Fish & Bait

How the collection works

How to Fish tracks 49 regular creatures, from the Brown Crab you catch in the first minutes to the Superdwarf Fish that only shows up on the Volcano. Each one has to be caught with the correct rod and lure, then killed, before it registers in your encyclopedia. Buying and equipping the right lure matters more than where you stand, because regular fish are decided by the lure you have on, not the island you are visiting.

The catch is that stronger lures only unlock as the story pushes you forward. You start with two rods — the Crab Fishing Rod and the Fishing Rod — and cheap starter bait, then work up through four purchasable lure tiers. This page is the overview; for where each lure first appears, see the islands guide, and for the summon fights themselves, see the boss roster.

The two rods behind the lures

Before the lures matter, the rod in your hands decides which half of the pool you can reach. The Crab Fishing Rod is your bottom-feeder tool: paired with the Free Lure it pulls Brown Crab and Shrimp, and with the Hot Dog it lands Rock Crab and Lobster. It is the rod you keep for anything crustacean.

The Fishing Rod is the general-purpose one, and it widens what your cheap bait can do. On the Fishing Rod the Free Lure also catches Mackerel, Gar, Pike and Goldfish, and the Hot Dog reaches Piranha. Because the same lure behaves differently on each rod, keep both equipped and swap as the encyclopedia demands, rather than selling the crab rod once you outgrow the beach.

The lure tiers, in order

The four paid lures are the spine of the collection. Prices below come from a community 1.0.4 multiplayer run and are noted as of 2026-08-28; a later note flagged that some routes changed in 1.0.5, so treat exact numbers as a guide rather than gospel and re-check in your own game.

Lure	Price (as of 2026-08-28)	First sold on
Free Lure / starter bait	Free	Lighthouse
Hot Dog	Cheap starter bait	Early
Beginner Lure	Low-cost	Forest
Standard Lure	$15	Desert
Professional Lure	$50	Rocks
Scientific Lure	$500	Volcano

The Standard Lure is the pink one you will hear players mention for quest fish. The Professional Lure holds the biggest catch pool in the game, so budget for a few of them rather than expecting one to see you through.

Which lure catches which fish

Below is the regular catch pool by lure. Some creatures — Piranha, Pike and Goldfish among them — appear under more than one lure, so you have several ways to fill those slots.

Lure	Catches
Free Lure	Brown Crab, Shrimp (Crab Rod); Mackerel, Gar, Pike, Goldfish (Fishing Rod)
Hot Dog	Rock Crab, Lobster (Crab Rod); Piranha (Fishing Rod)
Beginner Lure	Piranha, Pike, Cod, Goby, Salmon, Perch, Triggerfish, Goldfish
Standard Lure	Catfish, Clownfish, Sea Urchin, Yellow Boxfish, Needlefish, Angelfish, Bluegill, Seahorse, Bowlfish
Professional Lure	Bass, Eel, Red Snapper, Sengarat, Halibut, Tigerfish, Flying Fish, Voxelfish, Parrotfish, Dripper
Scientific Lure	Blobfish, Oarfish, Anglerfish, Stonefish, Superdwarf Fish

The Scientific Lure closes out the last five regular creatures before you start worrying about bosses and Drip variants. If a listed fish refuses to bite, keep re-casting the same lure — the pool is random, not island-locked.

Boss lures and special bait

Bosses and minibosses do not come from the regular pool. They need a Boss Lure or a specific quest item, and they must be summoned at the correct location or the fight will not start. Mini-boss lures are sold in shops; the four story-boss lures cannot be bought and instead drop out of each island's quest chain.

Summon item	Creature	Price (as of 2026-08-28)
Beginner Boss Lure	Sunfish, The Old Pike (Forest)	$40
Standard Boss Lure	Blue Shark (Desert)	$280
Professional Boss Lure	Tuna (Rocks)	$1,200
Scientific Boss Lure	Goblin Shark (Volcano)	$5,800

The story bosses use unique bait instead of a purchased lure: the Spider Crab wants an Empty Beer Can, the Giant Piranha a Modified Leech, the Pufferfish a Carrot, the Albatross a Tuna, and the Bowhead Whale a Fish Bucket. The Mutated Bowhead Whale is summoned with a regular Bowhead Whale. One durability note worth knowing — regular and mini-boss lures can break on use and vanish in a puff of smoke, while island boss lures are consumed every single time.

Endangered fish and the Tourist quest

A handful of species are flagged as endangered when you catch them, and they hand a bonus on the kill. They are a separate system from Drip creatures, though a single fish can be both endangered and Drip at once. The Needlefish, Bowlfish and Seahorse all count as endangered, and you fish them up with the pink Standard Lure.

Endangered fish matter because the Tourist's "Vacation" quest wants one of them. Turning it in rewards you with a Carrot — the bait you need for the Pufferfish boss. The Seahorse is the species most guides point to for this hand-in, so grab one while you are farming the Standard Lure pool.

Drip creatures and the Reel of Fortune

Every creature has a rare Drip version, and Drip creatures use the exact same rod, lure or bait as the normal one — there is no separate Drip Lure to buy. Eligible non-boss catches have roughly a 10% chance to come up Drip, so the trick is patience: keep casting the correct lure and defeat only the Drip that appears. The Tab menu tracks the 49 regular and 49 Drip creatures as two independent lists.

A popular farming method is to reel in slowly after casting, then right-click to reject each non-Drip creature and only spam the reel when a Drip bites — players report five to eight bites per cast this way. The Dripper is the notorious hold-out; community counts put its base catch rate under four percent before the Drip roll is even applied, so it is usually the last regular creature people fill in. One convenience worth knowing: Drip variants respawn, so a fish that is both endangered and Drip can be turned in for a quest and still be farmed again for the collection.

Drip creatures aren't just collectibles, either — you can feed them into the Reel of Fortune to unlock weapon and equipment skins. That gives the grind a second payoff beyond a full encyclopedia, and it is why many players keep chasing Drips long after the story is done. Since there is no dedicated Drip lure, every Drip you want is simply more time with the tier that catches its normal form.

Prices, patches and where to go next

Everything above should be read against the game's version. The lure and boss-lure prices come from a 1.0.4 run, prices seemed to differ between solo and multiplayer for weapon upgrades, and one guide author flagged unre-tested changes in 1.0.5, so confirm costs in your own save. Fish names are stable across sources, but exact price tags are the part most likely to drift.

From here, the boss guides cover the summon fights the boss lures set up, the items and gear pages explain the odd baits like the Empty Beer Can, and the islands overview shows the order in which each lure tier unlocks. Fill the regular pool first, chase Drip variants second, and leave the Dripper for last.