You keep seeing fish jump along the shore and want to know where the rod comes from, which bait the fish in your biome take, and whether the catch is worth the coins. This guide covers all three for Valheim 1.0.
Quick answer: Valheim fishing starts at Haldor, the trader in the Black Forest. He sells the Fishing Rod for 350 coins and basic Fishing Bait at 20 for 10 coins. Equip the rod, right-click the bait to attach it, hold attack to cast, press block the moment the bobber goes under and keep holding block to reel in. Basic bait only catches Perch and Pike. Every other fish wants its own bait, which you make at the Food Preparation Table from 20 basic bait and one trophy, such as a Troll trophy for Trollfish or a Drake trophy for Northern Salmon in the Deep North.
Valheim 1.0 came out on 9 September 2026, and its patch notes add two fish dishes, Fish Soup and Smoked Fish (1.0 patch notes on Steam). None of the patch notes since then, up to 1.0.21 on 28 October, mention the rod, the bait or the fish (Patch 1.0.21). The numbers below come from the Valheim Wiki pages on Fishing, Fish and Bait, all edited after the 1.0 release.
Where to Get a Fishing Rod and Bait
Haldor sells both from the start, with no boss needed (Haldor on the Valheim Wiki):
- Fishing Rod: 350 coins. It is a two-handed tool and you can't craft it.
- Fishing Bait: 20 for 10 coins. Bait weighs 0.1 and stacks to 100.
Haldor camps at one of 10 possible spots in Black Forests at least 1,500 metres from the world centre, and his bag icon appears on your map once you find him. Very rarely, a Frost Cave in the Mountains has a frozen lake with a rod and 2 to 4 bait at its edge (Fishing Rod on the Valheim Wiki).
To fish, equip the rod and right-click the bait in your inventory to attach it. Each cast uses one bait, but since patch 0.213.4 you get it back when you reel in an empty line or cast again.
How Valheim Fishing Works
- Find fish. Look along shorelines and rivers, where you can often see a group in the water. Fish flee when they hear you.
- Cast. Hold attack (left mouse) to charge and release to throw, up to 30 metres.
- Wait. Every 5 to 15 seconds, each fish checks for bobbers within 50 metres, and each bobber has a 10% chance to attract it. An attracted fish swims at the bobber for 5 to 15 seconds and bites if it gets there.
- Hook. When the bobber is pulled under, press block (right mouse) within 0.5 seconds.
- Reel. Hold block to pull the fish in. A hooked fish switches between struggling (it shakes and turns on the hook) and idling. Reeling costs stamina, and reeling while it struggles costs a lot more, so reel during the idle phases. Run out of stamina and the fish escapes; move more than about 30 metres from the bobber and the line breaks.
- Grab it. When the fish is 1 to 2 metres away, look at it and press use (E).
Weapons don't work on fish, but you can pick up any fish that washes ashore in high waves or, rarely, jumps into your boat.
Which Bait for Which Fish, per Biome
Every other bait is made at the Food Preparation Table: 20 Fishing Bait and one trophy give 20 of the new bait. The table itself costs 5 Iron, 20 Finewood and 15 Leather scraps, so crafted bait waits until you have iron from the Swamp. Trophy drop chances are per kill, from the wiki's Trophies page.
| Where | Fish | Bait | Made from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meadows and Black Forest | Perch, Pike | Fishing Bait | Bought from Haldor |
| Black Forest shores | Trollfish | Mossy Fishing Bait | Troll trophy (50%) |
| Swamp shores | Giant Herring | Sticky Fishing Bait | Abomination trophy (50%) |
| Frost Cave lakes, Mountains | Tetra | Cold Fishing Bait | Fenring trophy (10%) |
| Deep ocean | Tuna, Coral Cod | Heavy Fishing Bait | Serpent trophy (33%) |
| Plains shores | Grouper | Stingy Fishing Bait | Fuling trophy (10%) |
| Mistlands shores (Pufferfish also in very deep ocean) | Anglerfish, Pufferfish | Misty Fishing Bait | Lox trophy (10%) |
| Ashlands shores | Magmafish | Hot Fishing Bait | Warrior trophy from Charred Warriors (5%) |
| Deep North shores | Northern Salmon | Frosty Fishing Bait | Drake trophy (10%) |
Three things that trip people up:
- Cold and Frosty bait are easy to mix up. Cold bait (Fenring trophy) is for Tetra, and the Bait page says it attracts Pike too. Frosty bait (Drake trophy) is for Northern Salmon. Both trophies come from the Mountains, but the salmon only lives in the Deep North.
- Misty bait needs a Plains trophy. The fish are in the Mistlands, but the Lox trophy comes from the Plains.
- Tetra lakes are rare. They only generate in certain Frost Cave rooms. Once you find one, Tetra spawn there reliably, so mark it.
Magmafish have taken Hot bait since Iron Gate's patch 0.218.21 (August 2024), whose notes say "Magma fish is now interested in hot fishing bait". Tuna and Coral Cod live in deep water, so take a boat; our boats and sailing guide compares them.
How Hard Each Fish Fights
Stamina drain is per second for a quality 1 fish and is multiplied by the fish's quality level. A fish you reel in fully also has a 3% to 17% chance per item to drop extra loot (Fish on the Valheim Wiki).
| Fish | Stamina per second, struggling / idling | Extra loot when fully reeled in |
|---|---|---|
| Perch | 10 / 3 | Stone, Amber |
| Pike | 15 / 5 | Flint, Amber Pearl |
| Tuna | 20 / 7 | Tin ore, Ruby |
| Trollfish | 25 / 9 | Troll hide, Copper ore |
| Tetra | 28 / 11 | Obsidian, 1 to 15 Coins |
| Giant Herring | 30 / 10 | Iron ore, Chain |
| Grouper | 32 / 12 | Black metal scrap, Barley |
| Coral Cod | 34 / 12 | Chitin, Onion seeds |
| Anglerfish | 38 / 14 | Soft tissue, Blue jute |
| Pufferfish | 40 / 14 | Sap, Ooze |
| Magmafish | 50 / 18 | Flametal ore, Surtling core, Grausten |
| Northern Salmon | 60 / 20 | Carrot seeds, Silver |
Your Fishing skill cuts that drain by 0.8% per level, down to 20% of the base at level 100. A quality 3 Northern Salmon at skill 50 still costs 60 × 3 × 0.6 = 108 stamina per second while it struggles, so keep late game casts short.
Fish Quality and Raw Fish
Every fish has a quality level from 1 to 5, and higher levels look bigger and weigh more. Most fish have a 20% chance to level up when they spawn, which puts about 4% of them at quality 3 or higher. In the Ashlands and Deep North the chance drops to 15%, and only about 2.25% reach quality 3 or higher.
Quality pays off at the Food Preparation Table, where any fish becomes Raw Fish. Perch, Pike, Tetra and Trollfish give 1, 4, 7, 10 or 13 Raw Fish for quality 1 to 5. Tuna, Coral Cod, Giant Herring and Grouper give one more at each level, and Pufferfish, Anglerfish, Magmafish and Northern Salmon two more. So one quality 2 Perch gives as much Raw Fish as four quality 1 Perch.
Fishing Skill and the Fishing Hat
You only gain Fishing skill while reeling: 0.25 xp per second on an empty line with bait attached, and 0.5 xp per second with a fish on the hook (Fishing skill on the Valheim Wiki). Landing the fish gives no xp of its own, so reeling a catch all the way in beats grabbing it early. Each level adds 2% to reeling speed, from 2 metres per second at level 0 to 6 at level 100.
The Fishing Hat gives +20 Fishing and +20 Swim. You craft it at the Workbench from one of each of the 12 fish, any quality, so you need a Northern Salmon from the Deep North first. Crafting it and upgrading it to quality 4 takes eight of each fish in total.
The two fishing achievements, A Catch Worthy of Njord (a four star fish) and The Fisherman (every kind of fish), only count fish you reel in fully with the rod (Achievements on the Valheim Wiki). A fish you toss back into the water comes back to life, so you can catch it again properly.
Tips for Landing Big Fish
- Cast close to a group you can see. The further out the bobber, the longer you reel and the more stamina it costs.
- Eat stamina food before a session: Fish 'n' Bread gives 90 stamina and the Deep North's Oatmeal 115. Our food guide lists the best stamina dish per biome. Stamina meads refill the bar mid-fight on a two-minute cooldown.
- Once a fish is hooked, the line length stays locked. Walk backwards up the beach and you can often drag the fish ashore with little stamina.
- Build a small fishing weir in a natural bay. Fish collect there in high waves and you take them by hand.
What Fish Are Used For
Raw Fish is made at the Food Preparation Table, so even the Perch from your first trips only become food once you have iron. Numbers from the item pages on the Valheim Wiki:
| Dish | Ingredients | Made at | Health / stamina / eitr | Lasts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cooked Fish | 1 Raw Fish | Cooking Station (25 s) | 45 / 15 | 20 min |
| Fish Wraps | 2 Cooked Fish, 4 Barley Flour | Cauldron level 4 | 70 / 23 | 25 min |
| Fish 'n' Bread | 1 Anglerfish, 2 Bread Dough | Food Preparation Table, then Stone Oven | 30 / 90 | 30 min |
| Sailor's Bounty (feast) | 5 Cooked Fish, 4 Thistle, 2 Cooked Serpent Meat, 1 Seafarer's Herbs | Food Preparation Table | 45 / 45 | 50 min |
| Smoked Fish (1.0) | 1 Raw Fish, 1 Kale, 1 Poteitr | Cauldron level 7 | 30 / 16 / 95 | 25 min |
| Fish Soup (1.0) | 3 Raw Fish, 2 Kale, 2 Ice | Cauldron level 7 | 37 / 18 / 105 | 30 min |
- Fish 'n' Bread bakes for 50 seconds and burns to Coal at 100. A higher quality Anglerfish doesn't make more of it, so use your small ones.
- With 105 eitr, Fish Soup ties with Oven Pancake and with the Meatballs and Poteitr dish for the most eitr any food gives. Both 1.0 dishes need all six cauldron extensions.
- Sailor's Bounty has 10 servings. The Bog Witch only sells Seafarer's Herbs once a Serpent has been killed.
Three meads use whole fish (base at the Mead Ketill, then the Fermenter):
- Draught of Vananidir: 2 Perch, 10 Dandelion, 1 Fresh Seaweed. Swimming costs 50% less stamina for 5 minutes.
- Mead of Troll Endurance: 2 Trollfish of the same quality, 10 Honey, 1 Powdered Dragon Eggshells. +250 carry weight for 5 minutes.
- Anti-Sting Concoction: 3 Grouper, 10 Cloudberries, 1 Fragrant Bundle. Deathsquitos leave you alone for 10 minutes.
On an Item Stand, every species talks: a mounted Perch insists it is a perch, not a bass (Perch on the Valheim Wiki).
Fishing on a Shared Server
The fish you see in the water are the ones you catch. Once a spot looks empty, move on and come back when it has filled up again, and on a shared world split up instead of working the same shore. Fish and Raw Fish go through portals, so a portal near a good Deep North shore is worth the build.
Had a high level fish on an item stand before 1.0? Worlds converted to the 1.0 save format before patch 1.0.12 lost those levels, and our Deep North server prep post covers the two fixes in Iron Gate's 1.0.15 notes.
Our Valheim server hosting keeps a shared world online when the host's PC is off, so the fish, the farm and the cauldrons wait for whoever logs in next. Our Valheim servers accept Windows (Steam) players only.
FAQ
Where do you get a fishing rod in Valheim? From Haldor, the trader in the Black Forest, for 350 coins, on sale from the start. You can't craft one. Very rarely, a Frost Cave has a frozen lake with a rod at its edge.
Why won't fish bite in Valheim? Usually the bait doesn't match the fish: basic bait only attracts Perch and Pike. Otherwise the fish are over 50 metres from the bobber or heard you, or the spot is fished out. Fish only check for bobbers every 5 to 15 seconds, so give each cast time.
How do you catch Northern Salmon in Valheim? Make Frosty Fishing Bait from 20 Fishing Bait and a Drake trophy at the Food Preparation Table, then fish the Deep North shores. At 60 stamina per second while struggling, salmon are the hardest fish in the game, so eat stamina food and keep your casts short.
Can you fish without a rod in Valheim? Partly. Fish wash ashore in high waves, rarely land in a boat and collect in a fishing weir, and you can pick those up by hand. They don't count for the fishing achievements.
How do you make the Fishing Hat? Catch one of each of the 12 fish, any quality, and craft it at the Workbench. It gives +20 Fishing and +20 Swim.
Related guides: Valheim food and feasts, Valheim progression guide, Valheim boats and sailing, Valheim bosses in order
Sources
All opened on 3 November 2026:
- Valheim Wiki: Fishing, Fish, Bait, Fishing Rod, Fishing skill, Fishing Hat, Haldor, Trophies, Food Preparation Table, Cauldron, Achievements, Raw Fish, Fish Wraps, Fish 'n' Bread, Sailor's Bounty, Smoked Fish, Fish Soup, Draught of Vananidir, Mead of Troll Endurance, Anti-Sting Concoction, Perch, Tetra, Northern Salmon, Magmafish
- Iron Gate on Steam: Valheim 1.0 Has Arrived (9 September 2026), Patch 1.0.15 (18 September 2026), Patch 1.0.21 (28 October 2026), Patch 0.218.21 (27 August 2024)