Travellers Rest: Fishing Guide

There are all sorts of ingredients and foods available for you to make in Travellers Rest, and one section of these is fish-based dishes. From fish tacos and fried seafood to sushi and fish soup, you've got quite a few options for your tavern, but to make them, you'll need fish and shellfish.

You can buy some in the city, but this is a pretty limited supply, and it's going to eat into your profits having to buy some every day, especially early on. And what if the shops are d for the day? It's time to bust out your fishing rod and bait and fish up some tasty ingredients yourself.

At the time of this article, Travellers Rest is in Early Access, so information within is subject to change.

How To Get A Fishing Rod

To get your fishing rod, you'll need to find Hikari, who spends the majority of her time fishing at the harbor. From your tavern, leave through the southern exit to the open field area, then go left to the Harvest Hill Farm.

You can get a hint about where Hikari is from her father, Kajuku , who runs the fish stall in the city.

Take the stone bridge downwards, then follow the path past Bob and through another southern exit to reach the beach area and the harbor. You can find Hikari on the docks here, but she isn't as straightforward as other NPCs.

The first time you talk with her, she'll shoo you away, and you won't be able to talk with her again that day. If you go back to her the next day, Hikari will apologize, and you'll be able to get the fishing rod next to her, as well as one set of each of the five baits.

You can return to Hikari after receiving the fishing rod to get an additional fishing-related quest and the Fishing Logbook, which records fish information.

How To Catch Fish

The process is going to be the same whether you're fishing in saltwater or freshwater​: first, face a body of water, then cast your rod with the Use key and wait for the fish to bite.

Don't always pull your rod back up for the first bite , as some fish give the bait a test bite or two before they actually take it, and pulling in the rod early will waste bait .

Wait for the bouy to go completely under the water, then quickly hit the Use key to start the process of reeling in the fish. Here, you'll get a bar that the fish will travel back and forth across and a rectangle that moves with your mouse.

When you've got the rectangle centered on the fish, it will turn green and this is when you want to hold the left mouse button to start reeling the fish in.

As you keep up with the fish's movement and keep that rectangle centered on it, the progress bar will fill up with green, and you'll successfully catch the fish when it's maxed out.

If you fail to keep up with the fish, the green progress on the bar will disappear and turn back red, and you'll lose the fish if the bar turns completely red.

Not reeling the fish in when the rectangle isn't on the fish won't completely stop it from failing , but the red bar will fill up slower than if you try to reel where there is no fish.

When you receive the fish you catch, you'll get it recorded in the Fish Log if it's the first one you've caught, and find out the size of the fish. You won't always catch something, though – sometimes you'll end up with other ingredients, like Boots or Nets.

Once you've got the Fishing Log from Taking The Bait, you can use it to see what bait a fish likes, what type of water it's caught in, and the seasons that it's available in.

How To Get And Use Bait

To catch fish, you'll need bait, and different types of bait attract different kinds of fish. There are five kinds of bait you can obtain: Worms, Larva, Meat Bait, Seafood Bait, and a Lure.

While you have a fishing rod in your hotbar, you can select it with the right mouse button to open up the rod's bait inventory. From here, you can left-click on the type of bait you want to equip it, as long as it's in your inventory.

How To Craft And Use Fish Traps

Besides fishing them up, you can also passively catch fish each day by using a Fish Trap, which is crafted at a Tackle Table using several materials:

• Five Wooden Planks.
• Two Iron Nails.
• Five Plant Fiber.
• Any two Fish.

Next, you'll need to put them down in a body of water using Build Mode, but they can only be placed in the shallow water at the beach, not in the lake to the north or any river.

Each Fish Trap starts with two bait and each day one bait is consumed to catch one fish or shellfish. Once both baits have run out, the Fish Trap will disappear, and you'll need to place down another.

You can catch an extra fish from every trap if you invest in the Improved Traps skill in your Skill Tree.

How To Upgrade Your Fishing Rod

The next best fishing rod is the Handmade Fishing Rod, but it'll take some effort to get it. After catching your first few fish using the bait Hikari gives you, another quest will become available from her: Taking The Bait.

For this quest, you'll need to successfully catch any eight fish from any type of water, then return to Hikari and speak with her.

She'll give you the Handmade Fishing Rod, which reels in fish slightly faster and the progress bar lowers at a slower speed than the Battered Fishing Rod.

If you lose your fishing rod or begin playing with a second player, you can buy another fishing rod from Hikari's shop.

How To Place Fish Down As Furniture

Besides filling out the Fish Logbook and being used in recipes, fish also serve a third purpose: furniture for your tavern. While in Build Mode and having any fish in your inventory, you can select them and place them onto walls.

If you have the wall space for them, fish make for a free way to get the Comfort levels up in your tavern or any guest room.

Each type of fish has a Comfort Value of five, and when placed, they'll appear as a trophy on the wall, which also displays their size.