Want to know everything about fishing in New World? Fishing is one of many different trade skills in New World, and catching rare fish takes a lot of work. Sometimes a quest asks for you to catch certain types of fish. Of course, you could just buy them from the auction house, but as the famous saying goes – If you give a man a fish you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.
Teaching your character to fish opens up new possibilities, but it’s more complicated than just casting a line and reeling in fish. The quality of your equipment makes rarer fish appear more frequently, and the types of bait you can attach to your fishing pole work differently depending on whether you fish near the sea, or from riverbanks and lakes.
So here is everything you need to know about fishing in New World, from how to craft better fishing poles, what each fishing pole perk does, how to get bait, and where to find fishing hotspots.
How to fish in New World
To craft a wooden fishing pole at any campfire, you need one green wood and one fibre. You can make better poles with the right equipment, but you only need a wooden pole to get started. Once you have one, follow these instructions to fish up plenty of piscine critters in no time:
- Head to a lake, river, or the coast
- Equip the fishing pole and press R to equip any bait you may have to hand. You don’t have to use bait for fish to bite, but it helps
- Left-click your mouse with the fishing pole equipped to bring up a bar. You then need to time your button press to cast your line. The further up the top you click the mouse, the further the line goes
- Wait for the line to bob and a prompt to appear to begin reeling in
- As you reel in your fish, keep an eye on the tension gauge. A good tip is to stop reeling in when the gauge is just about to hit red
- Keep reeling the fish in until you catch it
Typically, the harder the fish pulls on the fishing line as you try and reel it in, the rarer the catch. However, if you don’t get any resistance at all while pulling in your line, it’s still worth continuing to reel in your catch as it could be a valuable treasure chest. You can sell its contents to make more money at New World trading posts.
How to craft better fishing poles in New World
If you want to make better quality fishing poles, you need to make them at a workshop. Making better quality poles increases the maximum cast distance, the chance to find rare fish, and how much tension is recovered per second.
The recipes for crafting each fishing pole are:
- Wooden fishing pole – green wood x1 and fibres x1
- Treated wood fishing pole – timber x12, coarse leather x3, and linen x3
- Aged wood fishing pole – timber x13, coarse leather x3, and linen x2
- Wyrdwood fishing pole – Wyrdwood planks x14, coarse leather x3, and linen x2
- Ironwood fishing pole – Ironwood planks x15, coarse leather x3, and linen x2
Fishing pole perks
You can also add special resources to determine a perk type, or spare Azoth to increase the chance of giving the pole a relevant perk. You can get Azoth from cleansing corrupted areas with your Azoth staff, which you also need to access the New World Amrine Excavation expedition.
All of these fishing pole perks have three possible tiers. The higher the tier, the more effective the perk. Here are all of the New World fishing perks, including their effectiveness per tier:
| Fishing pole perk | Perk description | Tier I | Tier II | Tier III |
| Daytime Colossus | Boosts the chance to catch larger fish during daytime | 150% | 200% | 250% |
| Freshwater Colossus | Boosts the chance to catch larger fish in freshwater | 150% | 200% | 250% |
| Freshwater Brawn | Increases line strength while fishing in freshwater | 10% | 15% | 20% |
| Lucky Day | Boosts the chance to catch rarer fish during the daytime | 30% | 50% | 75% |
| Lucky Night | Boosts the chance to catch rarer fish during the nighttime | 30% | 50% | 75% |
| Moon’s Reach | Increases cast distance during the nighttime | 5% | 10% | 15% |
| Nighttime Colossus | Boosts the chance to catch larger fish during nighttime | 150% | 200% | 250% |
| Saltwater Colossus | Boosts the chance to catch larger fish in saltwater | 150% | 200% | 250% |
| Saltwater Brawn | Increases line strength while fishing in saltwater | 10% | 15% | 20% |
| Sturdy | Increases pole durability | 10% | 20% | 50% |
| Sun’s Reach | Increases cast distance during the daytime | 5% | 10% | 15% |
Where to find fishing bait in New World
Some bait increases the chance of finding bigger fish, while others increase the likelihood of finding rare fish. Here are all of the known locations for all the fishing bait in New World:
Fish bait for rare fish
- Cheese bait – craft at cooking level 5 with milk x2 and yeast x1 (increases chance of rarer fish in saltwater by 47%)
- Nightcrawler bait – collect flint during the day or dusk (increases chance of rarer fish in saltwater by 70%)
- Glowworm bait – collect flint during the night or dawn (increases chance of rarer fish in saltwater by 85%)
- Bread bait – craft at cooking level 5 with flour x1 and yeast x1 (increases chance of rarer fish in freshwater by 47%)
- Woodlouse bait – collect wood from bushes (increases chance of rarer fish in freshwater by 70%)
- Firefly bait – collect bullrushes or briar plants (increases chance of rarer fish in freshwater by 85%)
Fish bait for bigger fish
- Fish bait – craft using fish (increases chance for bigger fish in saltwater by 150%)
- Snail bait – salvage a caught snail (increases chance for bigger fish in saltwater by 150%)
- Electric eel bait – salvage an electric eel (increases chance for bigger fish in saltwater by 500%)
- Meat bait – craft using raw meat (increases chance for bigger fish in freshwater by 150%)
- Clam bait – salvaged from clams (increases chance for bigger fish in freshwater by 300%)
- Oyster bait – salvaged from oysters (increases chance for bigger fish in freshwater by 500%)
New World gear fishing perks
If you can get your hands on them, each item in the vengeful fisherman’s set has its own perk. So if you have the whole set equipped, you’ll get all of these perks:
- +100 focus
- +9% casting distance
- +200% chance of catching a bigger fish
- +60% chance of catching rarer fish
New World Fishing hotspots
Fishing hotspots are indicated by a fish icon with a star next to it, found on the map or compass. When you get to these locations, find the area where fish are jumping out of the water. The game brings up a prompt if your lure hits the area where the fish are jumping.
Finding new fishing hotspots is tied to your fishing trade skill. The more you fish, the more hotspots you’ll discover. Be sure to check out our New World leveling guide for more details on how to level up your fishing skill. These fishing hotspots will then appear on the map and your compass. Each type of fishing is spot indicated by how many stars appear on the icon:
- One star – broad fishing spot
- Two stars – rare fishing spot
- Three stars – secret fishing spot
If you want to know the specific locations, this handy interactive map can be customised to show each type of fishing spot and where to find them on the map.
Fishing trade skill level rewards
Here are all of the fishing trade skill level up rewards:
- Level 2: two broad hotspots discoverable and trackable
- Level 3: one broad hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 4: two broad hotspots discoverable and trackable
- Level 7: one broad and one rare hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 9: one broad hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 12: one broad and one secret hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 16: two broad hotspots discoverable and trackable
- Level 20: one broad and one rare hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 25: two broad hotspots discoverable and trackable
- Level 27: one broad and one secret hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 30: one broad and one rare hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 34: one broad hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 37: two broad hotspots discoverable and trackable
- Level 41: two broad hotspots discoverable and trackable
- Level 45: one broad and one rare hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 52: two broad hotspots discoverable and trackable
- Level 56: one broad and one rare hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 59: two broad hotspots discoverable and trackable
- Level 60: two rare hotspots discoverable and trackable
- Level 62: one rare and one secret hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 67: two rare hotspots discoverable and trackable
- Level 70: one broad, one rare, and one secret hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 74: two rare hotspots discoverable and trackable
- Level 78: one rare hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 83: two rare hotspots discoverable and trackable
- Level 88: one rare and one secret hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 95: two rare hotspots discoverable and trackable
- Level 99: one rare and one secret hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 103: two rare hotspots discoverable and trackable
- Level 110: one rare and one secret hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 114: one rare hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 117: one rare and two secret hotspots discoverable and trackable
- Level 128: one secret hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 134: one secret hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 141: one rare and one secret hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 148: one secret hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 153: one secret hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 158: two secret hotspots discoverable and trackable
- Level 165: one secret hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 172: one secret hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 179: one secret hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 185: two secret hotspots discoverable and trackable
- Level 190: one secret hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 193: two secret hotspots discoverable and trackable
- Level 197: one secret hotspot discoverable and trackable
- Level 200: three secret hotspots discoverable and trackable
This should be everything you need to know about New World fishing. But, of course, fishing is just one small part of this new MMO, so feel free to get to grips with the basics in our New World beginner’s guide. You can also learn which New World faction to pick, how to play New World with your friends, and know which are the best New World weapons.
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