I really hate the addition of fish bait

[Bilaz]

Well here it comes, I have to say my least favourite new feature is fish bait.
I really don't like how it has seemingly made some fish so rare that you need to toss in 300 fish bait, turning fishing, which was my favourite most relaxing AC activity, into a huge same-y grind.
The relaxing part of fishing has always been walking back and forth waiting for things to spawn, and rare fish could all be caught in this way
Now to balance for this instant fish spawn trick, spawning rates are way lower and it's become a necessity.
it's not a QOL update, it's just turning something which should be relaxing into a grind :/

 

[Corrie]

I only use the fish bait for the pier fish, which I agree is really boring. Not to mention, crafting hundreds of fish bait is the most mind draining activity ever. It's better to buy fish bait online here to save yourself the trouble.

 

[Chris]

Luckily it's one of those features that if you don't like it you can simply ignore it. Not using it doesn't prevent you from fishing.

 

[Bilaz]

It does prevent you from catching everything in the game though, which is what I loved in New Leaf. I caught every single fish just relaxing every day, now I'm grinding at the pier :/ You can't really ignore it, it's not a shortcut, it's just preventing the old ways
I ignored it when the game was released and got sorelyyyy behind on march fish

 

[Livia]

I don’t mind fish bait, I just don’t use it when I’m fishing normally. I only use it for the fishing tourney so I can stand in one spot and continuously catch fish.

 

[Corrie]

It does prevent you from catching everything in the game though, which is what I loved in New Leaf. I caught every single fish just relaxing every day, now I'm grinding at the pier :/ You can't really ignore it, it's not a shortcut, it's just preventing the old ways
I ignored it when the game was released and got sorelyyyy behind on march fish

If this helps at all, the only pier fish I have gotten so far is the Mahi-Mahi which took FOREVER for me to get. Otherwise I've gotten 73/80 fish which imo is pretty good without using fish bait. It's those last few pier fish that are annoying lol. I even found sharks to be more common than in NL for whatever reason. Though the Ocean Sunfish is hiding from me lol

 

[NatsumiSummer]

It does prevent you from catching everything in the game though, which is what I loved in New Leaf. I caught every single fish just relaxing every day, now I'm grinding at the pier :/ You can't really ignore it, it's not a shortcut, it's just preventing the old ways
I ignored it when the game was released and got sorelyyyy behind on march fish

I rarely use the fish bait, and I already have nearly every fish. I just need the Blowfish which becomes available next month, and the pond smelt which becomes available in December. I haven't had any trouble catching any of the fish without fish bait tbh. I guess I am either just lucky, or just have more patience than you do. Either that or it isn't as bad as you think it is.

 

[Bilaz]

Well I'm glad to hear about you guys' experience xD
maybe I am just getting fed up with the pier fish grind
I'll take a break!

 

[MayorofMapleton]

The addition of bait has not made fish rare, its just the location spawns mixed with fish spawn percentages.

You don't need bait in order to catch any of the rarer fish, just time and patience.

You can catch the Golden Trout, Mahi-Mahi, Napoleon Fish and others without them. They aren't bait locked.

Bait is there for an easier option to find them. Not the other way around.

You're just have **** luck

 

[Bilaz]

I promise never to complain about fishing in this game again
I just caught two Coelacanths in a row

 

[supernerd]

Congrats on your catches! I was going to comment that I personally don't dislike the bait as much, because it has come in handy for not only pier fishing for me, but it's super helpful for getting those better Fishing Tourney numbers. What I super dislike about the bait itself is just collecting it. I don't know why but that tedious clam collecting is super annoying to me.

 

[meggiewes]

It does prevent you from catching everything in the game though, which is what I loved in New Leaf. I caught every single fish just relaxing every day, now I'm grinding at the pier :/ You can't really ignore it, it's not a shortcut, it's just preventing the old ways
I ignored it when the game was released and got sorelyyyy behind on march fish

I really don't think it does. So far, I've caught every rare fish (except for maybe that ranchu goldfish) without using fish bait. They were just random spawns for me. I really just use bait if I really want to fish and it isn't raining and the fish aren't active. Or I just go to a Nook Mile island to fish when I'm in a fishing mood.

 

[niko@kamogawa]

I didn't need to craft a lot of fish baits. (I just need about 10.)

All I did is to position myself near the pier and use the bait until getting the desired "shadow." Afterward, I will fish for it. If it ends up not the fish I want, I will restart the game and repeat the process. If I run out of fish baits, I will restart the game as well. (You will have to do this quickly before the auto save feature kicks in.)

This is how I caught all the rare fishes in this game so far.

 

[deirdresgf]

to be honest, i never really use it and i forget it exists half of the time. it kinda can't bother me due to this :") i'll probably need to use it someday to catch the pier fish though

 

[amemome]

I used to grind fish bait to try to increase my chances of catching rare fish -- but I think I've had OK luck not using fish bait and just running circles around my beaches and entering and exiting buildings. I do think that pier fish are much more difficult to catch "naturally" but I don't recall it being that much more difficult in New Leaf. Actually now that I think about it, the really early morning (or I guess really late night) fish spawns in NL were almost impossible for me to get because of how awkward their appearance times were.

 

[ceribells]

I don't think I had to grind any more or less for fish in NL. There were definitely long last-nights-of-the-month spent fishing then, too. I don't usually use bait unless the month is about to roll over and I need a clifftop or pier fish, those do spawn slowly. I think they're just competing with the rest of the river/ocean.

NMT islands seem to spawn fish faster, but I think I'm just able to run around them more quickly.

 

[Hypno KK]

Does not using bait really make it impossible to catch certain fish? Or does it just make it harder? I don't use fish bait because I can't bother and I've done pretty well at catching even rare fish so far. In fact, I think my fish collection is working out better than my bug collection.

 

[Insulaire]

I have caught every fish so far but one without the use of bait, and I have no doubt that I would have caught that one too with a little more patience. There is truly no bottom for what people will complain about with this game.

If you want better odds of catching a rare fish, go fish on a mystery island

 

[Khaelis]

You can't just expect a blue marlin to appear out of no wherein great quantity while fishing in real life, but there are ways to help that happen: bait. I know this is a game, and it isn't based off any realism but it is loosely designed that way.

Fishing bait is merely an aid to make things happen faster, its designed to give you control over your fishing. If you don't like it, you don't really have to use it.


Anyways, this part's just me nitpicking a little, but stating you hate it seems a bit over the top, don't you think? Hate is a rather strong word... dislike would probably be more appropriate.

 

[xlisapisa]

I don’t use fish bait often, I hate grinding for Manila clams just to make it. I tried to use fish bait to catch the Mahi Mahi and when I finally gave up on crafting fish bait, that’s when I finally caught it (a few days ago actually) just from randomly walking by and seeing a large shadow! This actually happened right after I posted in the one thread about Mahi mahi’s being hard to find a few days back, I guess I got lucky! That was my last summer rare pier fish too. So it’s a no go for me with fish bait unless I’m participating in the fishing tourney or something, other than that I don’t even bother!