How to Fish: Processing Catches and Upgrading Gear Guide

To make progress and escape the island chain in How to Fish, cast your line, haul in your catch, and process it with specialized tools before selling it for coins. Use your earnings to purchase longer rods, faster boats, and stronger combat gear so you can defeat the hostile creatures guarding deeper waters and unlock higher-tier islands.

Catching and Processing Catches

Every creature reeled onto your boat must be processed before it can be converted into coins. Simply hauling in a catch is only the first half of the transaction; how you prepare the creature on deck determines its market value.

Different tools yield different results depending on the size and hostility of the target:

Knives: Best suited for standard, smaller fish like bass where precise cutting preserves meat quality.
Knuckles: Useful for incapacitating mid-sized or armored catches.
Shotguns: Essential for dealing with massive or dangerous aggressive marine life, such as torso-sized crabs, before they disrupt your crew or damage your boat.

Match your processing equipment to the specific region you are fishing. Using lower-grade processing tools on tough or rare variants reduces your potential payout, slowing down your gear progression.

Gear Upgrade Priorities

Reinvest your earned coins into equipment that increases your depth reach, movement speed, and defense. Prioritize your purchases in the following order:

Upgrade Category	Primary Function	Progression Benefit
Rods	Extended casting range	Reaches deeper water to hook rarer, higher-value fish variants
Boats	Increased speed and stability	Travels quickly between islands and navigates turbulent physics safely
Weapons & Tools	Higher damage and efficient processing	Subdues aggressive water guardians and maximizes catch sale value

Avoid spending early-game capital on cosmetic items. Focus entirely on tools that increase your coin yield per trip.

Managing Co-op Roles and Physics Hazards

When playing in 1–4 player online co-op, physics-based hazards increase significantly. A large creature on the line can easily drag an unprepared player underwater or capsize a poorly positioned vessel.

Assign distinct responsibilities to your crew before leaving the dock:

The Helmsman: Controls boat steering, aligns the vessel with tension forces, and prevents capsizing during heavy pulls.
The Angler: Handles casting and reeling in targets while managing line tension.
The Deckhand/Processor: Instantly processes caught creatures using knives, knuckles, or shotguns to keep the deck clear and optimize item value.

If a teammate gets dragged overboard by a heavy catch, the crew must temporarily halt fishing to recover them, as losing labor reduces your total trip efficiency.

Defeating Water Guardians and Unlocking Islands

Island progression requires clearing specific objectives and defeating the aquatic threats that guard new territories:

Finish Area Jobs: Complete local tasks to generate steady baseline income and unlock regional access.
Defeat Water Guardians: Use your shotguns and combat gear offensively against hostile creatures blocking the passage to the next zone.
Unlock New Islands: Move forward to access richer fishing grounds with worse environmental hazards, aggressive neighbors, and rare fish variants.

If a new island zone proves too dangerous for your current setup, return to earlier waters to farm coins, upgrade your rods and boat, and stock up on heavy processing weaponry before trying again.