Fishing

Fishing is a practice where crew members can use various baits and fishing rods to catch fish. There is a variety of fish available to catch and cook and various exciting items to accidentally pull out of pools of water.

Equipment

Rods

Fishing rods are the meat of the fishing system: without them you could not do much! Fishing rods allow crew members to hunt for fish and items inside large bodies of water. Crafty crew members can even use them to bring items out of pickup range to their location.

Rod	Description
Fishing Rod	A classic fishing rod, with no special qualities. Can be found in Fishing Toolboxes
Bone Rod	A humble rod, made with whatever happened to be on hand. (crafted using leather, sinew, and bone)
Collapsible Rod	Identical to the standard fishing rod, but can be used in-hand to be collapsed into a smaller form that fits into backpacks. Can be purchased from a Good Clean Fun vendor.
Master Rod	The mythical rod of a lost fisher king. Said to be imbued with un-paralleled fishing power. There's writing on the back of the pole. "中国航天制造." Reduces the difficult of catching fish, and can be collapsed to fit in a backpack.
Tech Rod	An embedded universal constructor along with micro-fusion generator makes this marvel of technology never run out of bait. Interstellar treaties prevent using it outside of recreational fishing. And you can fish with this. This rod has an infinite supply of synthetic bait. Can be used to scan fish for fishing research goals. Unlocked via a research node, and can be printed from the Service or Science Protolathe.
Athletic Fishing Gloves	A hybrid Fishing/Athletics equipment. Allows you to catch fish bare-handed, but only has a range of one tile. Can and should be fitted with a hook, line, and bait/lure in the same manner as fishing rods.Trains both Fishing and Athletics, but drains stamina, and gains a bonus to Fishing Skill from both of the skills, making it easier to reach the threshold to automatically catch fish. Unlocked via a research node, and can be printed from the Service or Science Protolathe.

Rod Components

Rods are customizable! Crew members can switch out the lure/hook as well as the type of fishing line used. In order to switch out rod components on a rod, you will need to hold the component in-hand and left-click on the rod.

Lines
Rod	Description
Fishing Line Reel	Simple fishing line.
Fishing Line Sinew	An all-natural fishing line made of stretched out sinew. (Crafted with Sinew. Can fish in Lava but makes the minigame harder)
Reinforced Fishing Line Reel	Essential for fishing in extreme environments such as lavaland. Can fish in lava and liquid plasma. Found in a Fishing Line Set box.
Cloaked Fishing Line Reel	Even harder to notice than the common variety. Found in a Fishing Line Set box.
Flexible Fishing Line Reel	This specialized line is much harder to snap. (Reduce progression loss when attempting to reel in a fish). Found in a Fishing Line Set box.
Fishing Line Auto-Reel	A fishing line that automatically starts reeling in fish the moment they bite. (Automatically start the fishing minigame once a fish is on the line). Unlocked via a research node, and can be printed from the Service or Science Protolathe.
Hooks
Simple Hook	A generic fishing hook, nothing special.
Bone Hook	A simple hook carved from sharpened bone.
Magnetic Hook	Won't make catching fish any easier but might help with looking for other things.
Shiny Lure Hook	Pretty! (Increases the chance of catching certain fish that 'like shinies')
Weighted Hook	This hook reduces the 'bounce' of your zone when striking the top or bottom of the meter.
Gyro-Stabilized Hook	A quirky hook that grants the user a better control of the tool, alowing them to move bait both up and down when reeling in, otherwise keeping it in place. (Can use right click during the fishing minigame to lower the bobber, and automatically spins lures). Unlocked via a research node, and can be printed from the Service or Science Protolathe.
Jawed Hook	Despite hints of rust, this gritty beartrap-like hook hybrid manages to look even more threatening than the real thing. May neptune have mercy on whatever gets caught in its jaws. (The fishing minigame becomes impossible to lose, however the fish is immediately killed once caught)
Rescue Hook	A special fishing hook that can only be used in chasms (as that's currently the only place you can find people into), which can fish out duds, skeleton corpses, any mob that's fallen into a chasm and hasn't been rescued yet, or rarely, a hostile monster lurking below. It has a weight of 5 (50 without bait, lower with bait) for duds and a weight of 30 for chasm detritus, which has a 50% chance to be a random skeleton corpse or a lobstrosity, and the remaining 50% chance of fishing out a mob that's fallen into a chasm.

Bait

One requires bait in order to attract fish! Use a bait-can or bait in-hand and click on a fishing rod to put bait on it. Higher quality bait reduces the time before a fish bites. More items than those listed below can be used - Experiment! Some fish prefer junk food or meat, for example.

Bait Cans
Bait	Quality	Description
Worm	Basic	It's a wriggling worm from a can of fishing bait. You're not going to eat it, are you?
Extra Slimy Worm	Good	This worm looks very sophisticated.
Doughball	Basic	Small piece of dough. Simple but effective fishing bait.
Synthesized Doughball	Basic	Small piece of dough. Simple but effective fishing bait. Infinitely synthesized by the Tech Rod, but can't be removed
Can o' worm	Basic	Contains generic worms. Can take bait out every 10 seconds, or can be used on a fishing rod to directly bait it.
Can o' worm deluxe	Basic	Contains extra slimy worms. Can take bait out every 10 seconds, or can be used on a fishing rod to directly bait it.

Lures

An alternative to bait, lure boxes can be ordered through cargo or purchased from a Good Clean Fun vendor. Lures work similarly to bait, reducing the time before a fish bites. However, they have several differences:

Lures are not consumed when a fish is caught.
Lures are specialized to specific fish types - Examine a lure to see what category of fish it applies to.
Lures have to be manually spun every few seconds for a fish to bite, unless you are also using the Gyro-Stabilized Hook. The exact time depends on the lure used. When fishing, the lure will periodically light up green and ping - Using your fishing rod in-hand at this time will spin the lure. Missing a spin will delay the bite, while clicking when it isn't lit up will delay the next ping.

Other

Item	Description
Fish Encyclopedia	Indexes all fish known to mankind (and related species). Shows all types as well as the generic details of fish such as their weight, temperature, source, and average size.
Fishing Toolbox	Contains everything you need for a basic fishing trip: can of worms, fishing rod, fishing hook, and fishing line.
Golden Fishing Toolbox	A rare item generally found as loot. Contains a Master Fishing Rod, can of worms, can of fish food, Fishing Hook Set, Fishing Line Set, Fishing Lure Set, Fish Analyzer, and an Experimental Analyser
Fishing Hook Set	Contains magnetic, shiny, and weighted hooks.
Fishing Line Set	Contains bouncy, reinforced, and cloaked lines.
Fishing Lure Set	Contains one of each fishing lure.
Fish-porter 3000 Set	Fishing anywhere, anytime. Allows for a mobile fishing spot on station. By completing Fishing experiments, the Fish-Porter can unlock new locations to fish in. Starts with Aquarium and can unlock Beach, Chasm, Ocean, Hyperspace, Randomizer, Syndicate (emag). Can be hit with a multitool to link it. Hitting that multitool on other fishing spots links them to the portal, allowing them to be selected as the location. Maximum of 4(?) linked spots.

Fish

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Fresh Water
Fish	Favorite Bait	Disliked Bait	Description
Goldfish	Worms	None	Despite common belief, goldfish do not have three-second memories. They can actually remember things that happened up to three months ago.
McGill	Worms	None	A great rubber duck tool for Lawyers who can't get a grasp over their case. If crossbred, offsprings will always be of the mate species, unless it also possess the trait.
Three-eyes Goldfish	Mutagen	None	A goldfish with an extra half a pair of eyes. You wonder what it's been feeding on lately... If crossbred, offsprings will always be of the mate species, unless it also possess the trait. It also fish loves shiny things, shiny lure recommended.
Angelfish	None	None	Young Angelfish often live in groups, while adults prefer solitary life. They become territorial and aggressive toward other fish when they reach adulthood.
Guppy	None	None	Guppy is also known as rainbow fish because of the brightly colored body and fins.
Plasma Tetra	None	None	Due to their small size, tetras are prey to many predators in their watery world, including eels, crustaceans, and invertebrates.
Catfish	Junkfood	None	A catfish has about 100,000 taste buds, and their bodies are covered with them to help detect chemicals present in the water and also to respond to touch.
Anxious Zipzap	Lead-acid battery	None	A fish overflowing with crippling anxiety and electric potential. Worried about the walls of its tank closing in constantly. Both literally and as a general metaphorical unease about life's direction. This fish cannot reproduce and tends to die of stress when around too many fish. It is electroreceptive, generating electric fields, and will avoid visible fish lines. Can be harnessed inside a bioelectric generator.
Tadpole	None	None	The larval spawn of an amphibian. A very minuscle, round creature with a long tail it uses to swim around. This fish cannot reproduce with other fishes.
Perch	Fish, Bugs, Fishing Lures	None	An all around popular panfish, game fish and unfortunate prey to other, bigger predators.
Sacabambaspis	None	None	A jawless fish ought to be extinct by the end of the Ordovician period. Some speculate alien intervention may have been behind its survival and inevitable evolution as a dweller of hot springs. This fish will eat cascasses of dead fish when hungry, and will avoid visible fish lines.
Chasm Chrab	Lavaloop Fish	None	The young of the lobstrosity mature in pools below the earth, eating what falls in until large enough to clamber out. Those found near the station are well-fed.
Arctic Chrab	Lavaloop Fish	None	A subspecies of chasm chrabs that has adapted to the cold climate and lack of abysmal holes of the icemoon.
Donk Co. Company Patent Donkfish	None	None	Donk co. company patent donkfish. A lab-grown donkfish. Its invention was an accident for the most part, as it was intended to be consumed in donk pockets. Unfortunately, it tastes horrible, so it has now become a pseudo-mascot. This fish is very rare
Monocloning Jumpercable	Lead-acid battery	None	A surprisingly useful if nasty looking creation from the syndicate fish labs. Drop one in a tank, and watch it self-feed and multiply. Generates more and more power as a growing swarm! This fish can reproduce asexually, is capable of producing its own sources of energy, and is electroreceptive, generating electric fields. Can be harnessed inside a bioelectric generator.
Chainsawfish	Gore	None	A very, very angry bioweapon, whose sole purpose is to rip and tear. This fish may attack fish that come close to it, also hunting down on smaller fish when hungry. It also possesses a toxic, sharp stinger, and can only be baited with meat.
Armored Pike	Fish, Seafood	None	A long-bodied, metal-clad predator with a snout that almost looks like an halberd. Definitely a weapon to swing around. This fish may attack fish that come close it, also hunting down on smaller fish when hungry. It is a carnivorous picky eater, ignoring low quality bait, and possesses a sharp stinger.
Ratfish	Dairy	None	A rat exposed to the murky waters of maintenance too long. Any higher power, if it revealed itself, would state that the ratfish's continued existence is extremely unwelcome. This fish is very zippy.
Salt Water
Burrower Crab	Seafood	None	A sand-dwelling crustacean. It looks like a crab and tastes like a crab, but waddles like a fish. This fish loves shiny things and has developed into adapting to both land and water. It also can only be baited with meat.
Clownfish	None	None	Clownfish catch prey by swimming onto the reef, attracting larger fish, and luring them back to the anemone. The anemone will sting and eat the larger fish, leaving the remains for the clownfish. This fish is very picky and will ignore low quality bait.
Lubefish	None	None	A clownfish exposed to cherry-flavored lube for far too long. First discovered the days following a cargo incident around the seas of Europa, when thousands of thousands of thousands... This fish is very picky and will ignore low quality bait. It is also very slippery.
Cardinalfish	None	None	Cardinalfish are often found near sea urchins, where the fish hide when threatened. This fish can only be baited with fresh produce.
Green Chromis	None	None	The Chromis can vary in color from blue to green depending on the lighting and distance from the lights. This fish is slightly harder to catch.
Firefish Goby	None	Basic Worms, Doughballs	To communicate in the wild, the firefish uses its dorsal fin to alert others of potential danger. This fish moves very quickly.
Pufferfish	None	None	One Pufferfish contains enough toxins in its liver to kill 30 people. This fish is heavy.
Stingray	None	None	A type of ray, most known for its venomous stinger. Despite that, they're normally docile, if not a bit easily frightened. This fish will avoid visible fish lines and can only be baited with meat. It will also hunt down on smaller fish when hungry.
Lanternfish	None	None	Typically found in areas below 6600 feet below the surface of the ocean, they live in complete darkness. This fish avoids bright lights, fishing in darkness recommended.
Swordfish	Fish, Seafood	None	A large billfish, most famous for its elongated bill, while also fairly popular for cooking, and as a fearsome weapon in the hands of a veteran spess-fisherman. This fish can only be baited with meat and hunts down on smaller fish when hungry. It also possesses a sharp, venonous stinger.
Squid	None	None	An elongated mollusk with eight tentacles, natural camouflage and ink clouds to spray at predators. One of the most intelligent, well-equipped invertebrates out there. This heavy fish can only be baited with meat, while avoiding visible fish lines, and hunts down on smaller fish when hungry. It blends with its surroundings.
Monkfish	Seafood, Bugs	None	A member of the Lophiid family of anglerfish. It goes by several different names, however none of them will make it look any prettier, nor be any less delicious. This fish is heavy.
Plaice	Seafood, Bugs	None	Perhaps the most prominent flatfish in the space-market. Nature really pulled out the rolling pin on this one. This fish is heavy.
Zagoskian Moonfish	Armorfish, Needlefish, Gunner Jellyfish	None	A disc-shaped fish native of the less shallow areas of Tizira's oceans, roughly the size of a tuna. Highly prized in lizard cuisine for their large eggs. This fish hunts down on smaller fish when hungry.
Dwarf Moonfish	None	None	Ordinarily in the wild, the Zagoskian moonfish is around the size of a tuna, however, through selective breeding a smaller breed suitable for being kept as an aquarium pet has been created.
Gunner Jellyfish	None	None	So-called due to their resemblance to an artillery shell, the gunner jellyfish is native to Tizira, where it is enjoyed as a delicacy. Produces a mild hallucinogen that is destroyed by cooking.
Needlefish	None	None	A tiny, transparent fish that resides in large schools in the oceans of Tizira. Common food for other, larger fish. This fish can only be baited with meat.
Armorfish	None	None	A small shellfish native to Tizira's oceans, known for its exceptionally hard shell. Consumed similarly to prawns. This fish moves slow
Sulfuric Water
Air
Sand Surfer	None	None	A bronze alien "fish" living and swimming underneath faraway sandy places. This fish loves shiny things, shiny lure recommended.
Cosmostarfish	None	None	A peculiar, gravity-defying, echinoderm-looking critter from hyperspace. This fish will invert the gravity of the bait at random. It is also capable of producing its own source of energy.
Anadromous
Sockeye Salmon	None	None	A fairly common and iconic salmon endemic of the Pacific Ocean. At some point imported into outer space, where we're now.
Arctic Char	None	None	A cold-water anadromous fish widespread around the Northern Hemisphere of Earth, yet it has somehow found a way here.
Pike	Fish, Seafood, Meat	None	A long-bodied predator with a snout that almost looks like a beak. Definitely not a weapon to swing around. This fish can only be baited with meat. It may attack fish that come close to it, and will hunt down on smaller fish when hungry.
Toxic Emulsijack	None	None	Ah, the terrifying emulsijack. Created in a laboratory, this slimey, scaleless fish emits an invisible toxin that emulsifies other fish for it to feed on. Its only real use is for completely ruining a tank by kill all other fish in it. This fish is extraordinarily rare.
Any Fluid
Bump-fish	Vegetables	None	An misshapen fish-thing all covered in stubby little tendrils. This fish can only be baited with fresh produce. It has also developed into adapting to both land and water.
Baby Space Carp	Meat	Grain, Dairy	A juvenile spawn of the dreaded space carp. Don't let the innocent looks fool you, they're aggressive little bastards. This territorial fish can only be baited with meat and will hunt down on smaller fish and dead carcasses when hungry. It cannot reproduce and contains carpotoxin.
Unmarine Bonemass	None	None	What one could mistake for fish remains, is in reality a species that chose to discard its weak flesh a long time ago. A living fossil, in its most literal sense. This fish can only be baited with meat. It also shows a peculiar ability of reviving itself a minute or two after death.
Lavaloop Fish	None	None	Due to its curvature, it can be used as make-shift boomerang. This fish is heavy and can only be baited with meat.
Unmarine Mastodon	None	None	A monster of exposed muscles and innards, wrapped in a fish-like skeleton. You don't remember ever seeing it on the catalog. This heavy fish may attack fish that come close and can only be baited with meat, hunting down on smaller fish when hungry. It has also developed into adapting to both land and water and shows a peculiar ability to revive itself a minute or two after death.

Fishing Spots

Moisture Traps.
The Beach, in Away Missions. Counts as an ocean for the purposes of treasure chests.
Fishing Portals (Order-able from cargo, or can be printed at the Science or Service protolathe). Have multiple settings that can be unlocked, and can have other fishing spots linked - See the above section on the portal for more information.
Chasms on Lavaland. You can only fish in these while using a Recovery Hook, and fishing here can allow you to recover the corpses of anyone who fell into the chasm.
Lava itself. Can only be fished in while using a reinforced fishing line or bone fishing line.
Liquid plasma rivers, on Icebox. As above, can only be fished in while using a reinforced fishing line or bone fishing line. Has a chance to fish up coins, or bars of Runite or Adamantite (No more bars of Mythril, go away smelly wizards)
Toilets. These have a chance to fish up a wallet, containing 3-4 credit chits of amounts ranging from around 100-500 credits each. Note, you cannot fish in a toilet that you built.
Swimming pool on Nebulastation, as well as the puddle of water in the dorms maint tunnels of the same station.
Deep fryers. You will mostly fish up burnt messes and chicken nuggies, but there are some (somehow) living fish in here, too.
Ice holes. To make one, find a permanent ice tile (everywhere on ice box, otherwise hope that your away mission has them), then dig into it with a pickaxe.

Difficulty

Not all fish are the same! Trying to catch fish has varying difficulty based on the rod and bait a crew member uses as well as the type of the fish.

Fishing difficulty goes down as your fishing skill increases. By default, this increases over time as you catch fish. Certain items increase your fishing skill when worn (The legendary fishing hat, doctor outfit pieces), held (fishing toolboxes, fish analyzers), or are buckled on (plastic chairs and the mime's invisible chair, largely), while certain other items decrease your fishing skill (boxing gloves, welding masks, basically anything that would make it harder to fish). Examine an item while carrying a fishing rod to see what effect the item will have.

If your fishing skill is high enough compared to what you're fishing up, you will automatically catch it without having to play the minigame. Normally this will only apply with non-fish items like bones or wallets, but with enough boosts from gear, you can reliably hit this point with most common fish. Note that the amount of experience you gain from fishing is tied to how difficult it is compared to your level - Automatic catches give you little to no experience, so consider holding off on the full fishing outfit and gear until you've hit Legendary.

Other Useful Information

Treasure Chests

When fishing in an ocean, you have a chance to fish up a treasure chest. Treasure chests work similar to mystery boxes - When you click on them, an item appears floating above it, which cycles through a few different items before settling on one and beginning to sink back into the chest. Clicking the item at this point grabs it from the chest. Any crew member can pull up to three items from a treasure chest, with it returning an error if you attempt more after the third. Treasure chests have a chance to be destroyed after each pull. Loot ranges from pirate outfits and scimitars, to fishing gear including golden fishing toolboxes, to rare items like emagged fishing portal boards.

Send an S.O.S. to the Crew

You can grab a large empty bottle from the bar vendor, and place a photograph, piece of paper, or money into it. You can then place that bottle into an ocean tile, washing it away into the depths of SS13's spaghetti code. When fishing in an ocean tile, you have a chance to fish up these bottles, as well as empty glass bottles to continue the tradition with.

The Joys of Dynamite Fishing, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Gibtonite

Setting off an explosive that hits a fishing tile spawns a random fishing reward from that tile, and permanently exhausts it, stopping you from catching fish there. If you find yourself with a surplus of defused gibtonite, this is a great and fast way to get lots of ~~tendril chests and Runite bars~~ dead lavaloops

Fishing

Contents

Equipment