How to Fish in Terraria

Guide to fishing for valuable items, crafting materials, ores, and coins in Terraria

Written by Travis Boylls

Last Updated: October 25, 2022 References Tested

Making a Fishing Pole

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Acquiring the Merchant

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Getting Bait

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Going Fishing

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Q&A

Fishing is a feature in Terraria added during the 1.2.4 update that allowed players to get high-level items with minimal mining and crafting. In fact, you could practically get all the equipment and weapons you'll need before beating the Wall of Flesh and activating Hardmode just by fishing alone. To start fishing, you'll need to craft a fishing pole, purchase a bug net and use it to catch bait, and then locate a body of water to fish in. This wikiHow teaches you how to fish in Terraria.

Things You Should Know

Craft a fishing pole on a workbench.
Acquire the merchant NPC by building him a house and collecting 50 silver coins.
Buy a bug net from the merchant and use it to catch critters and butterflies for bait.
Equip your fishing pole near a body of water and add bait to your ammo slots to start fishing.

Part 1

Part 1 of 4:

Making a Fishing Pole

1
Gather wood. Cut down as many trees using your Copper Axe as you can. Use your mouse or right stick to point your cursor to the point where the tree and the ground meet. Then press the attack button. The tree will drop wood and almonds that are then automatically placed on your inventory when you get in close proximity to them.
- The specific attack button is different depending on what platform you are playing on, as well as the control scheme you use. The attack button is labeled at the bottom of the screen. It's usually the right trigger button or right shoulder button.
- It's advisable that you get 200 to 300 blocks of wood early on since a lot of the early-game items use it as a crafting ingredient/requirement.
2
Craft a workbench. Open your inventory screen and switch to the crafting menu. Craft a basic workbench. Once it's crafted, you can then place it on a flat surface and exit out of your inventory screen.
- To open the Crafting menu, first open your inventory by pressing Esc on PC, the Triangle button on Playstation, Y on Xbox, and X on Nintendo consoles. Then use the mouse or the right and left shoulder buttons to switch to the different menus. The crafting menu is in the lower-left corner.^{[1]
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3
Craft your first fishing pole. Move your character close to the workbench and then open your inventory again and switch to the crafting menu. Now you'll need to look for the wood fishing pole on the items that are available for crafting. You can then place it on your inventory after you've finished crafting it.
- The wood fishing pole is the easiest to craft of the four craftable fishing poles in the game. Other fishing poles like the reinforced fishing pole, Fisher of Souls, and Fleshcatcher, both of which require lead/iron anvils and metals like Lead, Iron, Crimtane, and Demonite bars to craft, another option would be buying the Sitting Duck's Fishing Pole from the travelling merchant, this is a very expensive option costing 35 Gold and being a rare item for him to sell. Once in Hardmode, you can get the Golden fishing pole and the Hotline Fishing Pole as quests from the Angler.^{[2]
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Part 2

Part 2 of 4:

Acquiring the Merchant

1
Build the frame of a house. To get the merchant, you'll first need to build him a house. Start by building a 9 block (width) by 7 (height) block frame/enclosure made of wood (or any other available block). Place the wood pieces in your hot bar and place the cursor where you want to put a block. Click or press the right trigger button on the controller to place the block.
- Additionally, make sure that you leave a 3 block space for a door.
2
Craft a wooden door, chair, table, and walls. After making the house's frame, go back to your workbench and open your inventory to craft a wooden table, chair, a door, and enough wall pieces to cover the back of the house enclosure. Once you're done crafting these, make sure that you place them in your inventory.
3
Place the furniture in the house. Go inside the house frame/enclosure and place the chair and table in your hot bar. Select the table and place it anywhere inside the enclosure. Then equip the chairs in your hot bar and place them at the ends of the table.
4
Places walls inside the house enclosure. Place the wall pieces in your hot bar and equip them. Then place the cursor on an area behind the enclosure and click or press the right trigger to place a piece of wall. Repeat until you cover the entire back of the house.
5
Kill some slimes. After building the house, go outside and look for slimes. Use your sword to kill as many as you can and then collect the gels that they drop after they die.
- Slimes are found in all biomes and will spawn during the day. Other than the sword, you can also use your axe and pickaxe to kill these monsters since they're fairly weak.
- You're usually going to find a couple of slimes in the area where you spawn for the first time in your world.
6
Craft a torch. Once you've accumulated to 10 to 15 gel, you can then go back to your workbench. Open up your inventory and craft as many torches as you possibly can.
7
Light up the house. Place the torches in the hot bar and equip them. Then go inside the house enclosure and place the cursor where you want to place the torch. Click or press the right trigger button to place the torch.[Image:Fish in Terraria Step 9.jpg|center]]
8
Continue to make houses for other NPCs, if you want. Go ahead and make another 5 of these houses to accommodate other NPCs.^{[3]
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- Although the only NPC required for fishing is the merchant, you're still going to need the others to access advanced crafting and healing features as well as weapons. Making their houses in advance will save you time later on in the game.
9
Accumulate at least 50 silver coins. Coins are not only dropped by killing monsters but also when you break jars as well as by opening chests found all over the world. You'll need to get 50 coins in your inventory before the Merchant NPC will spawn in your world and take shelter in one of the houses that you built.^{[4]
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- The 50 silver coin requirement will only work for the merchant. Other NPCs have their own requirements and will usually spawn once you defeat bosses or have certain items in your inventory.

Part 3

Part 3 of 4:

Getting Bait

1
Talk to the merchant. You will get a notification once the merchant has spawned. Once this happens, go to your house/houses and look for him there.
- To talk to an NPC, stand next to them and right-click on PC, or press Circle on Playstation, B on Xbox, and A on Nintendo consoles.
2
Purchase a bug net. Have your character stand close to the merchant and right-click on him. Click on the Shop option and you should now see the bug net as one of the items that he's selling. Take note that you'll need at least 25 silver coins to purchase one.
3
Catch critters and butterflies with the bug net. Place the bug net in your hot bar, and equip it. Then place the cursor on a critter and press the attack button to catch it. Critters are found all over the Terraria overworld, but you'll want to focus on catching worms, snails, sluggies, fireflies, and buggies due to their high bait power.

Part 4

Part 4 of 4:

Going Fishing

1
Go to a body of water. In order to get something to bite the bait, you'll need to make sure that you are fishing in an area that has at least 75 continuous (vertically or horizontally) tiles/blocks of any liquid (this includes lava and honey). This technically means that you can fish in any body of water so long as they adhere to the 75 continuous tiles/blocks requirement.^{[5]
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- The easiest way to fish is to go to the nearest ocean biome. However, you'll need to be careful since you're probably going to come across some high-level monsters on your way there.
- Although it's possible to make your own fishing area, it will take time. You might want to look into this though, once you've acquired more powerful equipment after defeating a couple of bosses.
- You can also fish in lava and honey, but you will need to make sure that you have the right fishing pole and bait.
2
Stand next to the body of water. You cannot fish while submerged or standing in water. Make sure you stand close to the water, but not in it.
3
Equip the Fishing Pole. Open your inventory and place the fishing pole in your hot bar.
4
Equip bait into your ammo slots. While you have your inventory open, select your bait and place it in one of the ammo slots to the right below your inventory.
5
Cast your line and wait. With both the bait and fishing pole equipped, you can now select the fishing pole in your hot bat and cast your fishing line by placing the cursor over the top of the water and clicking or pressing the attack button.
- While you can't fish while standing in the water, you can fish while flying, or riding a mounted slime, or even while wearing Walk-on-water boots.^{[6]
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6
Reel in the fish. Now you'll need to wait for the bobber to move, indicating that you've caught something. Once it's moving, click or press the attack button again and you should now have the item in your inventory.

Community Q&A

Question

What do crates give me in easy mode?

Community Answer

If you mean pre-hard mode, there are various crates. A wooden crate, for example, will drop apprentice bait, journeyman bait, coins, various potions, pre-hard mode ore/bar, sailfish boots, tsunami in a bottle, extractinator, aglet, umbrella, climbing claws, Guide to Plant Fiber Cordage, and radar.
Question

How do I get Salmon?

Community Answer

You need to go fishing in Forest with 1000+ Water Tiles.
Question

How do you fish in mobile version of Terraria?

Community Answer

Follow the instructions provided in the article. The instructions are equally applicable to the mobile version.