Fishing

No level, team or boat is needed, and the cheapest rod is $180. You can fish without a licence, but the police can charge you for it. Weights and lengths in game follow your Measurement System setting.

Gear

Two Bait & Tackle shops sell everything: Crusty Seaman Fishing Tackle on Del Perro Pier, and Millar’s Fishery Co. on the Alamo Sea shore near Grapeseed. Both show on the map. Press Y on the marker. Everything is always in stock, and 6% tax goes on top. You can carry one of each rod, up to 50 of each bait, 5 of each pot, 10 repair kits, and one of each cooler and the licence.

Item	Price	Notes
Light / Spinning / Heavy Rod	$180 / $650 / $1,800	120 / 180 / 240 casts; rated for 4 / 15 / 80 lb (1.8 / 6.8 / 36 kg)
Sandworm, Ghost Shrimp	$8	One bait a cast, up to 50 carried
Frozen Mackerel / Cut Squid / Frozen Anchovy or Sardine / Pellets	$7 / $6 / $5 / $4	All shop baits work the same
Crab Pot / Lobster Hoop / Finfish Trap	$550 / $700 / $450
Rod Repair Kit	$120	+45 condition on your most worn rod. If no rod is worn, you’re told there’s nothing to fix and the kit is kept
Small / Large Cooler	$400 / $1,100	Carry more fish; the Large needs Fishing 7, and is refused below it
Fishing Licence	$350	No tax at City Hall

Rods wear with every cast: Good, Worn, Poor, Failing, Scrap. A worn rod fails to hook some bites (1 in 10 when Worn, 1 in 4 when Poor, nearly half when Failing) and snaps lines sooner, and a Scrap rod won’t cast.

Bait: every cast uses one, bite or not. Small fish you caught yourself (anchovy, sardine, jacksmelt, mackerel, queenfish, bluegill) go on the hook first and bring more bites and rarer fish. The smallest one you carry is used, and it takes the place of the shop bait for that cast, so the shop bait isn’t used up. You still need at least one shop bait in your pockets to cast, even when a fish of your own goes on the hook.

Fish are real items. They survive a relog, show in your inventory with their size and weight, and can be handed to another player in a trade. The pawn counter refuses them.

Where to fish

Water	Where	What lives there
Sea	The Pacific and the harbours	Most species, and the most money
Fresh	Creeks and rivers, Lago Zancudo, Land Act Reservoir, Mirror Park lake, Mount Gordo	Trout, bass, crappie, bluegill, catfish, carp. Less money, no boat needed, never fishes out completely
Brackish	The Alamo Sea and Lake Vinewood	Catfish, carp, striped bass

In open water, what bites depends on where your line lands. Close to shore has the small fish; further out the bass, sheephead, cabezon and halibut; offshore and deep water the yellowtail, white seabass and lingcod. Inside one of the hidden spots, the fish are whatever that spot holds, whatever the distance: a spot can have species you wouldn’t find there in open water.

Good spots aren’t on the map. Birds circle low over them, and the more birds (2 to 11), the fuller the spot. You can see them from a long way off, and a nearby gunshot scares them off for a couple of minutes. Only the sea spots have birds: the creeks, rivers and lakes are spots too, but you won’t see gulls over them.

Where you cast	Chance of a bite	Wait
A full spot	85%	about 3 s
A fished-out spot	about 26%	up to 9 s
Water with no spot	about 61%	about 7 s

Each fish you land, or pull from a pot, takes a little out of a spot’s stock, the bait fish least and the Dungeness crab and lobster most. Spots refill on their own, a sea spot in about an hour and a half Brackish and fresh water refill faster and never run completely dry.

Cast, bite, fight

Cast: face the water and press J. A “Cast a line” prompt shows on the button bar whenever a cast would land in water. You can’t cast while swimming, with a gun out, from a car, with no water in front of you, with your hands full, without a rod or bait, or with a scrap rod. A full pocket stops the cast too (“Sell what you have first”). While you wait for a bite, J reels the line in; mid-fight it does nothing. Dying, drawing a gun or swimming ends the cast, and a wait ends if the boat starts moving, but a fight carries on.
The bite: when the panel says “IT IS ON”, you have 2.6 seconds to press E.
The fight: hold E to reel. The distance drops but the tension climbs; let go and the tension falls, but the fish runs. The bar turns orange at 60% and red at 85%, and at the top the line snaps. Just holding E snaps every line. Big fish fight harder, and a fish heavier than your rod’s rating harder still.

Sizes: every fish is measured and weighed against the real California minimums. An undersize fish still goes into your pockets, but nobody buys it: /fish and Put back all undersize clears them. The orange garibaldi is protected and always goes back, though it still pays the 25 XP and counts as a new species the first time.

A trophy is a legal fish that comes close to its species’ record weight. Only a legal one earns the trophy XP and bonus.

From a boat

Stop below about 5 km/h (3 mph), or drop anchor with -. The boat has to be in the water. On an open boat at anchor you can fish from the driver’s seat (Dinghy, Jetmax, Seashark, Speeder, Squalo, Suntrap, Toro, Tropic, Marquis, Longfin); on other boats use a passenger seat or the deck, and a boat with an enclosed helm needs you to move to an open spot on it. Not from the Avisa, the Submersibles, the Predator, the Patrol Boat or the Tug.

Boat upgrades go on a boat you own, moored within 150 m of the counter:

Upgrade	Price	What it does
Fish Finder	$12,000	A sounder under the hull (`=` at the helm)
Fish Finder Mk II	$28,000	Needs the first. A sharper picture, and it reads a fished-out spot
Hold Extension / Extension II	$9,000 / $18,000	+150 lb (68 kg) each; the second needs the first

Upgrades are taxed 6% like the rest, and fitted to a hull, so you bring the boat to the dock: they aren’t sold in a box. A boat that already has one can’t have it twice, and the second of a pair is refused without the first.

The fish finder is off until you press =. It only works at the helm of your own boat with a finder fitted, with the hull in the water. The picture scrolls with the distance you travel (parked, it crawls), and when you’re going fast it reads FAST and shows no fish. Its readout says HOLDING, CONTACT, BAIT, BOTTOM, BURNT (Mk II only), FAST or NO DATA. BEARING is your bow, RANGE is how much water the screen covers and DEPTH is under the hull; depth and range follow your Measurement System setting. The Mk I is a SONAR (wide, noisier, misses more); the Mk II a CHIRP (narrow, sharper, catches nearly everything).

Pots and traps

Set one from a boat: carry a pot and a shop bait, then press X in the boat to Set a pot. It works any time you’re in a boat, though the on-screen boat bar only lists it briefly after you board. Setting one uses up the pot and the bait. Three in the water at once, each 25 m (82 ft) from anyone else’s; you can’t set one where another is. To haul, E at the buoy, then hold E on the rope like a fight. Anyone can pull any pot, but pulling somebody else’s is stealing it.

The pot comes back to your pockets after a haul, worn, which frees the slot. A pot lasts 25 pulls (the Crab Pot and Lobster Hoop) or 20 (the Finfish Trap), and a worn pot gives fewer fish. The rope can part even when you win the fight, more often on somebody else’s pot or a worn one. A parted rope wears the pot faster and can lose it, and stealing wears a pot faster too. Lose the fight and the rope parts too.

Left for	What you pull up
Under 5 min	One thing at most
5 to 40 min	A full pot, up to 6
40 to 90 min	Some of it has gone
90 min to 3 h	Most of it has walked out
3 h or more	Nothing

In open water a pot only catches nearshore sea species: the Crab Pot rock and yellow rock crab, the Lobster Hoop spiny lobster, and the Finfish Trap anchovy and sardine. Dungeness crab, spot prawn and catfish only turn up in particular spots, and a pot set inside a spot can only catch what that spot holds. Pot catches drain the spot’s stock too.

Each pull comes with a line telling you which band you hit: too soon (“it needed longer”), past its best (“some of it had gone”), most of it walked out, or empty. Pulling someone else’s pot also tells you it’s not yours.

Carrying

Your pockets hold 25 lb (11.3 kg) of fish. A Small Cooler adds 60 lb (27 kg) and a Large Cooler 140 lb (63.5 kg), one of each. Only a cooler adds room: a bag doesn’t. When you’re full the rod won’t cast.

A boat’s hold carries fish too (120, 300 or 600 lb by hull, plus 150 lb per extension), but buyers only take what’s in your pockets and coolers.

Selling

At either Bait & Tackle, Y and Sell Catch sells everything you carry. /fish at the counter lists every fish with its price: pick one to sell it on its own, or Sell the lot. Pawn shops refuse fish. You’re told what you sold, for how much and how the market stands; undersize fish are left with you (“the buyer will not take them”), and with nothing to sell you’re told so.

Away from a counter, /fish (also /fishes and /creel) shows your catch, and choosing any fish puts it back. The menu shows your Fishing rank and species landed (for example 12/37), and the weight you carry against your limit, what it’s worth and how many are undersize.

A fish’s price is its weight times its species’ price, plus $200 to $600 if it’s a trophy, less the counter’s cut (15%, or 5% with a boat you own moored within 150 m). Then it’s adjusted for how much that counter has bought lately: each fish sold lowers its price, to 60% at worst, and it recovers about 2 minutes per fish, up to 120%. The other counter isn’t affected. Each fish sold is also worth 4 civilian XP.

The licence and the police

The licence is $350 at City Hall with no tax, or on the tackle shelf with tax. An officer beside you can check it if you’ve cast in the last 5 minutes and carry a working rod: without one it’s Unlicensed Fishing, one star. Officers can also inspect any pot (G at the buoy), which shows who owns it, how many minutes it’s been down, how many fish are inside and its condition, and calls it ghost gear past 90 minutes. Or they can seize it (X): the pot and its catch are destroyed, and the city pays the officer $150.

Getting better at it

The Fishing skill has 25 levels; /fish shows your rank and how many of the 37 species you’ve landed.

You	Fishing XP
Land a legal fish (even the protected garibaldi)	25
Land an undersize fish	6
A species you’ve never landed	+15
A legal trophy	+120
Haul a pot with anything kept	38

Level 7, for the Large Cooler, is 868 XP: about 35 legal fish.

The work board has fish jobs too: “Sell five fish” and the weekly “thirty fish” count legal fish sold at a counter, one per fish, whichever team you’re on. Undersize fish and the garibaldi can never be sold, so they don’t count. Your fish caught, trophies, money earned and pots hauled also feed the F10 leaderboards (see Achievements and leaderboards).

Tips

Buy the licence at City Hall: no tax.
Carry only the rod you want to use. You fish with your least-worn working rod, and a repair kit goes to your most worn.
Buy the cheapest bait: Pellets at $4 do what Sandworm at $8 does.
Ease off at orange, and never sit in the red.
Put your shorts back. They fill your limit and nobody buys them.
Spread your selling between the two counters.
Moor your own boat near the counter before selling: you keep 95% instead of 85%.
Pull pots between 5 and 40 minutes.
Few birds means a fished-out spot: move on.

Every fish

A fish under its legal minimum is undersize: no buyer takes it, so put it back. A protected species is never kept. Prices are what a buyer pays before its cut and today's demand.

Fish	Water	Legal minimum	Pays
Northern Anchovy	Salt	None	$3/lb ($6.61/kg)	Works as bait
Pacific Sardine	Salt	None	$3/lb ($6.61/kg)	Works as bait
Jacksmelt	Salt	None	$3/lb ($6.61/kg)	Works as bait
Pacific Mackerel	Salt	None	$4/lb ($8.82/kg)	Works as bait
Queenfish	Salt	None	$3/lb ($6.61/kg)	Works as bait
Kelp Bass	Salt	14 in (35.6 cm) length	$9/lb ($19.84/kg)
Barred Sand Bass	Salt	14 in (35.6 cm) length	$9/lb ($19.84/kg)
California Sheephead	Salt	12 in (30.5 cm) length	$12/lb ($26.46/kg)
Cabezon	Salt	15 in (38.1 cm) length	$11/lb ($24.25/kg)
California Scorpionfish	Salt	10 in (25.4 cm) length	$10/lb ($22.05/kg)
Opaleye	Salt	None	$6/lb ($13.23/kg)
California Corbina	Salt	None	$10/lb ($22.05/kg)
Spotfin Croaker	Salt	None	$9/lb ($19.84/kg)
Barred Surfperch	Salt	None	$5/lb ($11.02/kg)
California Halibut	Salt	22 in (55.9 cm) length	$16/lb ($35.27/kg)
White Seabass	Salt	28 in (71.1 cm) length	$18/lb ($39.68/kg)
California Yellowtail	Salt	24 in (61 cm) fork length	$17/lb ($37.48/kg)
Pacific Bonito	Salt	None	$8/lb ($17.64/kg)
California Barracuda	Salt	28 in (71.1 cm) length	$9/lb ($19.84/kg)
Vermilion Rockfish	Salt	None	$13/lb ($28.66/kg)
Lingcod	Salt	22 in (55.9 cm) length	$15/lb ($33.07/kg)
Leopard Shark	Salt	36 in (91.4 cm) length	$7/lb ($15.43/kg)
Rock Crab	Salt	4 in (10.2 cm) shell width	$11/lb ($24.25/kg)
Yellow Rock Crab	Salt	4 in (10.2 cm) shell width	$11/lb ($24.25/kg)
Dungeness Crab	Salt	5.75 in (14.6 cm) shell width	$18/lb ($39.68/kg)
California Spiny Lobster	Salt	3.25 in (8.3 cm) shell length	$26/lb ($57.32/kg)
Spot Prawn	Salt	None	$30/lb ($66.14/kg)
Bluegill	Fresh	None	$3/lb ($6.61/kg)	Works as bait
Black Crappie	Fresh	None	$5/lb ($11.02/kg)
Largemouth Bass	Fresh	12 in (30.5 cm) length	$10/lb ($22.05/kg)
Smallmouth Bass	Fresh	12 in (30.5 cm) length	$9/lb ($19.84/kg)
Rainbow Trout	Fresh	8 in (20.3 cm) length	$9/lb ($19.84/kg)
Brown Trout	Fresh	None	$10/lb ($22.05/kg)
Channel Catfish	Fresh, Brackish	None	$6/lb ($13.23/kg)
Common Carp	Fresh, Brackish	None	$2/lb ($4.41/kg)
Striped Bass	Brackish, Salt	18 in (45.7 cm) length	$12/lb ($26.46/kg)
Garibaldi	Salt	Never kept		Protected