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Being a Fisherman is one of the earliest professions you gain access to in Brighter Shores Episode 1 (Hopeport), and it's worth leveling up all the way. Unlike the Guard profession, this one is completely safe. Moreover, it is easy, and all you need is your first fishing tool. Apart from being an effective way of making money in the early game, the fish you acquire by being a Fisherman are also directly tied to the Chef and Alchemist professions as raw ingredients.
With that in mind, this guide will provide a complete rundown of how fishing and the Fisherman profession in Brighter Shores work.
How to unlock Fishing in Brighter Shores
To start fishing, you'll need a Fishing Spear. Go to Melv's Fishing Supplies in Town Square, your one-stop destination for all fishing tools, and buy a Fishing Spear for 12 Silver.
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Before you continue, make sure you've beaten the tutorial. Once you do that, you'll be asked to level up to at least 60, and most of the initial region-locks in Hopeport are lifted. Alternatively, leveling up Fisherman lets you reach that milestone way more easily.
There's no mechanical fishing minigame in Brighter Shores. All you have to do is click on a fish and then click Catch. Other than that, it just involves meeting specific level or tool requirements.
To start your fishing journey, go to the East Beach (where you picked up the Kelp during the tutorial) and catch some Mottled Flounders. Spam the Sense spell to spot the fish easily. Do note that they respawn after a while, and moving out of the block will not reset their spawn time. It's worth noting other players cannot steal your fish, as they spawn on your private instance of the world.
As you level up, the fish will be replaced with higher-level variants, keeping the rate of XP you can gain steady, regardless of your favorite fishing spot.
Fishing Baits and passive Fisherman XP
Starting with Dabs at lvl 20, you'll need to purchase bait to catch fish with Fishing Rods. Brighter Shores has the following baits:
- Grubs: Starlets, Mackibuts
- Maggots: Wraddocks, Herrings
- Sea Slugs: Dabs
These fishes are stored in crates, letting you amass a lot of them without taking up per-fish inventory slots. Baits form the basis of passively gaining Fisherman XP in Brighter Shores, which we have discussed in the leveling guide below. Generally, a single unit of bait will let you passively fish for a little over 90 minutes.
Fishes caught with bait do not individually occupy an inventory slot. Instead, they're stored in a crate, and all baits give you one full crate of the corresponding fish before they are depleted fully.
All Fish types used in cooking
A majority of fish types are used in the Chef profession to make various dishes:
- Cod is used in Cod and Chips
- Eels are used in Jellied Eels
- Gurnards are used in Gurnard Soup
- Ray are used in Fried Ray Wings
- Bass are used in Grilled Bass
- Oysters are used in Oysters with Lemon Juice
- Lobsters are used in Lobster Thermidor
Some fish that are caught passively with bait are also used for AFK-grinding Chef Profession levels by cooking the following dishes:
- Dabs are used in Dab Stew
- Mackibuts are used in Mackibut on Toast
- Herring is used in Garlic Herring
- Sturlets are used in Roasted Sturlets
- Breams are used in Baked Bream
You should therefore prioritize stashing these types of fish in the Ingredients Bank found inside the Delectable Dab kitchen. These can be used later to quickly level up the Chef Profession.
All other fish should be sold to the Fishmonger. The only exception to this rule is the high-level variant of Pufferfish, the Unicorn Pufferfish. This is used in cooking the late-game dish Puffer Shashimi (Chef lvl 379+).
Fishing Capes
You gain the following skill capes by leveling the Fisherman profession:
- Lvl 50: Journeyman Fishing Cape
- Lvl 100: Adept Fishing Cape
- Lvl 200: Expert Fishing Cape
- Lvl 500: Ultimate Fishing Cape
These can be purchased in the Cloakroom, accessible from Pipe Alley, which is adjacent to Old Street East. If you can't find it, check out the full Hopeport map here.
Early-game leveling guide for Fisherman profession in Brighter Shores (Lvl 1-20)
Level 0 to 2: Go to the East beach (past the Waterfronts) and catch the Mottled Flounder. Once your inventory is full, sell it to the Fishmonger on Eel Street, which happens to be just a few blocks away.
Level 2 to 4: Catch the Lesser Eel that can be found by Eel Street Bridge. These can also be sold to the Fishmonger, but you're better off saving this for cooking (to level up the Chef profession). Go past the Town Square to the Delectable Dab Restaurant kitchen to stash the fish in the ingredient cabinet.
Level 4 to 8: Catch the Sandy Pufferfish at Wilhope Crossing. These are sell-only, so you can pop back to Eel Street to sell them off. Once you reach level 7, the Olive Flounder replaces the Mottled Flounder in the East Beach.
However, at this point, the Sandy Pufferfish gives you good enough XP (71 as opposed to the Flounder's 75) and has a vendor just nearby. This makes it a great money farm for a while.
Level 9 through 19: At this point, all three fishing spots so far (East Beach, Eel Street Bridge, Wilhope Crossing) will upgrade the local fishes one more time. Pufferfish remains the best way to make money, whereas you will want to load up on Eel if you plan to level Chef.
Level 20+: Levels come reasonably fast with Spear-fishing, regardless of where you're doing it. Once you reach level 20, though, it slows down a lot. On the other hand, level 20 is a big break-point in your Fisherman journey, because you can now purchase the Fishing Rod for 72 Silver.
As long as you have enough bait, this tool lets you fish passively, giving you a passive way to level up Fisherman. Before you can do this, though, you need to invest one Knowledge Point into learning how to catch Common Dab. Knowledge Point progression only happens with you're actively fishing, so you still have to walk into shallow water to fish with the Spear.
In other words, once you reach level 20, only engage in Spear-fishing till you've acquired 100% progress towards your first Knowledge Point. Afterwards, get yourself some crates and Slippy Sea Slugs. Then, go to the Vacant Pier past the Boardwalk and start fishing Dab. This persists even when you're logged out, so you can farm XP even when you're not in-game.
You can obtain Fisherman XP anytime you log out. Simply load up on some bait based on how long you'll be gone and activate a Dab, Mackbuit, or Fishing Rod-specific spot before you close the game. Don't forget to buy as many crates as you buy baits to store the fish successfully.
List of all known fish in Brighter Shores
The following are all the fishes we have found so far in Brighter Shores early access, along with where to get them:
As you can see, there's less than a dozen types of fish in Brighter Shores, and the higher-level ones are just variants of the same types of fish.
All Brighter Shores fishing tools: When should you upgrade?
There are four types of fishing tools, namely Fishing Spears, Fishing Rods, Fishing Nets, and Lobster Pots. If you want to catch all the fishes, you'll need all three. This is because certain ones require specific tools to catch. For example, you cannot catch Dabs without a Fishing Rod.
Once you buy the basic starter tools, each upgrade to that will contribute +5% XP towards the Fisherman profession for all fishes caught with that tool.
The upgrades are quite expensive, though, so only buy them once you've picked the type of fish you want to catch for the time being. If you want to continue leveling through Pufferfish, Eel, and Flounders, it's worthwhile to get the upgraded Fishing Spear from Melv's Fishing Supplies at Fisherman Level 15.
Here's how much you'll have to pay Melv for each fishing tool/upgrade:
How to enchant Fishing Tools in Brighter Shores
Fishing Spears, Rods, Nets, or Lobster pots can all be enchanted by heading over to the Enchantress Shop. This is located at Old West Street, opposite the Forager's Warehouse.
Each level of Enchantment gives you 0.4% bonus XP for fish caught with that tool. This stacks multiplicatively with bonus from the fishing tool upgrades bought form Melv's Shop. However, they also come at an increasing cost that's hard to afford in the early-game. For reference, the very first upgrade will set you back 55 Silver (for any fishing tool).
Check out our other guides on the game:
- Should you buy Brighter Shores Premium Pass?
- All classes in Brighter Shores, explained
- Per-Episode combat score releveling is intentional, says Brighter Shores creator
- Complete Brighter Shores Foraging Profession guide: How to forage, leveling tips, and more
- Complete Brighter Shores Alchemist Profession guide: How to make potions, leveling route, and more
