How to fish in Minecraft (2023)
Do you want to learn how to fish in Minecraft? Fishing has been a staple of survival games for well over a decade, and one of the most famous examples is Minecraft. Mojang’s expansive sandbox gives players the chance to do a little fishing with ease. But if you dig a little deeper, you’ll need to know a few things if you really want to maximize your chances of finding the real treasures that lurk deep in the waters of Minecraft.
On this page we explain every step of the Minecraft fishing experience, from crafting your first fishing rod and enchanting it with the best properties, to all the chances of looting each fish and piece of junk or treasure. We also go over some practical tips to keep in mind when fishing.
How to make a fishing rod in Minecraft?
A fishing rod is the only piece of gear you need for fishing in Minecraft. Luckily, it’s very easy to craft. All you need is:
In the crafting window, arrange them as shown below, with the sticks arranged in a diagonal line from bottom left to top right, and the string occupying the remaining right-most spaces of the grid.
How to fish in Minecraft
To fish in Minecraft, all you need is a fishing rod and a body of water. This body of water can be any size or depth, so even a block of water is good enough to fish in! Any body of water is as good for fish as any other – there are no different fish from different biomes. If that’s what you want, you’ll have to turn to Minecraft mods.
You can fish from anywhere, whether you’re standing on the shore, sitting in a boat, or even diving in the water yourself.
To start fishing, equip your fishing rod and Right click to throw your line in water. You don’t have to aim at a specific spot in the water. You don’t have to see any fish in the water to be able to catch fish there.
Keep your fishing rod equipped and wait patiently until you see a v-shaped trail of bubble particles in water. This should only take between 5 and 30 seconds.
You won’t see the fish itself, but that trail of particles is what to look out for. Once it appears, it quickly snakes its way to the bobber of your fishing rod. When it hits the float, there will be a loud splashing sound and the float will sink underwater. When that happens, immediately with the right mouse button to haul in your catch.
Get this right and you’ll get either a fish or some other loot (more on that below), as well as some experience orbs. You will also decrease your fishing rod’s durability a bit with each catch unless it has been enchanted with Unbreaking.
Fishing tips for Minecraft
Here are a few lesser-known facts and tips to know if you’re looking to start fishing in Minecraft:
- Make sure Particles are NOT set to Minimum in your video settings or you won’t see the fish track particles.
- When the bobber isn’t directly exposed to the sky, it takes twice as long to catch something.
- Fishing in the rain is good! When it rains, the waiting time for a catch to appear is reduced by around 20%.
- Splash particles and sounds will try to fake you. Wait until the bobber is completely submerged before right-clicking.
- If the player moves more than 32 blocks away from the bobber, the line will be broken.
- Don’t bother aiming for real fish in the water. You can kill these fish like ordinary mobs, but actual fishing will not affect them.
Minecraft fishing spell
You can enchant fishing rods with the following enchantments:
- Unbreakable – Increases the durability of the fishing rod.
- mending – Picking up XP orbs refills the fishing rod’s durability.
- Beckon – Decreases the waiting time before a catch.
- happiness of the sea – Decreases the chance of “junk” catches and increases the chance of “treasure” catches.
- curse of disappearance – If you die, the fishing rod will disappear forever.
Obviously, the curse of disappearing isn’t an enchantment you’re dying to have on your fishing rod, but the rest are very useful if you plan on doing a lot of fishing in your latest Minecraft survival world.
For more information on these and other enchantments, check out our dedicated Minecraft enchantments guide.
Minecraft fishing loot – what can you catch?
Every time you make a catch with a basic fishing rod in Minecraft, there is an 85% chance that the catch will be a fish. 10% of the time it’s a “junk” item and 5% of the time it’s a “treasure” item.
However, in order to catch a “treasure”, there must be a lot of uninterrupted open water around the bobber – at least 5x4x5 blocks. If you fish in a small area, you can only catch fish or “garbage” items.
Below is a list of all the fishing loot you can get in Minecraft and the chances of catching them:
Fish prey probabilities when fishing in Minecraft
| Fish | loot chance | opportunity in the category |
|---|---|---|
| Raw cod | 51% | 60% |
| raw salmon | 21.3% | 25% |
| blowfish | 11.1% | 13% |
| tropical fish | 1.7% | 2% |
“Treasure” loot probabilities when fishing in Minecraft
| Treasure | loot chance | opportunity in the category |
|---|---|---|
| Enchanted Bow | 0.8% | 16.7% (1 of 6) |
| Enchanted Book | 0.8% | 16.7% (1 of 6) |
| Enchanted Fishing Pole | 0.8% | 16.7% (1 of 6) |
| Name tag | 0.8% | 16.7% (1 of 6) |
| sea slug | 0.8% | 16.7% (1 of 6) |
| saddle | 0.8% | 16.7% (1 of 6) |
“Junk” loot probabilities when fishing in Minecraft
| Garbage | loot chance | opportunity in the category |
|---|---|---|
| lily pad | 1.7% | 17% |
| Bone | 1.0% | 10% |
| Bowl | 1.0% | 10% |
| leather | 1.0% | 10% |
| leather boots | 1.0% | 10% |
| Rotten meat | 1.0% | 10% |
| Tripwire hook | 1.0% | 10% |
| water bottle | 1.0% | 10% |
| floor | 0.5% | 5% |
| line | 0.5% | 5% |
| fishing rod | 0.2% | 2% |
| 10x ink pouches | 0.1% | 1% |
Note: Fishing in a Jungle biome also has a chance of dropping Cocoa Beans (Bedrock Edition only) or Bamboo as “junk” items.
That’s all you need to know to keep fishing in Minecraft! If you’re looking for an idyllic spot to fish, check out our list of the best Minecraft seeds. To fully complete the atmosphere, download one of the best Minecraft shaders right now!
