How to Fish bait guide: the full catch table
Bait in How to Fish is not better or worse — it is a filter. Each one opens its own list of creatures and closes the rest, which makes the table below more important than any upgrade: without the right bait the fish you want simply never appears.
The bait table
- Ham (crab rod) — brown crab, shrimp.
- Hot dog — rock crab, lobster.
- Empty beer can — spider crab, the first boss.
- French fry (normal rod) — mackerel, gar, pike.
- Beginner lure — cod, pike, piranha, salmon, triggerfish, goby, perch, goldfish, sunfish.
- Leech bait — giant piranha, the second boss.
- Standard lure — catfish, bluegill, sea urchin, yellow box fish, angel fish, needlefish, clownfish, seahorse, bowlfish, blue shark.
- Carrot — pufferfish, the third boss.
- Professional lure — sengarat, red snapper, tigerfish, parrotfish, bass, halibut, flying fish, eel, voxelfish, dripper.
- Scientific lure — stonefish, blobfish, anglerfish, oarfish, superdwarf fish.
- Fish bucket — bowhead whale, the final boss.
Boss triggers
Four entries on that list are not bait in the usual sense but items an NPC hands over in exchange for a favour. The old man on the bench gives you the empty beer can once you bring him a beer; the vacationer in the desert trades a carrot for an endangered species (needlefish, seahorse or fish in an aquarium); the hazmat worker gives the bucket for five creatures. The tuna for the albatross is caught with the professional boss lure and placed in the middle of the island. Order and tactics live in the all bosses guide.
Drip creatures
Every ordinary creature has a drip variant — the same fish with its own look. It bites on the same bait with roughly a 10% chance, so farming is a numbers game: cast, reel slowly and right-click away everything that is not drip. One cast covers 5-8 bites, which makes this the fastest route to a full collection.
Drip creatures are not just collectibles: the Reel of Fortune slot machine accepts them and pays out skins, and that is where the legendary skin achievement is closed.
What to do with the catch
You can sell a fish raw, or grill it first — cooked is worth 1.5 times more. Hold F while it is on the fire. Since patch 1.0.10 weapons and tools are cleaned by dipping them in water, and dropped items persist between sessions (up to 64, prioritising weapons, tools, quest items and creatures).
If you are just starting out, begin with the beginner guide and only then pick up the killscore multipliers, which turn the catch into money faster.
Frequently asked questions
How many bait types are there?
Eight for ordinary creatures (ham, hot dog, french fry, the beginner, standard, professional and scientific lures, plus leech bait) and four boss trigger items: the empty beer can, the carrot, the tuna and the fish bucket.
Which bait catches the most valuable fish?
The scientific lure: stonefish, blobfish, anglerfish, oarfish and the superdwarf fish. It is the latest tier, available once the final islands open up.
How do I farm drip creatures?
A drip version replaces the normal catch with roughly a 10% chance on the same bait. Reel slowly and right-click to drop everything that is not drip — one cast usually gives 5-8 bites.
Has bait changed since launch?
Yes, indirectly. Patch 1.0.4 nerfed the pufferfish and the whale, and patch 1.0.10 nerfed the anglerfish. The bait tables themselves were not rewritten.
Can a boss be caught on a normal lure?
No. Every boss has its own trigger item that you trade from an NPC first. The exceptions are the shark and tuna mini-bosses: the shark takes the standard boss lure, the tuna the professional one.