In Stardew Valley, you will have to juggle many aspects of rural life in the fictional Pelican Town, where mining, fighting monsters, growing crops, and fishing are the norm.
As you do your best to catch the best fish and make a lot of money by selling them, you will realize that there are many aspects of this pastime that will help make the experience better.
Recommended Read: What to Do With Diamonds in Stardew Valley
Tackles are a really important part of fishing that will improve the overall experience forever, making the early game seem like a slog.
In this guide, we will go through all the Fishing Rods and Tackles and decide which ones are the best to use in Stardew Valley.
Table of Contents
- Best Fishing Rod in Stardew Valley
- What Is a Fishing Tackle?
- What Tackle Is the Best in Stardew Valley?
- What Tackles Are the Worst?
Best Fishing Rod in Stardew Valley
There are 4 fishing rods in Stardew Valley, and they all unlock at Willy’s Shop based on your Fishing level.
This means that the best fishing rod should be the one unlocked at the highest level.
The Iridium Rod is the best fishing rod in Stardew Valley since it’s the only one that can use Tackles alongside Bait.
What Is a Fishing Tackle?
The Tackle in Stardew Valley is a special item that you can only attach to the Iridium Rod.
These Tackles can give you various advantages while fishing, ranging from increasing the size of the fishing bar in the mini-game to increasing the quality of the caught fish.
There are 9 Tackles in Stardew Valley in total, and they are all useful in their own way. Here is a list of all the Tackles in Stardew Valley, along with what bonuses they give you:
- Spinner – The shape makes it spin around in the water. Slightly increases the bite rate when fishing.
- Dressed Spinner – The metal tab and colorful streamers create an enticing spectacle for fish. Increases the bite rate when fishing.
- Trap Bobber – Causes fish to escape slower when you aren’t reeling them in.
- Cork Bobber – Slightly increases the size of your “fishing bar”.
- Lead Bobber – Adds weight to your “fishing bar”, preventing it from bouncing along the bottom.
- Treasure Hunter – Fish don’t escape while collecting treasures. Also slightly increases the chance to find treasures.
- Barbed Hook – Makes your catch more secure, causing the “fishing bar” to cling to your catch. Works best on slow, weak fish.
- Curiosity Lure – Increases your chance to catch rare fish.
- Quality Bobber – Boosts the quality of fish that you catch.
What Tackle Is the Best in Stardew Valley?
The best fishing Tackle in Stardew Valley is the Trap Bobber. Though all the other tackles give you interesting bonuses, the Trap Bobber offers the best advantage of all: more time.
Trap Bobber
When fighting the most powerful and difficult-to-catch fish in Stardew Valley, they will often move in erratic ways that you can’t really combat using the other tackles.
However, the Trap Bobber just makes sure that they don’t escape while you figure out your footing.
Though it isn’t as flashy as Lead Bobber, for example, it is incredible for its efficiency in making fishing a lot easier.
Usually, if you are hunting for legendary fish, the Trap Bobber is the best tackle you will have at your disposal.
The Trap Bobber is also incredibly easy to get and craft since you only need to reach level 6 Fishing to unlock its recipe and Copper Bar x1 and Sap x10 to craft it.
One of the things that also makes the Trap Bobber amazing, which doesn’t really have to do with fishing, is that you can sell it for a profit. Trap Bobber materials are extremely easy to get, and you can sell the item for 200 g.
Otherwise, the other two top-tier tackles are the Treasure Hunter and the Dressed Spinner. When it comes to day-to-day fishing, treasures are an amazing find. This is why the Treasure Hunter is an amazing tackle.
Treasure Hunter
The Treasure Hunter allows you to capture the treasure without losing progress with the fish that you are catching. With the help of this tackle, you can get all the treasure while also getting the fish.
Usually, if you are also looking for rare minerals and ores, you should use the Treasure Hunter to make your future mining run less important.
You can easily get the Treasure Hunter tackle for 750 g at Willy’s Shop after reaching level 7 in Fishing.
Dressed Spinner
The Dressed Spinner and its weaker brother, the Spinner, will make sure that a fish bites your hook faster, allowing you to catch more fish in a day than you would normally, making the whole experience much better.
The normal time it takes for a fish to bite is from around 1 to 30 seconds. However, with the help of the Dressed Spinner, players will reduce the maximum time from 30 seconds to 22.5 seconds.
Each Fishing level also lowers the maximum time by 0.25 seconds, which means that at the highest Fishing level, you can get with food (level 15) and with the Dressed Spinner, your max time for a fish to bite would be 18.75 seconds.
To get the Dressed Spinner tackle in Stardew Valley, you will need to reach level 8 Fishing and craft it using Iron Bar x2 and Cloth x1. If you don’t have Cloth, you can also purchase it for 1k g.
Cork Bobber
Though we don’t consider the Cork Bobber one of the best Tackles in Stardew Valley, it is probably the best one for beginners. The Cork Bobber increases the size of the green bar used in the fishing minigame by 24 pixels.
At level 0 Fishing, the green bar is 96 pixels. The bar then increases by 8 pixels every level.
You can get the Cork Bobber once you reach level 7, when the bar will be 152. This means that you can increase the size of the green bar at level 7 when you get the Cork Bobber by around 15%.
This is going to be great for beginners who still haven’t really mastered the fishing minigame, but it is generally a waste of a good tackle if the minigame isn’t a problem for you.
You can craft the Cork Bobber using Wood x10, Hardwood x5, and Slime x10.
What Tackles Are the Worst?
Though most tackles in Stardew Valley are actually useful, and any player can find a use for them, there are some that you should always avoid. Those are the Barbed Hook and the Lead Bobber.
The Barbed Hook makes the green bar follow the fish. This is relatively efficient against really slow fish but incredibly bad for fast fish.
This means that you will avoid learning how to fish properly while also missing out on the best fish in the game.
The Lead Bobber makes sure that the green bar doesn’t bounce when you hit the bottom of the fishing minigame bar.
Though many players have lost fish in the history of Stardew Valley due to that bounce, it still isn’t worth it to use this tackle.
The bounce can be easily beaten by learning how to time the rise of the green bar before reaching the bottom.
So, instead of relying on a bad gimmick, it would be better to learn how to beat the minigame and get some cool tackles that actually help you.
That’s everything you need to know about the best fishing rod and tackle in Stardew Valley!
Have any input or suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.
