Fishing

Skill · Any level 1 · (helpful)

(42% per practice)

(Profession)

Usage

• fish
• fish <direction>
• fish check
• stop

You can try your hand at fishing, either for sport or for food, with the 'fish' command. If you are already in water, you can just use the 'fish' command. For fishing from a beach or the edge of water, you can specify a direction to fish where the water may be found.

When you are fishing, you will have access to several commands that can influence fish behavior. You can:

'bob' to attract more interest from fish. May scare off any nibblers present. 'jiggle' to entice a nibbling fish to bite. May scare off other nibblers. 'troll' back and forth to entice fish to nibble, but may lower attraction. 'tug' to set a hook in a fish's mouth. 'bait' to lure fish using food. 'reel' in and recast or try to land a fish biting your hook.

Unlike other gathering skills, you must 'reel' in your line when you have a fish on it. If you do not, the fish will get away.

Having the 'fishing' skill greatly improves the effectiveness of the various fishing techniques, as well as the size of fish you can succesfully land.

You can use the 'fish check' command when fishing to gauge what kind of interest fish have in your line or, if you have a fish on the line, roughly how large the fish might be. If you are not fishing, fish check will see if an area has been fished out or not. Gauging fish behavior and using an appropriate technique can speed up fishing substantially.

Successfully landing a fish is dependent on your fishing skill, your strength and the size of the fish you are catching. A tug to set a hook in a fish's mouth greatly increases the chances of success, but takes extra time that can be crucial when attempting to land a very large fish.

If a fish bites your line (not just nibbles), you must reel it in to catch it. The fish will eventually break free of your line if you do nothing.

Experienced fishers have reported greater success when the light is dim, though fish weighing over a hundred pounds have been successfully reeled in at all hours of the day...

To start fishing first buy a fishing pole then find a body of water and type fish or fish <direction> to cast your fishing pole into an adjacent water room.

Item: 'fishing rod' 
Weight: 3  Size: 9'0"
Type: FISHPOLE   Composition: WOOD   Weight capacity: 78
Object is: 
Estimated cost: 462  

strings

You start fishing.
You get a nibble on the line...
You reel in your line and recast it.
You get a bite, and after a little effort you manage to reel in an orange roughy.
You get a bite, but it swims free.
You reel in a red snapper.
You decide to reel in your line and take a break for a while.
You are already catching fish.
You are no longer fishing.
Something REALLY big catches your line, and breaks it!