Fishing skill question

[bighara]

Does your fishing skill improve by the same increment regardless of what you catch? In other words, do you get the same bump from a whitefish as a Coho salmon? Or does landing a bigger fish get you more XP?

[Mroz4k]

I am not sure if anyone will be able to give you a definite answer on this. But I will use some common sense based on what I know about leveling out the other skills, and my guess is that it does not matter what fish you catch - each catch will up your skill by the same amount.

Here is my logic:

I never observed any differences in the leveling of skills, with the difference that some skills just generally take longer to learn. But, there is a trick to up cooking and firestarting at expense of very little resources and early on in the game:

Some players level up cooking by harvesting an animal carcass into very tiny bits of meat, and then cook these little bits of meat on a campfire, lets say 0,1kg increments. The resulting skill gained from cooking such a tiny bit of meat is the same as cooking a full 1kg steak. But, this way, they can "cook" 10 of these bits and at the cost of 1 kg of meat, and increase their cooking skill ten times as much. Works similarly with re-using a torch to create new and new campfires.

Some people level up their archery by shooting rabbits with a bow. I believe each hit of an animal increases the skill, regardless of what kind of animal it is, as long as you hit it.

All in all, I dont see a reason why catching different fish should yield more skill then a different one. 

[Guest jeffpeng]

15 hours ago, bighara said:

Does your fishing skill improve by the same increment regardless of what you catch? In other words, do you get the same bump from a whitefish as a Coho salmon? Or does landing a bigger fish get you more XP?

Pretty sure @Mroz4kgave the correct explanation. What I wonder: What does it matter? Except you are just curious, of course. Unlike with cooking meat you have no way of determining how you fish. You fish. You get fish. You take fish. You get skillpoint. It's not like you had a chance for bigger fish if you threw the smaller ones back in. So .... you take what you get 

[bighara]

2 hours ago, jeffpeng said:

Pretty sure @Mroz4kgave the correct explanation. What I wonder: What does it matter? Except you are just curious, of course. Unlike with cooking meat you have no way of determining how you fish. You fish. You get fish. You take fish. You get skillpoint. It's not like you had a chance for bigger fish if you threw the smaller ones back in. So .... you take what you get 

True. 

I'm mostly just curious, but also I am in a Stalker run that's hit Day 164. I am well established in at the Trapper's Cabin after covering most of the map. I think Broken RR and now Hushed River are the only places I've yet to go. I'll go there someday, I guess. 

I have tons of food (I've left bow-shot bear carcasses to rot, lees their pelts because the meat & guts was too much weight/bother to harvest), excellent gear, and plenty of materials for crafting (pelts, saplings, etc.). At this point I am looking for challenges to work on and Ice Fishing is my lowest skill. I thought I'd try getting everything to 5. Currently cooking, harvesting, and archery are all 5. Rifle and sewing are 4. I usually don't even carry the rifle any more.

Fishing was L2. I went to ML and camped out in a hut with my bearskin bedroll an fished for 2 days solid. I broke 2 lines but got to level 3 after catching a dozen or so whitefish and 6 or 7 bass. I shot another bear with my bow and got another pelt because he kept wandering too close to the hut. 

 

[Mroz4k]

3 hours ago, jeffpeng said:

Pretty sure @Mroz4kgave the correct explanation. What I wonder: What does it matter? Except you are just curious, of course. Unlike with cooking meat you have no way of determining how you fish. You fish. You get fish. You take fish. You get skillpoint. It's not like you had a chance for bigger fish if you threw the smaller ones back in. So .... you take what you get 

Actually not so sure about that. To be honest, I am not that experienced at fishing in TLD, so perhaps I am wrong, but... I think that you tend to catch smaller fish more often then the big ones. Meaning that fishing at the lakes in order to speed up the skill leveling might make more sense.But I may be wrong in this assumption. It is just my experience that I seem to get more catches at the lakes then at the sea, but the fish caught at the lakes are smaller and have worse weight-to-calorie ratio, nor do they give a lot of oil when you cook em.

Also, I am pretty sure you get the skill point upon catch - even if you let the smaller fish back into the water (as in, you catch them, and dont "put them" in your inventory. Actually, I wonder if a fish like that dissapears, or if it is placed at the player´s feet. I might try that for curiosity later tonight )

[hozz1235]

I'm not sure either, but when getting my fishing to 5, I went with the idea that catching larger fish would be the best use of my time.  Based upon that, I chose to fish at CH (Ocean fishing) thinking I would catch larger fish there than in a lake.

[ajb1978]

Yes, each fish counts the same towards advancing your fishing skill.  You have to catch 250 fish total to max out the skill, but each ice fishing book you fully research counts as 10 fish.  You don't have to actually take the fish--catch and release levels your skill just the same.  But I like to take all the fish I catch anyway because food's food, and I already put in the effort so why not take it?

For that matter, use your tackle to repair your clothes first, and when they drop to 20%, then use it for ice fishing.  That's 8 free repair attempts out of something that's going to break at some point when fishing anyway.  And 20% tackle has the same breakage risk as 100% tackle.

Lastly on the topic of lamp oil, it's true the smaller fish don't yield much, but it is something, and it adds up fast.  You'll be swimming in lamp oil before you know it.

[greatwhitegamer]

17 hours ago, ajb1978 said:

You have to catch 250 fish total to max out the skill

Is this true? If so, I got some fishing to do!

[ajb1978]

Yup, and it's VERY frustrating early on.  Lines will be snapping left and right.  If you're playing a world-tour game, I recommend not fishing until you're confident you've collected and read all of the ice fishing books you can find.  One book will put you at rank 2, and then every additional book you find shaves 25% off the bar to Rank 3.  At Rank 3, you only have a 5% chance of the line breaking (half that of rank 1) so your fishing will be much more successful.  Once you hit rank 3, rank 4 and 5 both require 100 fish each to level up.  But when you it Rank 5, man that ice fishing is like a trip to the grocery store.  You spend a full day out on the ice, you're set for food for a couple weeks in game.  (Assuming you keep everything you catch.  If you selectively take only the salmon or smallmouth bass, your yield will be much lower.)

If it's not obvious, I'm a big fan of fishing here.  It's free food.  And you've got lamp oil for days.

Oh one final tip, prybars are the best tool for breaking open the ice, because they serve such limited purpose in the game as-is, and take so little condition loss breaking open the hole.  If you're in a hurry (and if you plan on spending all day out there, you aren't in a hurry) the hatchet breaks the hole twice as fast as any other instrument.  But it also takes a severe pounding in the process.

And a P.S.S. here, @hozz1235 is correct in that ocean fishing yields more food than freshwater fishing.  Salmon can get HUGE!  But that said, a day's fishing on Mystery Lake is not a waste of time.  You won't be going hungry.

Another edit...I keep thinking of things to add!  If your clothes and choice of experience mode make you immune to freezing (or if you have tons of fuel), consider spending several days straight out on the ice in a fishing marathon.  No sleep, just eat and drink when necessary.  You will have so much food it will probably take 3 or 4 heavily-loaded trips just to haul it all back to your safehouse.  On Pilgrim, this isn't a problem.  On anything else, make sure you clear out any wolves ahead of time.  You will be moving way too slow to evade, and they will pick up your scent from a very long ways away.  Fish gets stinky fast.

[greatwhitegamer]

Thanks for the tips @ajb1978! I'll be sure to get my fishing game on at Coastal Highway soon! I'm going for the IT WAS *THIS BIG* achievement. 

[bighara]

Thanks for all the great info, @ajb1978 !

I just finished my bearskin coat and need to work off the CF risk. I'll be heading back the fishing huts to work on L4.

[UTC-10]

It appears that the reduction in wear on fishing tackle when it is used for mending has been fixed. At level 5 mending I find that fishing tackle now loses 7% with each mend. That may also apply to crafting, but I'll have to check so assuming 10% per hour should still be safe. 

I laboriously carry the catch back to the Quonset (Pilgrim so predators not a threat) as I don't think I could stand using a one cooking surface pot-bellied stove unless circumstances - i.e. blizzard and cold - made me light it. 

It is a nice way to make lamp oil and get food in quantity.

[Guest jeffpeng]

@ajb1978raised a few very good points.

I actually think that ocean fishing and lake fishing equalizes. The smaller fish are bigger in the lake, so I guess if you just take the average over multiple hours, you'll come out pretty much the same.

Other things I've come to do and know fishing, some of them since Vigilant Flame and the new cooking system came out. I must add that this all relates to Stalker and Interloper, and on those difficulties being immune to freezing is a hard thing to achieve or just doesn't happen.

• I always cook something on my stove. If it's not fish, it's water.
• I fish in short increments so my food doesn't burn / my water doesn't evaporate. If my water is done in 30 minutes, I fish for one hour and cancel after half of it. 
• There is no advantage for long fishing sessions (like 4 hours straight) over short ones (8 x 30 minutes). The chance to catch fish seems to be calculated minute-wise (or in even shorter increments, who knows)
• I fish when it's cold. The colder the longer the fire will burn the more fish I get for my firewood.
• Personally I prefer the hammer over the prybar to break the ice as the hammer is (basically) infinitely repairable, the pry bar is not.
• I leave a set of heavy utensils at my fishing hut of choice (hammer, pot) and always have a healthy amount of water stored there.
• I always bring more firewood than I need. Being surprised by a blizzard and having to leave is so much waste when I could have spent that time fishing with double firewood efficiency.
• When I can't bring my fish home due to predators I just store the fish at the hut. It's cold and it'll keep.

[Strategizer]

On ‎11‎/‎15‎/‎2018 at 6:09 PM, ajb1978 said:

Oh one final tip, prybars are the best tool for breaking open the ice, because they serve such limited purpose in the game as-is, and take so little condition loss breaking open the hole.  If you're in a hurry (and if you plan on spending all day out there, you aren't in a hurry) the hatchet breaks the hole twice as fast as any other instrument.  But it also takes a severe pounding in the process.

I always thought a Heavy Hammer was the best to leave in your favorite Ice House if you are serious about fishing frequently and for playing a very long term run.  The  Hammer is repairable with 1x Fir Firewood.  (NOTE this is sometimes my goto at CH where I use it (as opposed to the Axe) to bust up ALL the furniture inside ALL the Houses and use it for the fishing hole too.  

Prybar no doubt is excellent for short to medium length games, or if RNG blesses you with a bunch of extra, and only takes 1% condition hit per use if I recall.