Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns (Guide Book)

::Activities: Fishing::

Catching Fish

Besides growing crops and raising animals, you can make money by catching fish in the mountain area. There are two ways you can go fishing; one is by bare hand fishing and the other is by using a fishing pole. You will make more money when using fishing equipment than by just using your hands.

When you catch a fish, you will be told its species and size. The star rank of the fish determines its shipping price, not the fish's size.

Hand Fishing

Catching fish using your bare hands is super easy to do. You can use this method to catch fish to sell right at the beginning of the game.

There are two areas on the mountain where you can bare hand fish; the Konohana low-mountain area and the Bluebell low-mountain area. The watery sections of these areas are shallow enough for you to walk through. Keep an eye out for small fish shadows swimming through the water. When you see one, walk up to it and press the A button! If you're fast enough, you'll catch the fish. If it swims away, you can chase after it, pressing A over and over, until you catch it or it escapes and disappears.

You can catch other things besides fish. Sometimes you will catch a Coin, Fish Bones, Old Ball, or Old Boot. The Coin is used as gifts or message board requests, and the Old Ball / Old Boot are necessary if you want to eventually receive the Master (fishing) Rod. Keep 10 of each "old" item in your horse storage cart until Rutger posts the request for the fishing pole. Fish Bones are simply garbage.

The star rank of the fish you catch using your hands will increase the more years you spend in the game. In year 1 you can catch fish up to two stars and this increases by one star every year; year 2 is max three stars, year 3 is up to four stars, and once you reach year 4, you can catch fish with up to five stars.

Shallow water fish will refresh every hour. If you can't find any more fish to catch, leave the area until the next top of the hour (:00). The fish will repopulate when you go back to the area.

Bare Hand fishing is not possible in Winter when the shallow waters freeze.

Rod Fishing

You can't go fishing with a fishing rod until you receive one! On Summer 1, you will receive a Fishing Rod from your town's mayor. Until then, you can only do bare-hand fishing.

To use the Fishing Rod, equip it as a tool and then go to one of the four docks you'll find in the mountain area. Press A when prompted on the dock to cast your rod. When you see an exclamation point appear above your head, press A over and over until you reel in the fish. You can't just hold down the A button to catch the fish; you have to repeat your button presses until the fish emerges from the water.

You can catch different fish depending on which of the two fishing poles you're using. To get the Master Rod, you need to have 7750 FP with Rutger (2 flowers = 10,000 FP) and have a Request Level of 3 or higher; you can find your current Request Level inside your Info menu. Rutger will request 6000 G, 10 Old Balls, and 10 Old Boots.

In the Winter season the river waters will freeze. You simply need to use your Hammer on the ice cracks at the spot you want to fish at in order to open a hole in the ice.

Unlike bare-hand fishing, the deeper water fish are not time specific. You can catch the same fish regardless of what time of day it is. Some fish are weather-specific though.

There are four fishing pole locations you can cast from; one in Bluebell high-mountain, one in Konohana high-mountain, and two in Konohana mid-mountain. The two spotsin Konohana mid-mountain are not the same spot and you can find different fish in each one.

Additional Information:

https://fogu.com/hm10/activities/fishing.php