Tales of the Shire: How to fish

Tales of the Shire features several gameplay activities, and one of the most important is fishing. Through fishing you can make money, complete fishing club challenges, and perhaps most important of all, cook amazing meals that you can share with other Hobbits. Sure, there are a few fish you can trade for from Old Noakes, but fishing club challenges require you to fish them out yourself, and his supply of fish types is limited to rarer options.

In fact, fishing is one of the primary ways I make money in Tales of the Shire, because it’s easy to do, relatively quick, and always valuable. If you need to know more about this invaluable life skill, I’m here to help.

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How to fish in Tales of the Shire

Early in Tales of the Shire, Old Noakes will give you a fishing rod, and will thus, unlock the fishing activity. You can fish only in specific parts of the water in Bywater, but there’s an important trade-off: You won’t ever need to worry about having specific types of bait or lures.

If you see a fish icon, you can fish there! Simple as that (Image via Take-Two Interactive)

At first, you’ll only have access to a few fishing pools. One’s right near your house (Old Ruby’s Pond) as well as the nearby Old Stone Bridge Pool. However, as you build friendships, you’ll gain access to other locations. These include the incredible Ladle’s Jetty (Yes, named for a Nefi’s duck), at 3 Friendship with Nefi, and Old Noakes’ personal property at 10 Friendship with Old Noakes.

The actual process of fishing is really quite simple. Head to any of the fishing icons on your map, and check the water. You’ll see bubbles in the water, and shadows of fish. Pull out your Fishing Rod, and hold the interact button to cast into the water. The longer you hold the farther it goes. Ideally, you want to drop the bobber right on top of the bubbles.

(Fishing begins at 20:42)

Then reel the fishing line in just a little to see if you catch a fish’s attention. It won’t be hard at all. If you get a fish's attention, you'll likely see a question mark pop up over the water. You’ll see a pop up when you’ve got a bite, and then you start the fishing mini-game in Tales of the Shire. You’ll have a curved line pop up that constantly moves, and a circle for where your cursor is. You want to keep the circle within the center of the line, seen above, and hold down the “fight” button.

Don’t keep the button held down the whole time though, because if your circle gets large and red, it’s about to break and the fish will get away. Personally, I try to keep a rhythm, by holding until the circle turns yellow, and letting go until it is normal again.

It won't take long before you're a master at fishing (Image via Take-Two Interactive)

It doesn’t matter how big the fish is, or how far away it is, you will always catch the fish, if you’re patient enough in Tales of the Shire. Just reel them in patiently, and avoid being on a red circle if at all possible. When you catch the fish, you’ll see it’s type, flavor type, and how much it weighs. The downside is that fish do not stack. Each fish takes up its own inventory slot.

That means it’s worth it to improve your rankings with both the Fishing Club and the Foraging Club. Fishing Club ranks give you better fishing rods (easier to reel in fish), and Foraging Club increases your inventory space (now you can hold more fish).

Another thing to note is that while fish don’t respawn immediately, give it some time in-game. For example, if you fish in the Early Morning, try coming back in Afternoon or Evening. In fact, some fish only spawn in specific times of day.

Your encyclopedia has tons of useful information, the more fish you catch; take advantage of it! (Image via Take-Two Interactive)

Eels tend to show up in the Evening, for example. Thankfully, once you’ve caught or traded for a fish, the encyclopedia will update, showing all the info you need for them: where they can normally be caught, flavor, which seasons they spawn in, and times of day. You can see above that, while I don’t have access to Old Noakes’ Jetty, I have traded with him for a Pike/been gifted a Pike, so now I know where they are located in-game.

Fishing isn’t an activity that takes all day, and it rewards you with tasty fish to eat, and an easy, refreshable item you can sell to merchants throughout your village in Tales of the Shire.

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Check out our other Tales of the Shire guides and features

• Tales of the Shire: The Water That Roars Riddle Solution
• Tales of the Shire: Eye of the Lake Riddle Solution
• Tales of the Shire review

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Edited by Jason Parker