Fishing

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Fishing is a significant source of livelihood and commonly practiced by all the cultures of the UnReal World.

Overview

Fishing is one of the easier ways to get food for newer players. There are two kinds of fishing: Active and Passive. Fishing can be practiced all year, but is more difficult in wintertime due to low catch-rates and the necessity of making holes in the ice to fish through (which will often re-freeze). That is not to say that one cannot survive on just fish, but it is harder to do so.

The fish to be caught is determined by fishing equipment, bait, time of year, and location. Different species of fish can be found in a shallow or deep waters, lakes, rivers, and sea tiles. Perch, bream and pike are the most common fish living in lakes. Salmon are found only in rivers, and especially from rapids during their spawning season. There are also lavarets, trouts, pike-perches and so on.

You can actively fish using a suitable tool, such as a fishing rod. Some weapons, such as tridents, spears or clubs are also suitable for fishing. The idea of this is to spear or club the fish swimming near the shore. This fishing method is fruitful only with relatively big fish, and most often the catch is a pike. It's also possible to fish passively using nets. All fishing must be done on water tiles- if you try to fish in a tile that does not count as water-area, the game will tell you that "You should find a better spot! From this very location you can't expect to catch any fish."

Local fish resources may become exhausted after some time (with truly massive amounts of fish caught?). You will notice that both active and passive fishing yield almost nothing. It seems that resources are replenished at the beginning of each month.

Active Fishing

Active fishing means that you actually stand by the lake/river shore, with a Club/Spears/Fishing Rod, waiting for a passing fish. The best tool to use for this is the fishing rod, followed by spears (javelins count) then the club. A complete session of fishing lasts a random amount of time, around two or three hours. With poor fishing skill, active fishing can only make up part of your diet, and must be supplemented by other means- for instance trapping, hunting or agriculture. Trying to rely only on fishing with poor equipment or skills may be only a slow way of starving to death.

With the 3.7 updates to fishing, it has become a more realistic activity with far more variation in success based on your choice of gear and location, and the time of year. Even the time can have an effect- you will frequently see more catches in the mornings and evenings than during the middle of the day.

Choosing bait

For fishing with a rod and line, your choice of bait is the biggest factor in determining the fish that you catch. Vegetable bait and smaller amounts of meat bait will catch smaller fish such as Roach and Perch, whereas larger baits bring in big fish such as pike, salmon and trout (assuming you are fishing in the correct locations for these species). If selected as bait, smaller raw fish will be placed whole onto the hook. To avoid this (and so angle for smaller fish rather than larger ones), you can roast the fish first, which will mean it is used up in pieces rather than all at once.

[On the forums], Plotinus reported on short trials of the most effective baits to use (judged by mass of harvested fish):

  • "I have a character who is a master fisher and has tested out different baits. These are the averages he experienced:
    • No bait: 0.03 kg/ fishing attempt (100 trials)
    • Berries: 0.43 kg/ fishing attempt (56 trials)
    • Mushroom: 0.48 kg / fishing attempt ( 100 trials)
    • leaves: 0.52 kg/ fishing attempt (28 trials)
    • flowers: 0.62 kg/ fishing attempt ( 100 trials)
    • roots: 0.64 kg / fishing attempt (50 trials)
    • raw fish: 1.48 kg / fishing attempt (100 trials)
    • raw meat: 1.94 kg/ fishing attempt ( 100 trials)"

Note that this does not include information on the type of fish caught- despite initially lower net yields, it may still be effective to use vegetable baits and accumulate baitfish, with which you can catch the larger species.

Passive Fishing

Passive fishing uses nets, which you must trade for (or receive through the "I want to be a fisherman" starting scenario).

Passive Fishing advice

To set a net, use a punt or raft to get out into deeper water (occasionally, you may be able to walk out far enough into the water) and then deploy the net with the fishing skill. There is no need to spread multiple nets over different tiles, you can put all your nets in the same spot with no ill effects. Now leave it undisturbed for at least one day - there won't be any fish inside before, and checking will reset the timer - but shorter than two days; if you leave it too long you will only get a message about all the fish being dead.

The game will make a note in your log of the time when you set or check your nets. A good way to use nets efficiently is to check them one time period later than when you set them the day before (i.e. if you set them in the afternoon of the 23rd, check them in the late afternoon of the 24th). When you've reached evening or the night, just take a net-fishing break for one day and start over in the morning or small hours. This will let fish four days out of five easily, and more if you're careful about not missing a beat. It's best to check and reset as soon as possible, since you don't seem to get more fish for being close to the time limit, and this way there is less risk of missing the deadline and loosing a catch.

With high fishing skill (and the Fisher's Request ritual) you can expect to net 4-5 lb of fish per net per catch, sometimes much more, when you net half a dozen lavarets or burbots.

URW Game Encyclopedia description

The official URW in-game encyclopedia (accessed by the F1 key) describes fishing thusly:

Fishing is a significant source of livelihood and commonly practised by all the cultures of the UnReal World.

There are two kinds of fishing methods, active and passive. Active fishing means using a fishing rod or certain weapons to catch a fish. Passive fishing is practised with nets.

The idea of fishing with weapons is to stand by the shore waiting for a passing fish and try to spear or club it. This fishing method is fruitful only with relatively big fish, and most often the catch is a pike. It's possible to try fishing with any spear or club this way, but tridents are specifically designed for it.

Nets can be used only in deep water. They are set and left in place for a day or two, and then retrieved - hopefully with some fish caught in. To get out into deeper water for setting and retrieving nets a punt or raft is often needed.

The fish to be caught depends on the fishing method, equipment and the fishing site. Different kind of fish live in shallow or deep waters, lakes or rivers. Perches, roaches, breams and pikes are the most common fish living in lakes. Salmons are found only in rivers, and especially in rapids during their spawning season. There are also lavarets, trouts, pike-perches and so on.

Fishing is started either by using the fishing skill and choosing the preferred method, or by applying fishing rod or net from the inventory. During the wintertime when the lakes are frozen you need to a make hole in the ice first. That is also done by using your fishing skill.

Related content

Further articles on fishing.

Concepts

  • Fish - The species of fish available to catch in the game.
  • Fishing (Skill) - The player character's skill that determines the potential success at fishing.

Equipment

Rituals

See also

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