New World Fishing Guide – How to Fish, Craft a Pole & Bait

Having trouble catching fish or don't know what to do about it? Learn how here!

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?

new world fishing guide

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 LevelFishing Pole TypeMaterials NeededDistances Covered
Tier 1Wooden Fishing Pole (Level 1)1 pc. Fiber and 1 pc. Green Wood  12m Max Cast Distance 
Tier 2Treated Wood Fishing Pole (Level 4)1 pc. Coarse Leather, 3 pcs. Linen, and 12 pieces Timber14m Max Cast Distance
Tier 3 Aged Wood Fishing Pole (Level 18)3 pcs. Coarse Leather, 2 pcs. Linen, and 13 pcs. Lumber16m Max Cast Distance
Tier 4 Wyrdwood Fishing Pole (Level 40)3 pcs. Coarse Leather, 2 pcs. Linen, and 14 pcs. Wyrdwood Planks18m Max Cast Distance
Tier 5Ironwood Fishing Pole (Level 60)3 pcs. Coarse Leather, 2 pcs. Linen, and 15 pcs. Ironwood Planks20m 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 PoleHow to ObtainAdditional Perks Offered
Ancient Fishing PoleDefeat Smoothbore Samuel Boss located in Reekwater.20m Cast Distance with 125 percent chance to get rarer fish
Angry Earth Fishing PoleDefeat Parthenocissus Boss located in Restless Shore.20m Cast Distance with 125 percent chance to get rarer fish
Corrupted Fishing PoleDefeat Foreman Robertson Boss located in Great Cleave.20m Cast Distance with 125 percent chance to catch rarer fish
Lost Fishing PoleDefeat Smoothbore Samuel located in Reekwater.20m Cast Distance with 125 percent chance to catch rarer fish
Legendary Azoth Fishing PoleFinish the quest To Be a Grand Master.20m Cast Distance with 250 percent chance to catch bigger fresh water fish.
Legendary Strength Fishing PoleFinish the quest To Be a Grand Master.20m Cast Distance and 15 percent that the line is stronger in fresh water.
Legendary Tech Fishing PoleFinish 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 TypeLocationAdditional Perks Offered
Bread BaitKitchen Tier 2 and Provision ContainersSmall increase catching better fish in fresh water.
Cheese BaitKitchen Tier 2 and Provision ContainersSmall increase in catching better fish in salt water.
Clam BaitClamsSmall increase in catching better fish in fresh water.
Electric Eel baitElectric EelsLarge increase in catching bigger fish in salt water.
Firefly BaitBulrush Plants, Briar PlantsLarge increase in catching better fish in fresh water.
Fish BaitKitchen Tier 2, Camp Tier 1Small increase in catching better fish in salt water.
Glowworm BaitFlint (Must be Nighttime)Large increase in catching better fish in salt water.
Meat BaitKitchen Tier 2 and Camp Tier 1Small increase in catching better fish in fresh water.
Nightcrawler BaitFlint (Must be Daytime)Medium increase in catching better fish in salt water.
Oyster BaitOystersLarge increase in catching bigger fish in fresh water.
Snail BaitSnailsMedium increase in catching better fish in salt water.
Woodlouse BaitBushesMedium 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.