1. Fish Can Be Caught in Any Form of Water

One of the interesting things about Minecraft is its weird fishing mechanics. Players can always catch fish even on a single block of water with a fishing rod,  including player-made water areas. However, this does not guarantee that the loot from fishing will be the same. In Minecraft, larger bodies of water will tend to give you more assortments of fish loot or treasures. But does this stop you from fishing on a single block of water? Of course not!

2. Environmental Conditions Influence Your Fishing Experience

Environmental conditions around the fishing spot such as exposure to sunlight, rain, or cold areas affect the way you fish. These environmental conditions do not necessarily change the kind of loot you obtain but rather influence the amount of time to catch a fish. A water block exposed to sunlight, for example, has an average wait time of around 5 to 30 seconds, compared to blocks that are not. A frozen water block in a cold area cannot be cast with a rod. Players might need to heat the surrounding area to melt these ice blocks before fishing. If your water block is exposed to rain, the waiting time to catch a fish is reduced by around 20%.

For players planning to create their fishing areas,  it is highly recommended to consider an open space for sunlight and rain exposure. But this does not mean you shouldn’t create indoor fishing areas. Caves are also a great space to create a fishing area especially if you are waiting for daylight.

3. Crafting is Not the Only Way to Obtain Fishing Rods

Of course, what is fishing without a fishing rod? A fishing rod is a primary tool in Minecraft to catch fish. When used, it automatically casts a bobber into the water surface, and when reeled in, catches a fish mob.

How to Make a Fishing Rod in Minecraft

The easiest way to obtain a fishing rod is to craft it. To do this, we need two strings, three pieces of sticks, and a crafting table. In the crafting table, place the three sticks in a diagonal order (from the lower left to the upper right), and place the two strings directly below the upper right stick, forming a vertical column with it. You see a fishing rod icon as an output result of crafting.

Other Means to Obtain Fishing Rod In Minecraft

Fishing rods in Minecraft can still be obtained in cases where crafting is not your best option. To date, there are only five possible ways to obtain a fishing rod which are the following:

• Through Fishing

While fishing to get a fishing rod might sound bizarre, it is truly one of the ways to obtain a fishing rod, especially an enchanted one. 

• Buying it from NPC Villagers

Enchanted fishing rods in particular can be bought from any Journey-level Fisherman villager. Each rod costs six emeralds though.

• Chest Loots

there are also chances of getting an enchanted fishing rod in small or big chests that can be found in underwater ruins. 

• Exhausting the Durability of a Carrot On A Stick

A Carrot On A Stick is used to make a pig mount run faster. It can be obtained by simply crafting a Fishing Rod with a carrot. You can also obtain a new Carrot On A Stick by combining two Damaged Carrot On A Stick. Depleting the durability of a Carrot On A Stick to zero will give a Fishing Rod as a remnant.

• Rare Drop from Drowned Mobs 

Drowned mobs are underwater aggressive mobs that usually spawn on huge bodies of water. Some of them carry a trident that they use to attack players in sight. Killing a Drowned Mob has a 3.75% chance of dropping a common or enchanted fishing rod.

4. You Can Fish Without a Fishing Rod

You read that right. What if you don’t have a fishing rod? Can you still catch fish mobs in Minecraft? There is an alternative way to catch fish mobs in Minecraft. Although this method is a bit tricky and inefficient, especially if you are targeting to catch as many fish as you can. This method is done by using a bucket.

A Bucket of Aquatic Mob is a water bucket combined with an aquatic mob. This can be obtained by interacting with an aquatic mob with a water bucket. Take note that to do this, the player must have a bucket (which can be crafted with 3 iron ingots) filled with water and a physically present fish mob. Players might need to dive down into water depths to look for live fishes roaming around so that they can interact with them using the water bucket. By doing this, players can only catch one fish at a time per water bucket.

The relevance of this method versus the fishing rod is this allows the fish to be transported safely to another water block. Most water surfaces, especially shallow ones, do not have live fish mobs swimming in them. If we want small water areas like ponds or player-made pools to have fish in them, we need to use this water bucket method.

Minecraft fish mobs obtained through fishing rods are added to your inventory but cannot be returned to the world alive.

5. Fishes Aren’t the Only Thing You Can ‘Fish’

We’ve been mentioning for a while some of the things that you can catch aside from fish. Yes, there are other kinds of stuff that you can reel in when you use your fishing rod in Minecraft.

Fish Mobs

The most common loot when fishing is the Fish Mobs. Fish mobs are part of the larger group of Aquatic mobs. They are a good source of food in-game and are categorized into four: the Cod, the Salmon, the Pufferfish, and the rare Tropical Fish.

Cods are the most common among the four fish mobs. They can be killed with fire to produce a cooked Cod as loot. Salmons are a much better alternative to Cod in terms of food. Unlike Cods, salmons have three different sizes small, normal, and large. Pufferfish is iconic for its inflating body when approached by the player. They can deal poison damage to the player and other mobs nearby. Unlike Cods and salmons, pufferfish cannot be cooked, and eating it has a lot of side effects.

Tropical fish are colorful fishes that can be seen in ocean depths, swamps, and lush caves. They have different random color patterns that easily distinguish them from Cods and salmons. They can be seen swimming in schools of 8, mostly in warm oceans. Tropical fish cannot be cooked but can be eaten raw with no effect or benefit to the player. In Minecraft, tropical fishes are often collected as pets to be placed in player-made pools or ponds. They use the water bucket method, as we mentioned, to catch and transfer tropical fish into a different aqueous environment.

Can You Breed Tropical Fishes?

Generally speaking, any fish can’t be bred in Minecraft vanilla. But there are some unofficial fan-made add-ons that players use to breed tropical fish. On this breeding add-on, tropical fishes can be fed kelps for them to enter into love mode. Once in love mode, when two tropical fishes are contained inside a single space, they start to breed and produce eggs. You can repeat this process and breed as much tropical fish as you like.

Needless to say, these releases are unofficial and are not included in Minecraft’s base game.

Junks

Junks are also common among fishing loots in Minecraft. They have around a 10% chance of being reeled when using a common fishing rod. This can further be reduced when using the Luck of the Sea enchantment into the fishing rod. With this enchantment, the probability of getting a fish remains at 85% while the probability of treasure becomes 7% to 11% depending on the level of the enchantment. It also reduces the probability of getting junk from 10% to 8.1% to 4.2% depending on the level of the enchantment.

Below is the complete list of junk items that can be fished in Minecraft:

• Tripwire Hook
• Ink Sac
• Bones
• Water Bottle
• String
• Stick
• Rotten Flesh
• Leather Boots
• Leather
• Fishing Rod
• Bowl
• Lily Pad
• Cocoa Beans
• Bamboo

While these items are considered ‘junk’, these are still materials that can be used to craft especially the strings and sticks which you can use to create newer fishing rods.

Treasures

Treasures are the greatest items you want to have in Minecraft fishing. They are rare items that are not easily found elsewhere and have a useful use for the players. Below are some of the treasures that can be acquired through fishing:

• Enchanted Bow with random enchantments
• Enchanted Book
• Fishing Rod with random enchantments
• Name tags
• Nautilus Shell
• Saddle

6. Enchantment is for Fishing Too!

You were introduced to the enchantment Luck of the Sea from the previous section. Using this enchantment on your fishing rod increases your chances of getting better Minecraft fish or treasures while reducing the probability of getting junk items. But do you know that other enchantments can be used aside from the Luck of the Sea? 

Below are the following enchantments that can be used on your fishing rod in-game:

Lure Enchantment

The Lure enchantment is highly recommended for players who plan to grind the fishing rewards of Minecraft. This enchantment decreases the average waiting time to score a catch in fishing. With Lure enchantment level III, the longest possible time to wait for a catch is only around 15 seconds.

Luck of the Sea

The Luck of the Sea increases the possibility of getting treasures and fish while decreasing the possibility of junk. This is good for players who want to get a variety of treasures and fish instead of junk items. At Luck of the Sea III, the possibility of getting junk is reduced to 4.2% from 10%.

Unbreaking

We forgot to mention that fishing rods have durability. The base durability of a fishing rod is 64. Meaning, it can be used for fishing 64 times until it breaks and become unusable. With the Unbreaking enchantment, the fishing rod becomes more durable. At level III of Unbreaking, the maximum durability of a fishing rod is 256.

Mending

The Mending enchantment cannot be acquired through enchantment tables but rather through treasure-hunting loot or trading with a librarian. There is a rare chance of acquiring a Mending rod. It is highly recommended that players keep this rod and combine it with another regular fishing rod to replenish its durability.

The fishing rod infused with a Mending enchantment will repair itself depending on the experience gained while fishing. This is the only enchantment that may allow your fishing pole to be used infinitely through self-repairs. 

Curse of Vanishing

The Curse of Vanishing is an unusual and non-beneficial fishing rod enchantment. It causes the player’s fishing rod to disappear if they die while holding it. Aside from that, nothing is surprising or unique about this enchantment.