Ark Fishing: A Complete Guide

Any survival game worth its salt has fishing. Ark is no exception. Fishing is an integral part of getting by in this genre of game, as it provides a reliable method of food, amongst other benefits. However, the act of fishing differs in each game.

Some games, like Minecraft, simply have you throw out a fishing line and reel it in when something bites. Other games make fishing into a mini-game, and some have you catch way more than just fish. It’s fun to experiment with different video games and see which fishing mechanics apply where.

If you’re looking to fish in Ark: Survival Evolved, we’ve got you covered. This guide will detail everything you need to know about fishing, including how to get a fishing rod, what type of fish you can catch, and much more.

What Is Ark Fishing?

Fishing in Ark allows you to catch various fish for use in cooking, as well as to acquire item blueprints and other materials.

If you’d like to fish, you need a Fishing Rod, some bait, and a place to sit.

This could be a chair, a bench, a canoe, or even the Pelagornis creature — those latter two can sit on top of the water.

Most fish will reward you with Raw Fish Meat or Raw Prime Fish Meat — items you can cook to satiate your hunger.

That said, bigger fish can drop one of over 70 blueprints, including but not limited to the Assault Rifle, SCUBA gear, creature saddles, and much more.

When a fish grabs your bait, a quicktime event will start. A bunch of keys will appear on your screen, and you’ll have to press them in order to wear the fish down. Wear it down enough, and your character will reel the fish in.

Now, let’s break down each part of the fishing process in detail.

Born to Perform: Fishing Rods in Ark

You can craft the Primitive Ark Fishing Rod by reaching level 18 and unlocking the crafting recipe with 15 Engram Points. From there, you can craft it with the following raw materials:

• 12 Wood
• 50 Fiber
• 20 Thatch

Fortunately, you can craft it straight from your inventory. This means you can create a Fishing Rod anywhere as long as you have those easy to acquire materials.

Now, there are multiple tiers of Fishing Rod. There’s the Primitive one, which you start out with upon crafting, but the tiers go all the way up to Ascendant.

Higher-tiered Fishing Rods allow you to catch bigger fish, leading to many more rewards as a result.

Next, it’s time to find bait.

Bait in Ark

There are three types of bait in Ark’s main game:

• Sap
• Leech Blood
• Giant Bee Honey

Sap

You can acquire Sap by using a Tree Sap Tap on Redwood Trees.

Unlock the Tree Sap Tap by reaching level 36 and spending 18 Engram Points on its crafting recipe. Then, combine 100 Metal Ingots and 40 Cementing Paste to create the item.

Bring the Tap to a Redwood Forest and attach it to a mature Redwood Tree, reasonably high up. The tool will gather Sap over time, with an average of one Sap every ten minutes or so.

Giant Bee Honey

You can acquire Giant Bee Honey by finding Bee Hives out in the wild. Simply head to the Bee Hive and interact with it to harvest Honey. Just be careful of any wild Bees that may attack you.

You can also tame a Giant Bee, and it will produce Bee Hives you can harvest from.

Leech Blood

Leech Blood is fairly easy to acquire. You can harvest it from Leeches, Deathworms, or Lampreys. You’ll typically find Leeches in the Swamp area. Defeat them and harvest them with a Hatchet.

Bait, Fish, and Rewards

Something to note here — bait types play a role in how valuable your rewards are. For example, Leech Blood gives you the highest chances for valuable blueprints, but Honey allows you to catch bigger fish than Leech Blood. This is important, as fish have their own loot values even if they all technically share the same loot pool.

Up above is an example from DiftoTV, who uses an Ascendant Rod with Honey to nab a ton of loot from a Coelacanth.

Going off of this, Salmon has a better loot multiplier than Coelacanth, meaning you may want to use Leech Blood to catch it. However, if the Salmon is too big for your Leech Blood bait, it will break your line. From there, you’ll have to use Honey.

Piranha has the highest loot multiplier, but it’s the most challenging fish to find. Essentially, fishing is a balancing act between fish size and loot type.

All of that said, with your bait, Fishing Rod, and seat of choice ready to go, it’s time to catch some fish.

Here are a few of the fish you can catch while Ark fishing:

Coelacanth

This fish is incredibly common in the world of Ark, and you’ll find it pretty much anywhere there’s water deep enough to fish within. It’s lighter than most of the game’s other fish as well.

The Coelacanth will swim toward Sap, Leech Blood, or Giant Bee Honey. Since it’s a common variety fish, you won’t get nearly as much loot as you would a higher-tier fish. It also has the lowest loot multiplier, meaning it has the smallest chance of providing you with rare blueprints or saddles.

Sabertooth Salmon

The Sabertooth Salmon is a vicious alternative to the Salmon we know and love in the real world. It comes in a variety of colors, depending on your map of choice, and even has a few variants like the Aberrant Salmon.

Much like the Coelacanth, this fish is pretty common if you fish amongst the rivers on your island — not so much the ocean.

Unlike the Coelacanth, the Sabertooth Salmon only reacts to Leech Blood or Giant Bee Honey. Sap will have no effect. Salmon has the second highest loot multiplier.

Piranha

Piranhas are arguably more vicious than their Salmon brethren, sporting dozens of sharp teeth just ready to tear their target up.

The Piranha reacts to Leech Blood or Giant Bee Honey, and is also fairly common in rivers amongst your island. You may find it along the ocean shore as well, but this is less common. Piranha has the highest loot multiplier.

Fish Net

If you have the game’s Genesis: Part 1 DLC, you can acquire a Fish Net. The Fish Net crafting recipe unlocks at level six after spending four Engram Points, and you can craft it with:

• 10 Thatch
• 3 Stone
• 15 Fiber
• 3 Hide

The Fish Net is a lovely Ark fishing device because it doesn’t require bait. All you need to do is throw it into an area where fish are swimming, and you’re bound to nab a few.

That said, it can only really catch the following fish:

• Coelacanth
• Piranha
• Sabertooth Salmon and its X-variant

You may also get some loot with the Fish Net, though the loot pool is much smaller than with a Fishing Rod. It’s better for finding rare resources than it is blueprints.

Well, that’s the basics of Ark fishing! With this info in mind, you’re born to perform better than any of your friends! Speaking of friends, if you’re looking to fish online with some buddies, NameHero offers servers at various tiers for a 24/7 place to play.

Our servers include several gigabytes of RAM and NVMe Storage, alongside top-tier multi-core Ryzen processors to support loads of players, mods, and anything else you would want for the ultimate Ark experience. For more information on our Ark server packages, click this link.

Already have a server? That’s okay, come hang out with us on Discord!