Amazon’s New World puts a major emphasis on gathering and crafting, and like any MMO worth its salt, it has a robust fishing system that you can easily sink hours into.
The fishing system in New World can get confusing quickly, however, even if you’re just trying to get fish oil or craft your own fishing pole. With that in mind, here’s everything you need to know about fishing in New World.
How to Fish in New World
The first step for fishing is to have a fishing pole, which means crafting one. You can get a basic fishing pole easily, as all you’ll need is one Fiber and one Green Wood.
Fiber can be found from Hemp (tall plants with purple flowers), and Green Wood can be gained by harvesting any bush or tree. Once you have that head to a crafting table, then make sure to go into your character menu and actually equip the pole.
Now whenever you’re out exploring you’ll see prompt pop up when by a body of water, letting you hit F3 to start fishing. Now for the actual act of fishing, here’s a basic walkthrough.
- Press R and equip whatever bait you might want to
- Left-click and a bar will appear, the more full the bar is the further you’ll cast your line.
- When the line bobs and the words “Get Ready” pop up by your line, left-click to catch the fish.
- A tension gauge will pop up and you want to keep the tension in the green, so when it starts turning orange ease off the reeling
- Once the bar is full you’ll successfully catch the fish
Finding Bait
You don’t have to use bait when you fish in New World, but it can significantly raise your chances of catching fish so it’s usually a good idea. There’s a wide array of different bait that gives you a bonus in either freshwater or saltwater. Below you can find details on all of the bait options.
- Bread Bait (Freshwater) — Found in containers or made in Kitchen Crafting Station Tier 2
- Cheese Bait (Saltwater) — Found in containers or made in Kitchen Crafting Station Tier 2
- Clam Bait (Freshwater) — Harvested from clams
- Firefly Bait (Freshwater) — Harvested from Bulrush Plants and Briar Plants
- Fish Bait (Saltwater) — Made in Camp Tier 1 or Kitchen Crafting Station Tier 2
- Glowworm Bait (Saltwater) — Harvested from Flint only at nighttime
- Meat Bait (Freshwater) — Made in Camp Tier 1 or Kitchen Crafting Station Tier 2
- Nightcrawler Bait (Saltwater) — Harvested from Flint in the daytime
- Oyster Bait (Freshwater) — Harvested from Oysters
- Snail Bait (Saltwater) — Harvested from Snails
- Woodlouse Bait (Freshwater) — Found when harvesting bushes
Finding Fishing Hotspots in New World
While you can fish just about anywhere in New World, you’ll want to keep an eye out for Fishing Hotspots as they pop up. On the map, you can see these represented by a fish icon with one to three stars next to it. The number of stars represents rareness as follows – one star is a broad fishing spot, two stars is a rare fishing spot, and three stars is a secret fishing spot.
In order to see Fishing Hotspots you’ll need to level up your Fishing skill in New World, which is done by, you guessed it, fishing. If you want some help finding these hotspots, you can use this interactive map created by fans.
Getting Fish Oil
As you starting crafting more in New World you’ll notice that Fish Oil is a resource you’ll constantly need, especially if you plan on cooking a lot.
The only way to get Fish Oil is by catching fish, and then salvaging said fish in your menu. You aren’t always guaranteed to get Fish Oil from salvaging, so if you want to get a lot of it, you’ll need to catch a lot of fish.
Fishing Levels and Getting New Rods
Like with other trade skills, Fishing has 200 levels with each one granting the bonus of being able to find more hotspots. If you’re looking to level up fast you’ll want to use hotspots as much as possible, as they provide the most XP.
If there aren’t any nearby hotspots, however, then your best bet is to fish at deep depths like the ocean or a deep lake. If you’re looking to absolutely maximize your time fishing as well you’ll want to position yourself in a spot so you don’t have to keep casting your line all the way out. At the same time, make sure to use bait to up your chances of catching bigger and more valuable fish.
Another aspect that can help get your fishing level up quick is crafting and equipping a better fishing pole. There are five different “quality” of poles you can craft, but using special resources during crafting can add specific perks. These perks will alter how you fish, such as the “Lucky Day” perk that boosts your chance of catching rarer fish during the day. It’s a good idea to experiment when you craft fishing poles, to see what you might be able to get. Now, here are the different poles to craft.
- Wooden Fishing Pole — 1 Green Wood, 1 Fiber
- Treated Wood Fishing Pole — 12 Timber, 3 Coarse Leather, 3 Linen
- Aged Wood Fishing Pole — 13 Timber, 3 Coarse Leather, 2 Linen
- Wyrdwood Fishing Pole — 14 Wyrdwood Planks, 3 Coarse Leather, 2 Linen
- Ironwood Fishing Pole — 15 Ironwood Planks, 3 Coarse Leather, 2 Linen
In terms of getting these resources; Linen is crafted from Fiber at the Loom Station, Coarse Leather is crafted from four rawhides at the Tannery, Timber is refined from Lumber, and Wyrdwood/Ironwood are refined from trees of the same name.
That covers everything you might need to know about fishing in New World. If you need any extra help while adventuring, make sure to check out our other New World guides.
- Best New World PvP Builds
- Best New World PvE Builds
- New World: Where to Find Petalcaps
- New World: How to Get Petrified Wood
- New World: How to Get Fae Iron
- New World Territory Standing Explained
- New World Black Screen Fix
- New World Connection Error Fix
- New World Lag Detected Fix Guide
- New World Trial of the Gladiator Walkthrough
