You wont get the hat until you don't need the hat, just like feather cape.

Originally posted by Shaken_Widow:

idk how many people know this, but when you're a beginner you should cast short and always walk backwards when you hook something because walking backwards uses less stamina than reeling, and once you get the fish to the shore line you just reel while walking towards it and it will automatically pick it up.

don't cast for big fish unless you have boosted the skill yet, they will fight hard enough that no matter the stam amount you have your skill will not be enough to overpower them.

It's also worthwhile at low levels to spend a little time just long-casting and reeling in to get the skill up

For me fish are such an important part of my playthrough. I agree fishing for the hat needs looked at, but if you consider how OP fish foods are it is definitely not useless. If you make finding the trader a priority all you need is 10 tin to process the best meat til you get to mountains. And cooked wolf meat is only like 2% better and deer stew like 3% better. A deer meat, cooked fish and honey get me from early dark forest til mountains for everything but boss fights and I dont have to F around finding and saving a bunch of ingredients. As soon as you get an oven you can literally mass produce fish wraps with nothing more than the basic bait from the trader. Fish wraps are a staple for me in plains for their high HP and again ease of ingredients.

The fish skill is really important, but I gave up on trying to catch deep north and ashlands fish, I just wait for those to jump out and collect them. Even the elusive tetra just jumps up on the shore when you find him. Maybe when my fishing skill is 60+ I will try to catch them with a pole. I am sure that is how the mechanic is meant to work.

If your burning through 250 stamina in 3 meters thats because of the fish you are trying to catch. Go to the meadows, fish for 10 minutes and eat like a king for awhile. Since the hat takes end game fish, unless you have end game fishing skill, better to just wait for them to jump on shore or your boat. In the deep north the salmon jump on those little flat floating ice pieces. So easy to run around and collect them. I tried my pole with my 46 fishing skill and yeah right, wasnt happening. Burned through 200 stamina in 3 seconds lol.

Also as stated above with the new mechanic you HAVE to stop reeling in if the fish is "thrashing" anywhere above black forest. Even a swamp level fish will eat through 3 stamina foods if you reel him in while he is "fighting". You can force a meadows fish in but that changes quickly with the new mechanic.

So yeah, trying to rush the fishing system for the hat and doing it legit will probably just frustrate you. But you can get the hat by collecting fish that jump on your boat or the shore. Eating fish though is amazing from the trader til current endgame. Try it your next playthrough and you will see!

P.S. Also fishing is beautiful. I have so many of those "wow this game is beautiful" moments while fishing.

idk how many people know this, but when you're a beginner you should cast short and always walk backwards when you hook something because walking backwards uses less stamina than reeling, and once you get the fish to the shore line you just reel while walking towards it and it will automatically pick it up.

don't cast for big fish unless you have boosted the skill yet, they will fight hard enough that no matter the stam amount you have your skill will not be enough to overpower them.

In my opinion, fishing is broken.

You can only acquire the bait (and fishing rod) from the trader, and then it requires skilling up to be able to catch fish... so you're effectively grinding so you can pay for the privilege of grinding some more.

To add insult to injury, the reward for maxing out fishing (while catching one of each type of fish) is a hat that adds +20... to your already maxed-out fishing skill.

Just walk along the shores of any biome water mass....pick up fish on ground, that is how to collect fish and I do, have so many without even casting once! Currently, fishing, is a wasted mechanic to spend time upon.

Originally posted by rexpiscator:

Just walk along the shores of any biome water mass....pick up fish on ground, that is how to collect fish and I do, have so many without even casting once! Currently, fishing, is a wasted mechanic to spend time upon.

Sadly i must +1 this and yes i tried to make a fish trap by flattening shore should a storm come..limited success but worth the try!

Originally posted by Cap'n Bells:

Originally posted by rexpiscator:

Just walk along the shores of any biome water mass....pick up fish on ground, that is how to collect fish and I do, have so many without even casting once! Currently, fishing, is a wasted mechanic to spend time upon.

Sadly i must +1 this and yes i tried to make a fish trap by flattening shore should a storm come..limited success but worth the try!

As I understand it, you can use roofs to make a "fishing trap" out into the water and catch them without requiring a storm. For example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnEFQz-rZ5g

Originally posted by umop-apisdn:

Originally posted by Cap'n Bells:

Sadly i must +1 this and yes i tried to make a fish trap by flattening shore should a storm come..limited success but worth the try!

As I understand it, you can use roofs to make a "fishing trap" out into the water and catch them without requiring a storm. For example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnEFQz-rZ5g

oh that would work... thanks will give it a whirl!

Originally posted by wolfverine94:

fishing is impossible, too much stamina, with 250 stamina I can't fish more than 3 meters. It takes too many trophies to make bait. The fishing hat is useless.

You must only reel in when the fish is not fighting. If it is fighting (trying to swim) and you reel in all you do is lose a lot of stamina without almost any progress.

It's enough to put the ship in the right place and the fish jumps in by itself - just have time to collect.

How do you get the hat if you can't fish? Since you are spawning in stuff already why stop there, just spawn some fish then.