Fishing


Aside from mining and foraging, fishing is another activity that you can perform in the game to make money. All you need to fish is the fishing pole and plenty of time on your hands.  This section will outline the basics of the fishing process and all the involved tasks. 

Getting the fishing pole:


The first thing you need to do in order to fish is acquire the fishing pole.  You get it from a small event involving Galen, the old man who lives in the little shack across the river with his wife Nina.  To get the fishing pole, you need to visit Galen on a clear Saturday in the spring between 11:00 am and 1:00 pm.  To trigger the event, all you need to do is to walk into the his house with your tool slot empty.  You will view a short cut scene where Galen tells you that he found an old fishing rod cleaning and doesn't want to throw it away.  He offers to give it to you and does.  Now you have the fishing pole. 

The fishing pole can be upgraded like any of the other tools using the ores located in the first and third mine.  You need to gather experience for it by using it repeatedly before you can upgrade it.  You can monitor your progress on the information menu by touching your character's head.  Their is a bar their that will display you current experience with the tool.  The higher you level up the tool, the better the fish you can catch with it.  Listed below are the levels of fish and their shipping prices.

Fishing Pole Levels and Fish
Level Fish Size Shipping Price
iron-copper small fish 100g
silver-gold medium fish 300g
mystrile-blessed large fish 500g

The mythic fishing pole can catch two additional and very expensive items.  These items are caught off of the beach during specific seasons. During the Summer, you can catch pirate treasure by charging the mythic rod all the way up. They sell for 10000g.  Similarly, you can catch rare fossils during the fall that sell for 5000g.  The mythic pole can also be used the catch the bottle needed to marry Leia during the spring on the beach at night.  You need to fully charge it to catch any of these items and it will usually take several tries to get one. 

Additionally, you can catch boots, cans, and fishbone that sever as garbage.  You can ship each of them for 1g.  Make sure not to throw them on the ground though, because it is considered littering and will lower the affection and friendship levels of the people in town.

Locations:


There are a number of locations where you can fish in the valley.  You can fish off of the beach in the open sea.  You can also fish off any point on the river all the way from the sea side up to the waterfall.  There are two other locations for fishing.  You can also catch fish in the harvest goddess's pond and the turtle swamp.  The type of fish you can catch at each area varies in type and size with the seasons.  There are too many types to list here.  The type really isn't important to the shipping prices.  If you want to catch all the types of fish in the game I recommend that you hire the fishing team. There are supposedly kings in the game to catch, but I haven't found them yet. 

Uses for fish:


In addition to shipping fish for money, there are a few other things you can do with them.  They can serve as ingredients in several of the cooking recopies in the game. You can also eat them as they are for a little stamina and fatigue recovery.  Finally, they can be give as gifts to the towns people. Daryl and Leia both enjoy receiving fish as a present.  They allow you to raise their affection ratings quickly. 

Unlocking the fishing team:


The specific requirements for unlocking each sprite on the fishing team are located in the harvest sprite section.  However, I think it would do some good to explain this better here.  If you try fishing, it seems impossible that you would ever have the time to catch 50,000 fish.  However, you don't have to catch them yourself.  You can hire the fishing team to do it for you.  They will catch and ship fish that will quickly bring your count towards your required amount.  You still need to catch the last fish of each mark yourself in order to unlock the harvest sprites.  For example, when the team has shipped 1000 or more fish, you need to go out and catch one fish on your own to unlock the harvest sprite. 

Well, that's about it for this section. There really isn't all that much to the fishing system to explain here other than what's here and a list of all the types of fish and their locations.  I don't have the patience to type that out.  If someone would like to email me a complete list in a usable text format I would be willing to add it to the guide and give credit.