A Guide to Fishing in Valheim

Curious about fishing in Valheim? When you’re not busy battling Odin’s foes in the Norse realms, taking a break to fish can be a great way to unwind. If you’ve spent time on a raft or ship, or even just strolled near a body of water, you’ve likely spotted some fish swimming about. But how do you actually catch them? It’s straightforward, but you’ll need some gear and a good amount of stamina.

Unfortunately, in a game where you craft nearly everything, you can’t make a fishing rod. However, you can find Haldor, the vendor, in the Black Forest.

Haldor offers fishing rods for 350 coins and sells 20 pieces of basic bait for 10 coins.

If you haven’t encountered Haldor yet, consider checking out some tips on how to expand your inventory size to help locate this NPC vendor.

For the adventurous, you might try to find a fishing rod in the wild. They can occasionally be looted from frost caves in the mountains biome, but I recommend purchasing one from Haldor instead; after over 150 hours in Valheim, I’ve yet to find a fishing rod in a frost cave.

Fishing relies on stamina: you’ll expend stamina to reel in your catch, so prepare as you would for a battle—make sure to eat enough food to fill your stamina bar and bring along some stamina meads.

Once you have your rod equipped and bait selected in your inventory (by right-clicking it), press mouse 1 (or your attack button) to cast your line into the water. When a fish swims by and takes a nibble—indicated by your bobber being tugged—click mouse 2 (or your block button) to hook it.

To reel in your catch, hold down mouse 2. This will drain your stamina as you pull in the fish. If you run out of stamina before you land it, the fish will escape.

When the fish is close enough, you can target it with your crosshairs and press E (or your use button) to pick it up.