A deep dive into how the art of fishing on the web actually works, and what the lures you're equipping actually do.
What this guide will teach you
Let's cut to the chase. What will this guide teach you?
Well, it's simple. we're going to cover how fishing works behind the scenes and what exactly each lure really does. None of this is speculation, it's all confirmed based on v1.0.7 of the game.
The mechanics of fishing
Fishing in WEBFISHING is a bit simpler than in real life, but a good understanding is still key to maximising your fishing prowess. If you just want to know what lures are good, you can skip to the next section. But to start, let's introduce a few key concepts.
Loot Tables
Think of loot tables as a bucket of fish that you pick from every time you cast your rod. What bucket you get to fish in depends on where and when you're fishing.
The two most obvious and largest loot tables are the freshwater and saltwater tables. These contain all of the basic fish you can expect to hook regularly. Supplementing these two tables, as of the time this guide was penned, are two more tables: the rain table, and the junk table. The rain table contains only the anomalocaris, helicoprion, horseshoe crab, and leedsichthys, and the junk table contains all the non-fish items that you can reel in (including diamonds). There are more tables, but these are either unused, or are the table that contains only the UFO. This guide will not cover how to catch the UFO, there are other lovely guides out there that will instruct you upon how to do so.
As mentioned, the loot table your hook ends up in depends on where and when you're fishing, as well as a third important factor: RNG.
Whether you fish from the fresh or saltwater tables is entirely determined by the player: Lakes, rivers, and the well all count as freshwater, the sea is saltwater, and the Fresh and Salty lures work exactly as the game states. The outliers are the rain and junk tables.
On every cast, there is a base 5% chance that your hook will end up in the junk table, regardless of the salinity of the water. This chance rises to 10% with the Magnet Lure equipped. Once the junk table is selected, you have an additional 2% chance (4% with the Magnet Lure) to fish up a treasure chest instead of a standard junk item.
If it is currently raining, there is an 8% chance that you will be lucky enough to earn a catch from the rain table. Note that this 8% chance will override the junk table if it is chosen first.
So, to summarise: Fishing in freshwater will usually net you a freshwater fresh, fishing in saltwater will usually net you a saltwater fish, there's a 5% (10% with Magnet Lure) chance of fishing up junk at any given time, and an 8% chance of fishing up a special rain table fish if it's currently raining.
Rolling
Once your loot table has been chosen, we move onto the next step in the fishing process. The game then takes the table and chooses four fish based on a weighted random draw. Note that the same fish can be chosen multiple times. The game hasn't added a quality (shining, glistening, etc.) to these fish yet, but they do have varying sizes, tiers, and rarities. This is where a good chunk of lures can step in to influence the outcome in our favour.
By default, the last of these four fish is "chosen" and this is the fish you'll end up catching. However, depending on what lure you have equipped, the game will look through all four candidates, and choose whichever best suits our lure. For example, with the Fly Hook equipped, the smallest of these four fish will always be chosen, and with the Large Lure, the largest of the four will always be chosen. The two other lures that can intervene at this point in the procedure are the Sparkling Lure, and our enigmatic friend, the Golden Hook. But now that we've covered the mechanics of fishing, we can move onto a broad summary of each lure's abilities.
The lures
None
No special abilities.
Fly Hook
Effectively increases the catch rate for smaller fish by selecting the smallest possible fish out of all fish rolled.
Lucky Hook
Gives you an extra 1-10% of the value of each catch in cash.
Patient Hook
Waits for player input before beginning the fishing minigame. Useful if you are playing the game in the background.
Quick Jig
Increases your rod power by 15% and reel speed by 25%.
Salty Lure
Allows you to catch saltwater fish in any body of water.
Fresh Lure
Allows you to catch freshwater fish in any body of water.
Efficient Lure
20% chance not to consume bait on catch.
Magnet Lure
Increases the junk catch chance to 9.6% (regular 4.9%), and the treasure catch chance to 0.4% (Regular 0.1%)
Large Lure
25% chance to consume an extra bait. Effectively increases the catch rate for larger fish by selecting the largest possible fish out of all fish rolled.
Attractive Angler
Increases catch chance by 30%.
Sparkling Lure
25% chance to consume an extra bait. Effectively increases the catch rate for higher-tier fish by selecting the highest-tier fish out of all fish rolled.
Double Hook
25% chance to consume an extra bait, 15% chance to double the caught fish or junk.
Golden Hook
Always consumes three bait. Effectively increases the catch rate for "rare" fish by selecting a rare fish if one is rolled. This ends up multiplying the catch rate for each rare fish by almost exactly 4x.
The following four fish are currently the only "rare" fish in the game.
- Golden Bass
- Golden Manta Ray
- Leedsichthys (Only available during rain)
- Diamond ("Junk" item)
Challenge Lure
Popups will continually appear during the fishing minigame, and must be clicked within a short period of time, or the fish and bait will be lost. Each popup awards you a small percentage of the fish's worth, and rarer fish award larger percentages.
Source
This guide is based on information from the original source: Steam Community Guide.
