To fish the shark in How to Fish, buy the Standard Boss Lure for $280 (as of 2026-08-28) on the Desert island, equip it, and cast to hook the 70-weight Blue Shark mini-boss. Drop its 2,300 health with a maxed Uzi, then carry the shark trophy back to the Grillmaster to open the grill and pop the Grillmaster achievement.
How to fish the shark in How to Fish
The shark you are after is the Blue Shark, a 70-weight mini-boss you summon on the Desert island for the Grillmaster's quest. Ordinary bait will never pull one up; the Blue Shark only appears when you cast with the Standard Boss Lure equipped. The short version is buy the lure, hook the shark, kill it, and carry the trophy back to the Grillmaster. This page walks through each step, the fight, and why the grill it unlocks is worth the outlay.
Because it is a mini-boss and not the island's story gate, the shark is optional for travel, but it is a real progression step and a genuine money maker. The Grillmaster hands you the job the moment you dock on the Desert island, and completing it is what turns the grill on. If you are working through the wider How to Fish bosses hub, treat the shark as the Desert island's cash-flow milestone rather than its travel key.
Where to buy the Standard Boss Lure ($280)
The Standard Boss Lure costs $280 (as of 2026-08-28) and you pick it up on the Desert island where you use it. It is a purchasable item, unlike the island boss baits that only drop from finishing quests, so there is no hidden vendor to track down. Dock, find the shop, and buy it as soon as you have the cash.
A common trap is the name. The Standard Boss Lure is a completely different item from the everyday Standard Lure (Pink, $15) you use to catch regular fish, so double-check what you are buying before you spend. Prices in How to Fish are quoted from co-op runs, but lures cost the same whether you play solo or with friends, so plan on the full $280 either way. Budget a little extra headroom in case you need more than one attempt.
How to summon and hook the Blue Shark
Summoning the shark is simple once the lure is in your pocket. Equip the Standard Boss Lure, then cast into the water the way you would for any catch. The lure calls the Blue Shark out and hooks it as a mini-boss fight rather than a normal reel-in.
The Blue Shark is a 70-weight creature that sells for $300 if you ever want to move it on rather than hand it in. Keep some cooked fish on you before you cast, because the fight starts the moment it surfaces and you cannot restock mid-battle. If your lure breaks without producing the shark, that is the durability roll, not a bug, so buy another and try again.
Killing the Blue Shark: weapon and arena tips
The Blue Shark carries 2,300 health, and a fully upgraded Uzi is enough to bring it down. You do not need to grind for a heavier weapon first, so do not let the mini-boss label push you into over-preparing. Keep firing, keep eating fish to heal, and the health bar will fall steadily.
The arena is the catch here. The Desert island is covered in coconut palm trees, and they block your dodges, so watch your footing rather than rolling blind into a trunk. The upside is that the shark itself sometimes snags on a tree, which gives you a window of free damage, but it happens at random and you should never plan around it. Circle the open sand where you can, and use the trees as cover only when you have a clear path behind you.
If you are playing co-op, the fight gets easier fast. More guns mean the shark dies quicker, and teammates can revive you instead of ending the run outright. The same footwork rules still apply, so spread out enough that a single tree cluster does not trap the whole lobby.
Hand the shark to the Grillmaster
Killing the shark is not the end of the quest. Like every boss in How to Fish, it leaves a distinct trophy rather than a plain meat chunk, and that trophy is what the Grillmaster actually wants. Pick up the drop and carry it back to him.
Hand the shark over and he lets you start the grill. This step is both a story beat on the Desert island and the trigger for the Grillmaster achievement, so you clear two things at once. If the dialogue will not advance, check what you are carrying, because a missing pickup is almost always the reason a boss quest stalls.
Why the grill is worth the $280
Grill access is the real reward, and it quickly pays back the lure. Cooking is your main money multiplier from here on, because a cooked item sells for more than a raw one. Press F to inspect any item and it shows Value, Cooking multiplier, Weight, and Killscore, updating live while a fish sits over the flame.
The value climbs from 1x up to 1.5x, then collapses to 0 if the fish turns solid black, so pull it at the 1.5x peak. That 1.5x bonus also applies to guns and other items, not just fish, so cook a weapon before you sell it. Later on the Volcano island's lava cooks at a flat 1.5x with no timing risk at all, but until then the grill you just unlocked is your best margin. Get comfortable with it here and it funds every lure that follows.
Standard Boss Lure vs the other boss lures
The Standard Boss Lure is one rung on a ladder of shop lures that scales up island by island, and it is easy to buy the wrong one. Mini-boss lures are the only baits you can purchase; story island bosses like the Pufferfish use quest baits you cannot buy at any price. The table below lines up the summon lures so you spend on the right item.
| Lure | Summons | Price (as of 2026-08-28) |
|---|---|---|
| Standard Lure (Pink) | Regular fish (Catfish, Bluegill, Angelfish, Needlefish, etc.) | $15 |
| Beginner Boss Lure | The Old Pike mini-boss (Forest island) | $40 |
| Standard Boss Lure | Blue Shark mini-boss (Desert island) | $280 |
| Professional Boss Lure | Tuna mini-boss (for the seagull fight) | $1,200 |
| Scientific Boss Lure | Goblin Shark mini-boss (Volcano island) | $5,800 |
Does the Standard Boss Lure break?
Durability is worth understanding before you buy. Regular and mini-boss lures, the Standard Boss Lure included, have a chance to break on use and disappear in a puff of smoke. Quest-earned island boss baits are different: those are consumed every single time.
Because the Standard Boss Lure is a purchased mini-boss lure, its exact reuse behavior after summoning the shark is not guaranteed. The safe plan is to treat every summon as one-and-done and keep enough cash to re-buy a $280 lure if it breaks. Do not count on the same lure surviving into a second attempt.
The other shark: the Goblin Shark
If you are hunting a full creature list, note that the Blue Shark is not the only shark in the game. The Volcano island has an optional mini-boss, the Goblin Shark, summoned with the Scientific Boss Lure ($5,800 as of 2026-08-28). Nothing in the story points you toward it, so it is easy to miss.
At that price it is worth setting money aside before you blow your endgame cash elsewhere, especially if you are chasing the Collector achievement. Both sharks are mini-bosses summoned with purchased lures, but they sit at opposite ends of the ladder, so do not confuse the cheap Desert island fight with the pricey Volcano one.
Version and pricing notes
The prices and mechanics on this page were checked against How to Fish v1.0.4 (August 2026). Costs like the $280 lure and the $300 shark sale value come from co-op runs and can shift with patches or sales, which is why every figure is tagged as of 2026-08-28. If a later update changes a number, treat the dated value as a snapshot rather than a fixed rule.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I buy the Standard Boss Lure and how much is it?
It sells for $280 (as of 2026-08-28) on the Desert island itself. Unlike the quest-only island boss baits, this is ordinary shop stock, so you can walk up and buy it the moment you dock with enough cash. The price is the same whether you play solo or co-op.
What weapon do I need to kill the Blue Shark?
The Blue Shark has 2,300 health, and a fully upgraded Uzi is enough to grind it down. There is no reason to farm for heavier weapons before starting the Grillmaster quest, so save the cash for lures and cooked fish instead.
Does the Standard Boss Lure get used up when I summon the shark?
It is a purchased mini-boss lure, so it has a chance to break on use and vanish in a puff of smoke rather than always being consumed. Its reuse behavior after the shark is not guaranteed, so budget for a fresh $280 lure per attempt.
Is catching the shark required to finish How to Fish?
The shark is a Grillmaster story step and pops the Grillmaster achievement, and it opens the grill, which becomes your main money multiplier. The island's actual travel gate is the Pufferfish, not the shark, so it is progression plus a big economy boost rather than a hard road block.
Is the Blue Shark the only shark in the game?
No. There is also the Goblin Shark, the Volcano island's optional mini-boss, summoned with the far pricier Scientific Boss Lure ($5,800 as of 2026-08-28). Nothing in the story points you at it, so budget for it separately if you want a full creature list.