Minecraft fishing guide: How to fish

Fishing in Minecraft is a surprisingly powerful system. It can give players in a new world infinite access to food, as well as the chance to catch useful items, such as enchanted bows, fishing rods, and books. Needless to say, fishing is a great system for players wanting to gain access to incredibly powerful gear, so knowing how to do it is vital for prolonged survival.

Detailed below is everything that you need to know about getting started with this powerful survival system.

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How to fish in Minecraft

1) Make a fishing rod

The crafting recipe for fishing rods in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

The first thing you'll need to do to fish in Minecraft is make a fishing rod. This can be done by placing three sticks in a diagonal across the crafting interface and then placing two pieces of string in a vertical line along the righthand side of the UI.

Fishing rods can also be obtained by killing drowned Minecraft mobs that occasionally spawn with them, though this is quite rare.

You can also consider enchanting your fishing rod. The Lure enchantment will reduce the time it takes for something to bite, while Luck of the Sea will make junk less likely to be caught while also making treasure more likely to be hooked. Unbreaking will make your fishing rod last longer, and Mending will allow it to repair itself forever.

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2) Find a large body of water

The ocean is a great spot to fish (Image via Mojang)

Once you've crafted, or otherwise managed to obtain, a fishing rod, you'll want to find a large body of water or dig one out. Make sure that this body of water is on the surface or exposed to the sky. If the bobber isn't directly exposed to sun or moonlight, fish will take twice as long to catch.

Additionally, the body of water will need to extend for at least two blocks in each direction out from the bobber to allow for fishing treasure, such as powerful enchanted books and gear, to be caught.

This used to not the be the case, but AFK Minecraft fish farms were so good at obtaining rare enchantments that fishing treasure was nerfed in response.

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3) Cast the rod and wait for a bite

The water particle effects indicating a bite (Image via Mojang)

Now that you've found a suitable body of water, it's time to actually do some fishing. Approach the edge of the water and hit the interact button. On PC, this is right click. On console, this will usually be the left trigger. On mobile devices, this act usually involves tapping and holding for a moment. However, this will depend on your selected control scheme.

It's also worth keeping in mind that if the bobber is being rained on, every tick has a 25% chance to count twice for the waiting time for the next bite. This means that fish should get hooked considerably faster in the rain.

It will take between five and 30 seconds for the hook to catch something. You can tell when this is about to happen, as there's a ripple in the water that approaches the bobber leading up to the bite.

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4) Reel in at the right moment

Reel in your rod right as the bobber dips underwater (Image via Mojang)

Speaking of fish being hooked, you'll need to reel in your line at just the right time to actually catch anything. Right as the bobber dips into the water and the splash sound effect is played, you'll need to use your interact key again to reel in the rod.

If your timing was good, you should catch whatever fish, junk, or Minecraft fishing treasure item was on the line. You'll also get a bit of XP.