New World offers a wholesome realistic experience with a few survival skills added like hunting, gathering resources, and more. One of them is catching fish, but newcomers might get confused about what to do with it. Check out our New World Fishing Guide to learn how to fish and what to do with it.
How to Fish in New World?
Before you can do anything with the fish resource, first you should know how to fish in New World. It is actually easy to make a fishing pole that will make catching fish easier. First you will need to gather these materials:
- 1x Green Wood
- 1x Fiber.
Check our guide on how to get Fiber from Hemp and where to gather Hemp.
After creating your first Fishing Pole, just equip it and then go to any body of water that is large enough to have fish in it. You can either go for freshwater or saltwater since both of them have fish in them and they will have a variety of those sea creatures to catch. There are also different kinds of baits to choose from and each of them is effective on a specific type of fish.
Now from here, you can now fish. Just press F3 when you are nearby a body of water to pull out the pole. Either you put bait on your hook or not is your choice but bait makes it easier to catch fish. Hold the left-click button on your mouse to cast the line and choose how far you want it to be. You can check the water on where a lot of fish are gathering so cast your line there.
When you have already cast your life, just wait for the fish to get caught. There will be a sound, which is the warning sign that a fish has bit the line. Left-click to start pulling. This starts the mini-game where you will need to reel in your catch while it fights for its life and freedom.
You must not reel in hard or else it will snap the line. There will be an icon that will appear starting at green color, which is the safe zone. If it starts getting red, you better let go of the left-click button to relax the line. Do not press it if it goes on like that because that breaks the line. If it goes back to green, starts pressing again. Do this repeatedly until you have safely pulled most of the line together with your big catch.
You will know that you have finally caught your fish when the center bar gets full. Congratulations, you just caught your first big catch!
All Fishing Pole Tiers
Aside from the simple Wooden Fishing Pole, there are five tiers of Fishing Poles you can craft, which can catch rarer fish in various bodies of water. Also, you will need a higher level of Engineering skill in order to craft these successfully, so train hard first.
| Tier Level | Fishing Pole Type | Materials Needed | Distances Covered |
| Tier 1 | Wooden Fishing Pole (Level 1) | 1 pc. Fiber and 1 pc. Green Wood | 12m Max Cast Distance |
| Tier 2 | Treated Wood Fishing Pole (Level 4) | 1 pc. Coarse Leather, 3 pcs. Linen, and 12 pieces Timber | 14m Max Cast Distance |
| Tier 3 | Aged Wood Fishing Pole (Level 18) | 3 pcs. Coarse Leather, 2 pcs. Linen, and 13 pcs. Lumber | 16m Max Cast Distance |
| Tier 4 | Wyrdwood Fishing Pole (Level 40) | 3 pcs. Coarse Leather, 2 pcs. Linen, and 14 pcs. Wyrdwood Planks | 18m Max Cast Distance |
| Tier 5 | Ironwood Fishing Pole (Level 60) | 3 pcs. Coarse Leather, 2 pcs. Linen, and 15 pcs. Ironwood Planks | 20m Max Cast Distance |
When you reach Tier 5, you can now choose different types of fishing poles that you can acquire from quests or discover. Here are how to get them and what bonuses you can acquire:
| Fishing Pole | How to Obtain | Additional Perks Offered |
| Ancient Fishing Pole | Defeat Smoothbore Samuel Boss located in Reekwater. | 20m Cast Distance with 125 percent chance to get rarer fish |
| Angry Earth Fishing Pole | Defeat Parthenocissus Boss located in Restless Shore. | 20m Cast Distance with 125 percent chance to get rarer fish |
| Corrupted Fishing Pole | Defeat Foreman Robertson Boss located in Great Cleave. | 20m Cast Distance with 125 percent chance to catch rarer fish |
| Lost Fishing Pole | Defeat Smoothbore Samuel located in Reekwater. | 20m Cast Distance with 125 percent chance to catch rarer fish |
| Legendary Azoth Fishing Pole | Finish the quest To Be a Grand Master. | 20m Cast Distance with 250 percent chance to catch bigger fresh water fish. |
| Legendary Strength Fishing Pole | Finish the quest To Be a Grand Master. | 20m Cast Distance and 15 percent that the line is stronger in fresh water. |
| Legendary Tech Fishing Pole | Finish the quest To Be a Grand Master. | 20m Cast Distance and 15 percent that the line is stronger in fresh water. |
How and where to get Fishing Bait in New World
And of course, you would not be able to catch rarer fish without the help of various bait. There are different types and you can obtain them from different sources. Check the details below:
| Bait Type | Location | Additional Perks Offered |
| Bread Bait | Kitchen Tier 2 and Provision Containers | Small increase catching better fish in fresh water. |
| Cheese Bait | Kitchen Tier 2 and Provision Containers | Small increase in catching better fish in salt water. |
| Clam Bait | Clams | Small increase in catching better fish in fresh water. |
| Electric Eel bait | Electric Eels | Large increase in catching bigger fish in salt water. |
| Firefly Bait | Bulrush Plants, Briar Plants | Large increase in catching better fish in fresh water. |
| Fish Bait | Kitchen Tier 2, Camp Tier 1 | Small increase in catching better fish in salt water. |
| Glowworm Bait | Flint (Must be Nighttime) | Large increase in catching better fish in salt water. |
| Meat Bait | Kitchen Tier 2 and Camp Tier 1 | Small increase in catching better fish in fresh water. |
| Nightcrawler Bait | Flint (Must be Daytime) | Medium increase in catching better fish in salt water. |
| Oyster Bait | Oysters | Large increase in catching bigger fish in fresh water. |
| Snail Bait | Snails | Medium increase in catching better fish in salt water. |
| Woodlouse Bait | Bushes | Medium increase in catching better fish in fresh water. |
Here is also all of the fishing locations that are available in New World. Fans have already created an interactive map that will show all of them, but here is a screenshot showing everything.
What to do with Fish in New World?
There are several ways you can use your fish resource to your advantage. Either for materials, recipes or for money. Here are the ways:
Salvage Fish for Fish Filet and Fish Oil Resources in New World
The main reason you want to catch fish is to use the resources you get from salvaging it. When you salvage fish, you actually get to two types of resources, which are Fish Filet and Fish Oil.
- Fish Filet, oddly enough, is used for Town Projects. It is a requirement for some reason, but you will be needing this particular resource if you want to build something. There is actually one quest that will ask you to get 70 Fish Filet for Town Projects.
- Fish Oil is an item you can sell since it is an ingredient for making a cooking ingredient, which is Cooking Oil. It is used for different kinds of recipes and foods, so it could also be helpful for you, but if you have extra, you might want to sell this since it could be lucrative.
Use Fish for Recipes in New World
Another important use for the Fish resource that you have gathered is for your recipes and to keep you fed to stay alive. There is no hunger system in New World, but it does offer some buffs and regeneration for your health and mana, so it is quite useful.
You can either salvage Fish for the ingredients used for cooking or use it as is. It depends on the type of fish you will use.
Sell Fish at Trading Post in New World
The last use for Fish is to sell them at the Trading Post. Fish cannot be sold to NPCs unfortunately, but it can still be sold at the Trading Post so that other players can buy it for their own uses. You can either put the default price for it or tweak it depending on the demand. It can become lucrative, but it all depends on the demand of the resource and the type of fish.
If you want to fix the New World Faction Reputation Cap 3,000 “issue”, you can read this article here. To learn of the locations for Hemp, check here.
New World is now available on PC.
