Fishing Planet Fishing Tips and Tricks

Getting Started

Start out by following directions to complete the tutorial. After you finish, try pressing the F11 key to switch to overhead casting (I bound it to the "\" key to make it easier to find on a laptop keyboard). I suggest sticking with swing casting for now, however, because it gives long telescoping float poles the best leverage for strikes (when you raise the rod tip to set the hook) and avoids weeds.

I also like setting up keyboard keys as an alternative to mouse buttons/trackpad for "pulling" (reeling in) and striking. I use the "V" key as alt strike and space bar (default) for reeling in. You can press the shift key while reeling in for max retrieve speed. You should try adjusting the retrieve speed with either the mouse wheel or plus/minus keys (one or the other will be used for drag adjustment depending on settings). Notice that you can reverse the retrieve direction and let some line out when the speed arrow points downward. This corresponds to disengaging the anti-reverse switch on real-life spinning reels.

When setting the hook, use up to three fourths of the maximum forward reel speed to get consistent hookups. If the line is retrieved at maximum speed, the hook may not engage and the bait may be pulled out of the fish's mouth, depending on the speed of the reel being used (see section "Balancing Rod and Reel Outfits" for more information on the reel speed property).

Finally, check your trackpad sensitivity under settings. Having a responsive mouse helps you move your rod around quickly when it is cast out. Being able to jerk the rod with a single finger swipe or mouse movement will be important when you start fishing with certain advanced lures and lure retrieval techniques that rely on rod manipulations to drag the lure through the water. The default trackpad sensitivity can vary between installations and computers.

Be sure to check out the in-game slideshow tutorials, accessible under the question mark icon on the inventory/map screen. They include information specific to different fish species in Lone Star Lake.

Home Ponds - Lesní Víla And Lone Star

All players start out on Lone Star Lake (Texas) currently. There is plenty of experience to be gained on that lake from completing the two exploration missions. Additionally, please note that Lone Star Lake has no transfer cost, basic fishing license fee or daily rate. It also uniquely does not have a "cool down" period between time skips. It is thus very easy to complete multiple tiers of the "explorer" challenge at Lone Star by repeatedly skipping to the next morning ("T" key) at no cost. If you do this, you should leave all wearable items at home, including vests, rod cases and keepnets, because they will deteriorate and require maintenance after a thirty day stay if you keep them on. Additionally, please note that the compost pile is replenished with worms in real time, not by leaving and traveling straight back to the lake or by forwarding game time, so you should budget for bait accordingly.

Lesní Víla (Czech Republic, name means "Forest Villa" in English) is also a home destination for fishing. I recommend buying an unlimited day Czech basic license as soon as you can. Lesní is a very different place than Lone Star. At first it will probably seem a lot harder to catch fish, which makes sense for a few reasons. For one, the European lake is colder than the American one, being at higher latitude and further inland. Lesní Víla fishery is deeper on average than Lone Star lake, so it takes longer for it to warm up and cool down. Also, many of the fish in Europe are not predatory. Common carp, probably the most popular "coarse fish" (i.e. not a salmonid, which are gamefish) on the continent, are best caught with bread, corn, dough balls or semolina balls.

Fishing at Lesní, however, is very worthwhile. It will help you perfect the float fishing technique, because many of the fish are found deep. Use the map key ("M" button) to pull up a contour map of the lake on your tablet computer. Notice that the maximum depth close to shore actually exceeds your max leader depth (8'2", 250 cm). The best strategy here is to cast out into the center of the pond and slowly retrieve, pausing frequently to let the leader settle out and c o c k the float.* When you pause, you may also need to reverse the retrieve direction and let a little line out to allow the float to straighten out. You will probably find that you catch the most fish when you are close to, but not quite touching, the bottom. However, you are also giving fish at mid-depth a chance at your bait while you search for the bottom. If the float unexpectedly lies flat on the water or goes underwater as you pause the retrieve to c o c k the float, try to strike and set the hook, as you might have a fish on! Use a chubby float to get adequate casting distance and try fishing at max leader depth. Fishing deep works really well on cloudy days just as the cloud banks roll in and the wind picks up - this feels like a realistic simulation of fish responding to a sudden atmospheric pressure change by changing their depth (maybe to compensate for a drop in pressure) and their activity level.** Also consider fishing near lily pads and reedmace (cattails in American English) as the water warms and fish move into the shallows.

*There is one time in the game when this strategy is not effective for fixed floats. See the section "Float Fishing Tricks" for details. Note that when you start to use slip floats on match rods, intermittent retrieval will be less important because you will be able to locate the bottom or correct fishing depth in any body of water and stay there, waiting for fish to find the bait.

**Wind can also cause thermally stratified lakes to "turn over" (make water temperature uniform throughout the lake) during certain times of year like fall and spring, causing fish to scatter across the depth and surface area of the lake

Balancing Rod And Reel Outfits

Breaking equipment or the line is one of the worst feelings, because it invariably happens on a good-sized fish. To prevent this, make sure that your rod and reel outfit is balanced. The game will warn you if you are making an unbalanced outfit, but won't stop you from doing it. The best method for the beginner is to first take a look at the rod you have in your inventory. What is its line rating in pound test? Then pick a reel that has a max drag setting similar to the rod's strength. Finally, choose a line: monofilament, fluorocarbon or braid (I use braid on float rods - pick the pro kind if you are going after wary fish like carp because it is thinner/less visible to fish). Note that fish with sharp teeth, like pikes, can shear through the line if it is too weak, costing you the terminal tackle. Overall, the line should be the weakest part of the rig, but not excessively so. If your line is much weaker than the max drag setting of the reel, you will have to calculate the drag setting to avoid setting it too tight and breaking your line before the drag engages. On the other hand, if your line is too strong for the reel, the reel will suffer damage when a big fish peels all of the line off of the reel without encountering sufficient drag resistance.

If you set up a rod and reel outfit using these instructions, you should not set your drag to maximum - a full circle - because you will break your line! However, there is one special circumstance when you can set your drag to maximum. If you are given line, such as for a monster hunting mission, which the game tells you is stronger than your reel when you equip it, you can safely set your drag to maximum - understanding that this is an unbalanced fishing outfit that is too weak overall to guarantee success. I increased the drag only after I hooked a monster fish, to make sure that I could get the hook set before risking my line. It worked, although I was lucky! Usually I try to be careful to make sure that my outfit is stronger than the fish I will fight, but for monster hunting missions, it may not be possible. Use the best equipment you have at an optimal state of maintenance. When fighting a fish with line that is stronger than your reel rating (although ideally the max drag setting of the reel is not stronger than your rod), you can tighten the drag to maximum to slow down the rate of line peel during runs. In general, just keep reeling in, but if the fish starts to go on a run and the reel clicks rapidly to let out line, briefly raise the rod tip using the strike key or right mouse button. This will apply pressure from the bent rod backbone to the fish, helping to guide the fish back toward you and keep it in front of you.* If the fish escapes and runs out the line, you will see progressive damage to your reel, which is now the weakest part of your outfit.

The amount and location of the bend in the rod will depend on the action and power rating of your rod, such as "moderate fast action / light power." Fast action rods bend toward to the rod tip, while slow action rods bend near the rod handle. These parameters, power and action, determine how much pressure the rod can place on the fish (higher for slow action and/or heavy power rods). Note that it helps if the line strength rating of the rod and reel are similar because this will make it easier to transfer pressure from the reel and line to the rod when you raise the rod tip. Rods also are rated for lure and total terminal tackle weight, a rating that increases with the power of the rod and is generally greater for baitcasting rods than for spinning rods at budget prices. Rods can break if you try to cast with terminal tackle weight greater than the rating of the rod, so be aware of the warnings given when you try to equip overloaded tackle! Please note that rods do not typically fit into the backpack, which means that it is not possible to switch out a rod while traveling. A new rod must be able to be equipped into an empty spot provided by a rod case to be accessible without having to leave the fishing location.

Reel speed - measured by its gear ratio, the number of times the line winds around the spool (spinning outfit) or the spool itself turns (baitcasting outfit) when the reel handle makes a full revolution / crank and by line pickup length, again per full crank - does make a difference when fighting fish. If a fish goes on a run toward you, the tension indicator will decrease rapidly. As the tension bottoms out, a silhouetted box will appear on the tension meter. You must quickly raise the tension to the upper level of the box to prevent the fish from tossing the hook and escaping. At this point, unfortunately, your reel speed will already be at maximum level, having jumped there as soon as you set the hook. Thus, if you are attempting to use a heavy reel on an ultralight rod, you may run into difficulty because the reel designed for heavy line will retrieve line more slowly than an ultralight reel would. If you are not able to reel up the slack line more rapidly than the fish and the current create it (this reel speed problem is most often encountered on rivers), your only option is to try to outrun the fish down the bank while frantically reeling in, hoping that the fish decides to turn around. Additionally, many strong reels have relatively few drag setting levels, so it may be difficult to closely match a weaker line's strength when loosening the reel's drag to use on an ultralight rod. Thus, you may not be able to bring as much of the line's breaking strength to bear as you would if you could reach the maximum safe level of tension shown on the bar with the tighter, more closely approximated drag setting of an ultralight reel.

Notice that all spinning reels have a number associated with them like 1.4k (1400) or 2000. As the number goes up, the capacity of the reel spool increases. You will find multiple reels with the same line capacity in the store, because a reel's capacity is agnostic of its max drag strength. That is, you can find a strong reel with the same line capacity as an ultralight reel. If you cut enough line for the first reel to fill it to capacity, the ultralight reel will also fill to capacity with the same length of line, but the line will probably be too strong for the ultralight reel. If you fill the ultralight reel with weaker line, the reel will fit more line onto its spool, and you could even transfer the line in its entirety to the stronger reel if you proportionately loosen the drag to receive it.** Always check how much line will remain in your inventory versus how much will be added to the reel spool when you get ready to cut line. It is almost always better to incompletely fill the reel spool and evenly divide the available line rather than creating a small residual of line that doesn't have practical use, unless you also use a smaller capacity reel.

*In real life, sport anglers may use a "pump and reel" strategy to fight large trophy fish. This involves muscling in a fish using repeated rod pumps to create slack line, which is immediately reeled in as the rod tip is lowered. This is better suited for rods with heavy power / slow action (because for very heavy fish at depth, slow action rods minimize the distance that the rod's pivot point needs to move through in order to apply a force to the fish, which reduces the amount of work required to pump the rod) and a resilient backbone.

**In fact, if you think about it, the ultralight reel probably will have a slight excess of line if filled to capacity, given that the stronger reel of the same capacity rating performs well with a shorter amount of heavier line.

Float Fishing Tricks

When you set up a float rig, you will have options regarding the type of float. The default float is a narrow oval and is best suited for fishing close to shore with light-weight baits using swing casting. For distance casting, you will have better luck with the chubby floats. I use slim floats for tiny baits and technical float presentations. There are also sport floats and slip floats. Slip floats can't be equipped on telescopic float poles, but can be equipped on match float rods. As the weight of your bait increases, the game will warn you to choose a larger float. Completing the first exploration mission on Lone Star Lake earns a glow-in-the-dark pear-shaped float, which is a large bobber used for distance casting and substantial baits. This float will immediately become useful in the second Lone Star exploration mission when attempting to catch smallmouth buffalo in deep, distant lake "swims" (holes in American English) at night.*

As stated previously, there is a limitation on the total weight of terminal tackle (bobber, hook and bait) that a given float pole can handle. If you are using a heavy bait and are warned about the weight of the terminal tackle, try using a slightly lighter float, like substituting a chubby float for a pear-shaped float. Read the float pole description to see what weight class of terminal tackle it tolerates.

While at Lone Star, try switching back to overhead casting with your float pole equipped. Go to the "Dam Road" location and take a look at the extensive lily pad and hornwort beds there. Now right click with the mouse, and you will see a halo appear over an area of water. You are now ready to try some advanced float fishing. Set your leader depth to 48 inches (~122 cm). Move the casting halo over a gap in the weed beds. You will see a two-segmented box appear in the casting distance meter. Press space bar to start a cast attempt and press it again when you are approaching the box. If you get it right, you will cast into the gap. This is something that might not be a good fishing strategy with lures, because you would have to retrieve the lure through the weed bed and likely get hung up on a backlash (someone else's old snagged lure) or something similar.** With float fishing, however, you are uniquely able to fish in these pockets. The float icon at right will disappear as soon as you get hung up on weeds, even before you try to retrieve the rig. Thus, you don't have to waste time waiting for an impossible nibble because you have early warning of the hang up. You can start to retrieve the rig to get clear of the weeds, let some line out to straighten out the float and resume fishing. This is a great way to catch trophy sunfish and white crappie.

As was also mentioned previously, there is one time in the game when my typical float fishing strategy of intermittent retrieves does not work. This occurs when you are pursuing the "Angling Machine" challenge. "Angling Machine" requires that you perform a certain number of successful strikes consecutively. The best way to complete this challenge with a float pole is to control all variables. Use a good bait for your fishing location with the right hook size and appropriate bobber class for the length and weight of your bait. Start fishing at the beginning of a peak time. Carefully determine the depth of the area you will be fishing and set your leader length accordingly. Restricting yourself to swing casting may be helpful as well. Do not move your bait after casting out and determining that your bobber is sitting vertically. The reason why you have to do things this way is because "Angling Machine" will reset your strike clock if you pull the bait away from a fish. Note that the game does not always tell you when you have done this, so it is better to never retrieve your float in the water at all. Fortunately, the strike counter does not reset if you get briefly snagged or pull out an underwater object. Finally, you should seek ideal fishing weather for your bait type (typically cloudy for fishing with prepared baits like bread or pearl barley) and a peak bite time, because in other conditions, fish may nibble at your bait and leave without giving you a chance to strike, and the strike counter will reset if a fish so much as looks at your bait funny. The two best approaches to completing this challenge are to either use either tiny prepared baits or bloodworms on a small hook (#10 up to #6) against panfish or to use large hooks with fresh bait against catfish or similar bait-seeking fish.

Good practice while float fishing is to raise the rod tip for a strike when you start to reel in after a bad cast or if you overshoot while searching for a dropoff with intermittent retrieves. Finally, it is worth considering progressively decreasing hook size and bait size if you find that the bite is dropping off. Fish can become hook-shy and providing a smaller offering may help fish regain interest in bait.

*At least that was when I caught my first smallmouth buffalo on a grasshopper bait, but buffalo can definitely be caught during the day. Note that smallmouth buffalo are non-predatory fish and feed near the bottom of the lake.

**Although bass and trophy sunfish fishermen will often use heavy or weedless tackle to pull through snags and locate hidden quarry.

Hook Sizes And Baits

Overview of BaitsInsect/Worm BaitsRed Worms

Pinkies (small maggots)*

Maggots

Caster maggots (maggot pupae)**

Bloodworms (midge larvae)***

Nightcrawler Worms

Grasshoppers

Mole Cricket Larvae (more properly called "nymphs" because crickets are hemimetabolous)

Flies

Mayflies

Leeches

Waxworms (beehive pest larvae)

Cockchafer beetle (a European Junebug)

Dobsonfly Larvae (hellgrammite)

Adult Dobsonflies

*the smallest maggots are nicknamed "squats," I think pinkies might be so named because their length is close to the width of the end of the pinky finger

**a good bait for targeting European bream (unrelated sunfish are popularly called "bream" in the United States)

***the smallest bloodworms are called "jokers"

Prepared BaitsBread

Bread with honey*

Doughballs

Pearl barley**

Semolina Balls

Cheese

Pet Food

Marshmallows

*this bait works well in relatively warm water because the scent will diffuse faster under these conditions, perhaps additionally hastened by making short intermittent retrieves of the bait

**a good bait for targeting roach

Fresh BaitsCut Crawfish

Crawfish (crayfish)

Shrimp

Gulf Shrimp

Duck mussel meat

Cutbait (various types)

Minnows and shiners (various types)*

Frogs*

*I don't use these baits because there are many good imitation lures available, including topwater frog-shaped lures, large green-colored grubs, other soft plastics like the "creature" types and even crayfish-pattern crankbaits. Try retrieving a soft plastic lure in the top 1/3 of the water column, twitching the rod tip as the lure starts to descend from the surface to imitate an injured frog struggling to stay afloat.

Guide to Choosing a Hook SizeAny bait can be used on any size hook, but this table reflects what size hook a particular bait would fit perfectly on. Please note that these hook sizes are relative to the body of water fished. For example, a #2 hook baited with cheese catches spades of young channel catfish at Lone Star Lake. On the other hand, at Mudwater River bullhead catfish will readily strike this rig, so a slightly larger hook size may help select for the channels. This guide does not tell you which bait to use for a particular fish species, only suggested hook sizes: check the bait description in-game for tips.

Hook sizeRepresentative target speciesRecommended baits#12Tiny mouths (e.g. pumpkinseed sunfish, minnows, roach)pearl barley, flies#10bloodworms#8Small mouths (e.g. bream, Carassius carp*, green sunfish, bluegill sunfish)pinkies, dough balls#6Tenchcaster maggots, waxworms, pieces of worms#4Common carp**, smallmouth buffalo (a member of the sucker family that acts like a carp), crappiemaggots, mayflies, semolina balls#2red worms, cockchafer beetle#1#1/0Walleye, pickerel, bass#2/0Bullhead catfishgrasshoppers#4/0Catfish, gar (a fish with special bony "ganoid" scales)cut crawfish, leeches#6/0whole nightcrawlers, mole cricket larvae, dobsonfly larvae#8/0minnows#10/0shiner minnows, whole crayfish*Such as Prussian carp

**The game recommends using octopus hooks (available for size #1 and larger hooks) for Cyprinus (common, mirror, etc.) carp, which makes sense for two reasons: 1. Octopus hooks are not shiny and are thus less visible in the water to carp, which have good eyesight, and 2. Octopus hooks are distinguished by an eye that is angled backward relative to the point. This helps because the "snell knots" used to tie these hooks to the line are typically tied by wrapping line around the hook shank from behind the shank, fixing the hook in place and keeping it vertical relative to the line leader, and a rearward facing eye allows the line to pass straight through to the back of the hook shank to tie the snell. Knots with less mobility, like the snell knot, are very good for the prepared baits used to catch carp. The hook is less obvious to the fish because it lies parallel to the line, and unlike with live baits, prepared baits do not need a knot that gives them freedom to move. The snell knot is also the basis for certain knots, like the "knotless knot," that are used to tie a "hair rig," a type of specialty rig for carp fishing that has the prepared bait tied or plugged onto an extension of line beyond the hook knot, rather than pierced onto the hook itself. This helps with carp fishing, as carp have sensitive mouths and may reject bait quickly when they feel a hook. With a "hair rig", the carp picks up bait that is attached to a thinner line extension (traditionally a human hair) along with the hook, and the hook will scrape the fish's mouth while it inspects and cleans the bait by spitting it out and taking it up again. At this point, the angler can set the hook into the carp's fleshy mouth. Thus, the octopus hook's special eye position makes it ideal for carp fishing. Maybe they are called "octopus hooks" because like an octopus' leg, the hook's tip points away from the "body" - here the main line and hook eye.

If you are worried about bait presentation (e.g. line thickness, fishing less dense baits like marshmallows too far down), get an advanced license and fish at night. Fish are less picky and may come up into shallow water.

In-Game Economy Overview And Tips

Fishing Planet has two types of currency: "baitcoins" (heehee) and Fishing Planet cash. You can use these to purchase in-game items. Baitcoins are convertible to Fishing Planet cash, but not the other way around.* Therefore, I like to think of baitcoins as a "savings account" and Fishing Planet cash as a "checking account." As a mid-level user, I found that I was converting a lot of baitcoins into Fishing Planet cash to meet my burgeoning equipment and travel expenses. Over time, however, collecting baitcoins can help you purchase "special edition" rods and reels, more advanced bait and tackle at lower levels, certain wearable equipment and permanent fishing licenses, so I recommend trying to save them up later on.

Before you travel anywhere, double check your inventory to make sure that 1. you have everything you need in terms of tackle (including any special lures needed for monster hunting or other missions) and 2. you have one or more open inventory slots. You may need up to five open inventory slots if you are trying to make a special lure for a mission. Additionally, some trophy missions will require you to keep the weeds or trash that you find for a second, after which you can throw them out from your backpack.

Once you get to your fishing location, you will be limited to the restricted inventory regional shopping market. Leaving to buy something at the main store will mean that you need to pay full transfer fees to get back. Although there can be markups compared to the big store, shopping at the regional market can give you a very good idea of what lures and baits work best for the location. Note that if you buy a rod or reel and do not have space for it in your carry bag, it will be sent home and will be inaccessible during the current trip. It would be a good idea to have an empty rod slot in your case in case you want to buy a rod during the trip, if you can afford it.

Pay attention to the restrictions on your license type. If you have a basic fishing license, hook a fish at 8:55 PM and have to fight it for five minutes until it gets dark, you will potentially get a fine for after-hours fishing. It is better to leave buffer time and fast forward to the next morning. This does not apply to night fishing. You can fit in a last cast just before 5 AM, catch a fish at 5:04 AM and will still be presented with an option to leave the fishery instead of paying for the next day's fishing. In addition, in some states like Missouri, you may find that a basic license requires you to keep (absolute worst because it might be impossible to comply if the offending fish is larger than your keepnet) or release certain fish. Don't rely on luck when fishing bucks are at stake!!

Please bear in mind that the fishing license duration is in real 24-hour days, while your length of stay at the site is in accelerated game time. So if your license is valid for one day, you can fit in many "days" of fishing if you can afford the daily rate for that long.

Note that a few items can be resold to the store for either baitcoins or Fishing Planet money. However, the selling price will be considerably less than the purchase price. Additionally, you will need to repair fishing equipment once they get down to the yellow zone on the heads-up display (at around 66% durability). It is a good idea to invest in a two-rod carrying case as soon as possible so that you can have a backup if your other one gets worn down while on a trip. Keep an eye on the durability meters while fishing so that you can swap out equipment or leave to make repairs before you break the rig. If equipment breaks, it cannot be sold or repaired and must be scrapped.

Fishing competitions cost money for registration and travel, but the registration fee is refundable if you cancel before the competition starts. There are some official competitions that are open to amateurs (i.e. competitions with a level cap), so it is worthwhile to look to see if there is an upcoming competition on your body of water.

There are daily rewards for logging in and out that increase with each consecutive day you log in up to the fifth day. A new day begins at 0:00 UTC (formerly Greenwich Mean Time). You can receive the reward wherever you are in Fishing Planet, so the cash infusion might help you cling on to a good fishing location by paying for an extra fishing day or a license extension.

*Although if you are trying to buy something that you can't afford, the game shop will allow you to buy out the purchase price with the other in-game currency at a poor exchange rate.

What Next?

Read the text descriptions of fishing spots on the site map and match them with your target fish description under "Fish Species." Some fish like sandy bottoms, for example, or hold close to structure like fallen logs, and these locations may not be obvious if you just look at the fishing spot.

You can use marker buoys to help guide casts when searching for unique and monster fish. Use the map ("M" key) to find a deep hole, then mark the contour edge with a marker buoy (click the targeting reticule button in the lower right corner of the tablet computer). Now you can look around the bank to find the best location to reach the edge of the hole with the shortest cast. You can cast to the buoy using the secondary casting halo button to make it easy to find the place with just the right depth for your float leader length.

Glow-in-the-dark lures, especially plastic crayfish, are highly effective at night against predatory species. More generally, every situation, fish species, weather condition, fishing depth, water clarity state and time of day has at least one good lure subtype associated with it. You should diversify your lure collection and try new lure types as they become available to you.

Strikes can happen at any point when retrieving a lure, including during pauses when the lure sinks, so be sure to note any sudden runs, increases in the tackle loading meter or unexpected movements of the lure icon. These different indicators represent different ways the fish is striking the lure: line going slack or moving out of sync with the lure may indicate that the fish is moving toward you, putting little to no pressure on the rod; increases in the tackle loading meter occur when the fish swims away while holding the lure in its mouth and unexpected lure icon movements might be a sign that the fish is covering the lure to subtly alter the retrieve. In any case, immediately raise the rod tip and keep it raised while you reel in slack line to set the hook (I often forget to do the latter step, but it is very important to eliminate slack line when setting the hook with a lure like a spoon). Sometimes this will automatically be done for you and you can just continue reeling in the fish.

Longer rods can help impart finer movement to jigs and increase casting distance. This becomes more relevant when you try to finesse plastic worms for bass later on. Plastic worms in the game are impregnated with salt flavorants that tempt fish to hang on to the lure longer when they strike it. This buys time for an angler to periodically reel up slack and detect a fish that is mouthing the worm lure when using exaggerated rod motions to telegraph twitches to the lure. Thus, the rod's qualities make important contributions to technique when fishing with advanced lures.

Certain lures, like spoons and dressed jigs, produce wobbling motion when retrieved. It can be helpful to retrieve jigs slowly to accentuate their wobble.

Slab crappie at Lone Star Lake (trophy white crappie) give a lot of experience points. Slow retrieves of tube lures on small jigs work wonders here. Keep that rod tip high while reeling in (to get the tube off the bottom and kick-start its wobble) and stay alert! If you are using a crayfish soft plastic imitation with articulated limbs, however, try keeping the rod tip down, pulling the lure along the bottom by jerking the rod to interest catfish and bass.

On certain types of rods, like match rods, pressing the "C" key while fishing will clip the reel at the current distance. This enables you to cast out to the same distance repeatedly and avoid overshooting the water on smaller fisheries. Press "C" again to unclip the reel.

Slip bobber rigs are invaluable. I never knew how deep Lesní Víla fishery really was until I got a slip bobber (around 9.5 feet / 2.9 meters!). Slip bobbers of various weight classes are incredibly helpful in carp, tench and catfish fishing.

Some collecting missions want you to keep trophy fish for recording purposes. Note that you will usually need the location's advanced fishing license to be able to keep trophy fish without incurring a fine there. If you use a keepnet rather than a stringer, you will not harm the fish and can release it almost immediately after taking it. You should be aware of your equipment's maximum size limits for both single fish and the aggregate weight.

User mioskus has written a comprehensive crankbait lure fishing guide: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=570278791

Here are tips on picker/feeder rod fishing (European fishing techniques) from user Cvelus:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1771032483

The Fishing Planet wiki has compiled game statistics and good fish species- and family-specific information: https://wiki.fishingplanet.com/Main_page

TWO LAST THINGS that have to do with fishing line. One day, HEAVEN FORBID, you may find yourself on your last spool of fishing line with no money to buy more. If this happens, look carefully at how much line you have remaining. You may be able to evenly cut your line to effectively double the longevity of the last bits of line. If you stuff all of your last spool of line onto a reel, it will all degrade together. By contrast, if you divide your line, both diminished spools will inherit the parent spool's remaining durability, but you can now use them separately to save the extra line from degrading while sitting on your reel as unused backing. Caution and calculations should be employed because you may end up needing some extra backing while fighting a big fish. Also, resale price decreases to zero as line shortens, but not in relation to wear and tear at least at moderate levels.

Lastly, user Buzzrd has written a guide and published a video on getting your line unsnagged if you get snagged on the bottom. If you are very unlucky, finish Buzzrd's directions and are still unable to get free, read my comment on Buzzrd's Steam guide regarding a last-ditch "let most your line out and walk around the snag" method.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=542091515&searchtext=snag

"The conversation soon turned upon fishing; and [Elizabeth Bennet] heard Mr. Darcy invite [Mr. Gardiner], with the greatest civility, to fish [at Pemberley Woods] as often as he chose while he continued in the neighbourhood, offering at the same time to supply him with fishing tackle, and pointing out those parts of the stream where there was usually most sport."

~Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813)

"Then the pike said to him in a human voice: 'Let me go free, good man, go free. I will make you happy; whatever your soul may desire you shall possess.'"

~"At the Behest of the Pike" from Russian Folk-Tales by Alexander Nikolaevich Afanasyev, translated by Leonard Arthur Magnus (1916)

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Russian_Folk-Tales/At_the_Behest_of_the_Pike

Videos -

Canal & River Trust (2017) "Fishing bait: Three different types of maggot"* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEoA8WXlM_o

*The different maggot names refer to larvae from different species of blow flies and house flies, not the larval instars (intermediate molts that progressively increase in size during the maggot's development) of one species

Premier1975 (2013) "Mole Cricket larva"* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2z3qeFqk70

*An Australian sandgroper, notice that it doesn't have wings (will be apterous for life)

Fingers crossed that "The Fisherman" version of Fishing Planet gets ported to Mac, Switch and Linux! If you decide to try fishing in real life, please use lead-free alternatives to lead fishing sinkers because swallowed lead can hurt waterfowl and will pollute the environment.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2691600617

Fishing Tips and Tricks