Fishing is one of the best ways to self-sustain in Project Zomboid. Not only a nice way to pass the time, fishing is a great source of food when the power has eventually shut off. This guide will show you how to get everything you need to fish, how to fish and also how to cook that tasty fish!
Contents
This will be a pretty in-depth guide on everything there is to fishing in the game so I have divided each topic into different sections. You can click any of the links below to jump straight to any relevant section you wish.
- What do I need to fish?
Getting a fishing rod
Getting bait or tackle for the fishing rod
Using a Spear to Fish - Finding an area to fish on the map
- Fishing through the fishing menu
How to use different baits
Raising your fishing level - Cooking your fish
What do I need to fish in Project Zomboid?
To fish in Project Zomboid you will need 2 things: A fishing rod and bait.
Getting a fishing rod
To get a fishing rod you can read this handy guide that we made which goes over the 2 best ways of getting a rod. In short, you can either get one through looting one from a place like a hardware store, or craft one through the crafting menu after finding the appropriate crafting recipe.
Getting bait or tackle
You can find fishing lures that can be reused for fishing through looting them from different locations on the map. Most commonly lures are found in garden shed and at the hardware store. They are fairly rare so make sure you look hard and don’t give up if you don’t find one at first, as lures are a great re-usable bait source.
You can find worms to use as bait for fishing by foraging on the ground. (Guide to foraging found here). In essence, you right click an area of the map that you can forage and select it from the menu. When the foraging menu opens select the option on the left side titled ‘Fish Bait’ to only search for worms in the ground. You can decide whether you want the worms to go in your pack or straight into your inventory on the right side. Then click okay and your character will search for worms.
Once you have found worms you do not have to do anything to attach them to the rod for now. You will do that through the fishing UI once you have gotten there.
Using a Spear to Catch Fish
Alternatively if you don’t wish to go looking for a rod, you can also use the spear weapon to fish as well! Yes, spear fishing is still a great way to catch fish in the game. Check out this guide on crafting spears, then once you have one do the following;
- Equip the spear in both your character’s hands
- Find a body of water to start fishing at
- Right-click the water and select the option to start fishing!
Finding an area to fish on the map
Once you have your fishing rod and bait it’s time to get down to the water! Any body of water on the map can be used to catch fish. Rivers, lakes and streams all have our little fishy friends swimming around in them. If you really have no idea where you are on the map you can use this guide we wrote on the Project Zomboid Build 41 map, or alternatively the Project Zomboid Open Map Project is a fantastic resource for viewing the map and getting your bearings.
Find your way to the water and get ready to start living off the land.
Fishing through the fishing menu
Fishing, once you have all the necessary items, is quite simple in Project Zomboid. Simply go down to an area with water, equip your fishing rod and click on the menu button ‘fishing’.
Clicking the fishing button will open up a new menu called the Fishing menu. From here you will be able to do anything related to fishing, such as selecting bait and seeing what kinds of fish you have caught. It is very similar to the foraging menu.
How to use different baits
As you can see in the image above, form this menu on the right side, you can select which fishing rod you would like to use and which bait you would like to use for fishing. Every now and then you will also catch small bait fish while fishing. you will be able to use this as bait to catch even bigger fish than you would with worms! In Project Zomboid build 41, there are 3 types of bait currently available. Worms, which you can find through foraging, Bait fish, which can be found by fishing normally and lures, which can be found by looting.
How to raise your fishing level
To raise your fishing level, as with most skills in Project Zomboid you simply have to fish! The more you fish, the better you will get at it and the bigger the fish that you will be able to get. You will also get less tired from fishing as you raise your fishing level. By finding skill books in fishing you will be able to get faster experience. Books such as ‘Fishing for beginners’ will give you a boost to learning experience to the first 2 levels of fishing if read. Books are really great for power-levelling your skills.
Cooking your fish
Well now that you have fish in your inventory what are you going to do with them? With the lack of an aquarium feature in this build of the game we will be cooking and eating the fish of course! We are going to quickly go through how to cook up the fish and be satisfied in Project Zomboid.
(You can read our full guide to cooking in Project Zomboid here)
While fish aren’t the most filling of foods in the game you can find them in an abundance. If you find a big enough fish, it may even keep you sated for days. You may see directly in the cooking menu that you can already slice the fish into filets. You do not have to worry about doing this if you are cooking the fish on its own, as you can slice the fish up after it is cooked to get your already cooked filets.
Once you have sliced up your fish it is time to start cooking. Fish can either be thrown in a fry pan, or roasting pan depending on the type of dish you want to make. You can add other ingredients and condiments to the fishy feast to improve on the quality of the food. This will not only make your character fuller, but may also give the character a boost to their ‘fun’ value. Because as we all know eating is fun. Select the fish in the cooking menu and make sure you have some type of cooking dish with you too, otherwise you can just move the fish straight into a microwave or oven without the need of a cooking dish.
Once you have moved your dish to the oven it is time to start cooking! Open the inventory menu and make sure you have the correct container open on the right. Drag the food, or right click and select move to container. Then, right click the oven and select settings. You can change the temperature of the oven and set a timer on how long you want it to run for. Do not forget to turn the oven on and just wait for your food to cook. Once you have turned the over on, you can open the oven inventory and mouse over you food to see how long it will take to cook. Be careful not to overcook your meal otherwise it will burn! Nobody wants to eat burnt fish.
There we have it! That was all you need to know about how to catch fish in Project Zomboid. Now you know exactly how to sustain yourself from the seas. you can build your little secluded cabin by the water away from the towns and leave there peacefully without too much interruption from our undead friends. That is until the helicopter flies past…
