exist during the order window, so accept it the moment it appears and clear your schedule.

A 1.6 bonus for completionists: Challenge Bait (from Fishing Mastery) triples the fish on a perfect catch, and panning with a Fisher-enchanted rod can even yield extra copies of legends you have not yet hooked normally.

Tackle and Bait Guide

The Iridium Rod holds one bait plus one tackle; the Advanced Iridium Rod (Fishing Mastery, then 25,000g at Willy's) doubles the tackle. Best-in-slot by job:

• Dressed Spinner: fastest bites for grinding XP
• Trap Bobber: fish escape slower - best for legendaries and difficulty 80+ fish
• Cork Bobber: bigger green bar, great while leveling
• Barbed Hook: bar clings to the fish, ideal for smooth-movement species
• Treasure Hunter: fish hold still while you grab chests
• Sonar Bobber: see what is hooked before committing
• Curiosity Lure: better rare-fish and treasure odds

Bait tiers: regular Bait halves wait time; Deluxe Bait (1.6) also grows the bar; Magic Bait lets any fish bite in any season, weather or time; Targeted Bait (Willy sells one type daily in 1.6) boosts one species; Wild Bait adds a chance of double catches; and Challenge Bait gambles a perfect catch into three fish.

What 1.6 Actually Added

The genuine 1.6 fishing additions: the Goby, caught at the bottom of the waterfalls in southern Cindersap Forest (any season, difficulty 55, 15% hook rate, boosted further by Goby Bait); Sea Jelly (ocean), River Jelly (freshwater) and Cave Jelly (Mines floors 20, 60 and 100), all luck-dependent; Fish Frenzies - random announced events that fill one area with bubbles for a single species; Golden treasure chests (about 25% of chests after Fishing Mastery) with dramatically better loot; and the Advanced Iridium Rod. A note for readers chasing rumor lists: there is no Riverpike in vanilla Stardew Valley - the river's new face in 1.6 is the Goby.

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