Every catch in How to Fish is decided by the bait on your hook, not by where you stand. The same rod off the starter beach and off Island 5 pulls from the same pools as long as the bait matches, which makes the bait chart below the single most useful thing to learn in the game. This guide lists all 45 sellable fish with base prices from the $3 Brown Crab to the $8,000 Bowhead Whale, the full bait-to-fish mapping including boss and quest baits, and the money methods that actually pay. New here? Start at the How to Fish guide hub, browse every game we cover, and if you are chasing physics achievements, our boat flight walkthrough covers the I'm the bird now trick.
How catching works
Three rules cover almost everything:
- The bait decides the catch, not the island. Hook the right bait and the fish pool follows it anywhere.
- The Fishpedia logs each species once. It tracks your species count, standard prices, and whether you have landed the Drip variant, and new species unlock merchant milestones.
- Drip variants are pure luck. A Drip fish is a rare, glossy, rainbow-colored replacement for a normal fish of the same species. It bites on the same bait with no special trick; killing one unlocks the Drip achievement, and catching every variant unlocks the Fishipedia achievement.
The regular bait chart
| Bait | Catches |
|---|---|
| Ham Sausage | Brown Crab, Shrimp |
| Hot Dog | Lobster, Rock Crab |
| No bait | Cod |
| Fries | Mackerel, Gar, Pike |
| Starter Bait | Cod, Gar, Piranha, Triggerfish, Spiny Fish, Pike, Perch, Goldfish, Salmon |
| Standard Bait | Catfish, Sea Urchin, Clownfish, Yellow Boxfish, Angelfish, Bluegill Sunfish, Needlefish, Seahorse, Tank Fish |
| Pro Bait | Bass, Eel, Red Snapper, Scaleless Catfish, Flounder, Tiger Fish, Flying Fish, Parrotfish, Pixel Fish, Walking Fish |
| Tech Bait | Blobfish, Anglerfish, Oarfish, Stonefish, Miniature Fish |
Coconut is the odd one out: it is not in the shop rotation. Pick it on Island 3 or buy it for $350 from the tree facing the Island 3 shop, and any sea fish can reel in as the secret Bing Bong with it on the hook.
Boss baits
Boss fish start appearing from Island 2, never bite on regular bait, and the matching boss bait guarantees the catch:
| Island | Boss bait | Guaranteed catch | Base price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Novice Boss Bait | Ocean Sunfish or Big Pike | $50 / $80 |
| 3 | Standard Boss Bait | Blue Shark | $300 |
| 4 | Pro Boss Bait | Tuna | $2,000 |
| 5 | Tech Boss Bait | Goblin Shark | $6,200 |
| 5 | Fish Bucket | Bowhead Whale | $8,000 |
Quest baits summon the story bosses
Five story bosses have no sell value; each is summoned with a quest bait rather than hooked normally:
- Empty Bottle summons the Spider Crab on Island 1.
- Leech Bait summons the Giant Piranha on Island 2.
- A Carrot summons the Pufferfish on Island 3.
- A Tuna summons the Albatross on Island 4 (a bird, technically).
- A Bowhead Whale thrown into the volcano summons the Mutated Bowhead Whale, the Island 5 final boss.
All 45 sellable fish, by price
Entry tier, $3 to $24 (14 species):
| Fish | Base price |
|---|---|
| Brown Crab | $3 |
| Piranha | $4 |
| Gar | $5 |
| Shrimp | $5 |
| Mackerel | $6 |
| Rock Crab | $7 |
| Lobster | $9 |
| Cod | $10 |
| Spiny Fish | $12 |
| Pike | $12 |
| Salmon | $14 |
| Perch | $18 |
| Triggerfish | $18 |
| Goldfish | $24 |
Mid tier, $46 to $380 (20 species):
| Fish | Base price |
|---|---|
| Catfish | $46 |
| Clownfish | $46 |
| Sea Urchin | $52 |
| Yellow Boxfish | $53 |
| Needlefish | $60 |
| Angelfish | $62 |
| Bluegill Sunfish | $62 |
| Seahorse | $100 |
| Tank Fish | $150 |
| Bass | $250 |
| Eel | $280 |
| Red Snapper | $280 |
| Scaleless Catfish | $280 |
| Flounder | $290 |
| Blue Shark | $300 |
| Tiger Fish | $310 |
| Flying Fish | $320 |
| Pixel Fish | $340 |
| Parrotfish | $350 |
| Walking Fish | $380 |
Hidden fish (1 species): the Bing Bong, $433 at a 5 kg base weight, listed as its own entry rather than a variant.
Top tier, $1,360 and up (6 species):
| Fish | Base price |
|---|---|
| Blobfish | $1,360 |
| Oarfish | $1,450 |
| Anglerfish | $1,500 |
| Stonefish | $1,500 |
| Miniature Fish | $1,700 |
| Bowhead Whale | $8,000 |
Boss-only catches (4 species): Ocean Sunfish $50, Big Pike $80, Tuna $2,000, Goblin Shark $6,200.
That is the full catalog: 14 entry plus 20 mid plus 1 hidden plus 6 top plus 4 boss-only equals 45 sellable species. Every price above is a base value, and the real payout scales with the fish's weight.
The fastest ways to make money
- First dollars: clams and the old man. Pick clams off the starter beach and press Q to feed the old man for starting cash. Boring, but it buys your first bait.
- Island 2 onward: dynamite. Throwing dynamite into the water kills fish in bulk and converts to cash fast. One honest warning: blasted fish are never Drip variants, so skip the dynamite entirely while you are grinding the Fishpedia.
- Island 3 onward: the grill. Give a Blue Shark (Standard Boss Bait, guaranteed) to the cook to light the grill, press F to inspect while it cooks, and pull the fish at 1.5x done for a 1.5x sale price. A Blue Shark loop through the grill is the best steady income in the game once you reach Island 3.
- Bring friends. Co-op supports 2 to 4 players, and a crew splitting roles (one on bait, one on the grill, one selling) earns noticeably more per hour.
Location still matters a little for comfort: stay near the starter beach for your first half hour, then move to Island 2's harbor with a mid-tier rod where the uncommon fish bite more often.
FAQ
Does the island or location affect what you catch?
No. The bait decides the catch, not the island: the same bait pulls the same pool anywhere, based on community testing across both sources used for this guide.
How do I catch the Bing Bong?
Put a coconut on the hook. Pick one on Island 3 or buy it for $350 at the tree facing the Island 3 shop, then cast anywhere in the sea: any sea fish can reel in as a Bing Bong, and it sells for $433.
What is the fastest way to make money early?
Clams and the old man (press Q) for the first dollars, then dynamite fishing from Island 2 for bulk cash. Just remember dynamite never produces Drip variants, so switch back to rod fishing when the Fishpedia matters more than the money.