Thinking about starting to fish in Minecraft? A great decision, first of all. Secondly, it doesn’t require a lot of materials, as you’ll soon discover. In fact, after the initial learning curve, fishing might become one of your favorite Minecraft activities. But before you get there, you need to know all the factors that go into it, including materials required to start. Don’t worry, we’ll tutor you through the entire process, and tell you anything you need to know. Here are the steps to fish in Minecraft.
But first, what can I get from fishing in Minecraft?
- Different types of raw fish (Raw cod, Raw salmon, Pufferfish, Tropical Fish)
- Sticks
- Saddles
- Tripwire Hooks
- Bowls
- Name Tags
- Lily Pads
- Cocoa Beans
- Leather
- Enchanted Fishing Rod
- Leather Armor
- Enchanted Bow
- Enchanted Book
- Other types of junk or treasure
1. The key step in learning fishing in Minecraft: Craft a fishing rod!
To do this, you need:
- 1x Crafting Table
- 3x Stick
- 2x String
Instructions to craft a fishing rod in Minecraft
- Open the menu in the Crafting Table.
- Place 3 sticks diagonally in the 3×3 grid.
- Place 2 pieces of string vertically, from the stick in the top square to the bottom square.
- Drag the rod from the big square to your inventory.
1a. Enchanted fishing rods
These fishing rods look identical to the common fishing rod but have a glow around the icon and the rod itself, primarily of pink/purple color. You need:
- Enchanting Table or Anvil
- Enchanting book with the right enchantment
The enchantments that can be applied to the fishing rod are:
- Lure – Increases the rate (number) of fish biting your hook
- Luck of the Sea – You have an increased chance of catching valuable items
- Mending – Your experience will be used to repair your tools, armor, and weapons
- Unbreaking – The fishing rod’s durability will be increased
- Curse of Vanishing – Your fishing rod will disappear after you die
Side note: You can spawn these using Minecraft Cheats/Commands. If you don’t know how, here’s how to enable Minecraft cheats.
2. How to hold a fishing rod
- Make sure the fishing rod or enchanted fishing rod is highlighted in the taskbar and appears on-screen.
- Your position in the world is irrelevant. You can stand on the ground, in the water, sit in a boat, or even underwater.
3. The second Key part of Minecraft Fishing: Cast the fishing line into the water!
- For Java Edition (PC/Mac), Windows 10 Edition, and Education Edition, use your mouse’s right-click.
- On PlayStation, press the L2 button on the controller.
- For Xbox, press the LT button on the controller.
- On Pocket Edition (PE), a button titled Fish will appear. Tap/press on it.
- For Wii U and Nintendo Switch, press ZL on the controller.
4. Wait for the bait to work
You will see bubbles start to form around the bait, and gradually get closer.
Additional information:
- The period from casting to catching something is random, between 5 and 30 seconds.
- The period is reduced by 5 seconds for every Lure enchantment on your fishing rod.
- If you don’t have access to moonlight or sunlight above while fishing, the waiting time is doubled. The game tolerates glass or tripwire above you, but not leaves.
- If it is raining directly above the block where your bobber is, the wait time will be reduced by approximately 1/5 of 20%.
5. Final steps to fish in Minecraft: Reel in the fish (or an item)
- As soon as the fish gets closer to the bail, your bobber will go underwater.
- You have between 0.5 and 1 seconds to catch the prey.
- The controls to catch fish are identical to the ones for casting a fishing line.
- An unenchanted fishing rod has an 85% chance to catch fish, a 10% chance to catch junk, and a 5% chance to catch treasure.
- The fish or the item caught will fly from the bobber to your character at an angle, and appear in your backpack.
- A successful fishing attempt also spawns an experience orb around your character. It is worth (at random) 1 to 6 experience points.