I really hate the addition of fish bait

[Marshmallows]

Grinding for anything is not fun. I've caught plenty of rare fish just by fishing here and there while doing other things. My catalogue isn't complete, though... but I don't mind waiting for next season.

My only complaint about fishing is that I wish it were easier to fish with sound off. I often play with no sound and find fishing almost impossible because I'm too slow at noticing the bopper go under.

 

[tajikey]

It took at least 400 fish bait to catch two Char. I donated the first one, and placed the second one in my house. I was hoping to get three extra to request a model, but that darn fish just doesn't like it on my island.

Tl:dr: Without fish bait, I wouldn't have a completed fish exhibit.

 

[Pyoopi]

@cocoacat
Does your controller not vibrate?

---

As for fishing bait, I feel like I've caught most of my fish without bait. The one pier fish I heavily used bait for was the marlin and that was a big pain.

Other than that, a lot of catches were unintentional. I see a big chungus shadow and I reel it in. I feel like I described myself as a caveman, lol.

 

[meggiewes]

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.

No. You can catch every fish without bait. Fish bait just helps make fish spawn.

 

[Nooblord]

I don’t think I used any bait to catch pier fish, and I’ve caught several of each. I even have a mahi mahi model. I used bait a few times but no pier fish showed up with it, so I just stopped trying with the bait.

 

[Briar]

I don't really use the fish bait, but its existence doesn't bother me that much either. I usually don't have too much trouble catching the fish that I'm trying to get without it

 

[Eureka]

As some others already stated, fish bait actually helps you to catch fish but isn't required at all. All it does is force spawn the fish in a certain location. The RNG ( random number generation) of what type of fish spawns will be the same as fishing without using bait. It can greatly speed up the process of getting rare fish though because you can force the spawn, so you aren't having to wait around until the properly sized shadow appears.

I highly suggest using the bait and quit trick when going for rare fish. Someone else already brought it up but it is when you get about 20 bait then make sure to save your game. Load back in. I personally go over to where I want to fish, lets say the pier and then I will wait for the auto-save icon to appear before I start tossing all my bait in. That way I know how much time I have before the next auto-save (3 minutes) and can start fishing right away. You want to be pretty quick, you should be able to toss out 20 bait and attempt to catch a couple before the game auto-saves. Basically, the whole point is to quit the game before the auto-save kicks in if you haven't found the fish you want, that way when you load back in you still have all your baits. No more bait grinding and you can find the rarest fish quite easily!

 

[Marshmallows]

@cocoacat
Does your controller not vibrate?

No. I must have turned off vibration a long time ago in my controller settings... completely forgot about that. Thank you!

 

[John Wick]

I don't use it and never will.

Manilla clams are living creatures, and the thought of literally grinding them up, killing them, makes me sick.

My moral conscience doesn't stop working just because it's a game.

 

[Crowsie]

I wouldn't mind it so much if there was an option to either buy it at the shops (at this point I don't care about the price) or if stack crafting was a thing. It's so tedious to go around wasting shovel durability digging up clams, reading that dumb little pun over and over, then crafting them into bait one by one. I'm thankful that it's in the game to begin with, because it does make rare fishing heaps easier, I just wish that all the QoL features we got in NH accounted for the new features too.

 

[GnarlyGarden]

No. I must have turned off vibration a long time ago in my controller settings... completely forgot about that. Thank you!

Switch Lite doesn’t vibrate.

 

[Imbri]

I honestly forget about the bait. I should dig more clams, since I need the badge, and I do use bait in the tourney. Other than that, I've caught everything I've needed without it.

If it stresses you out that much, I'd stop using it.

 

[saucySheep]

Don't use fishbait if you think it's stressful

I personally never craft it but then again I never go fishing sooo

 

[KittenNoir]

I am 100% positive that I still haven't used the fish bait and I could not care less about and I have been playing since day 1. I know that you have to use it to catch certain fish but at the moment I'm in the middle of a massive island move around so when I focus on completing the fish section of my museum I will look into bait.

 

[faerie]

I like the addition of fish bait. I wish they would sell it either by C.J. or Nooks. Maybe the will when/if Nooks cranny gets an upgrade.

 

[peachycrossing9]

It doesn't bother me that it exists. I think I have used it 3-5 times in total since it was added to the game. I agree its tedious, but so is grinding for anything.

I do think we should be able to buy it, instead of having to catch manila clams and craft the bait one by one.

Meh don't see how it's a problem otherwise.

 

[Zane]

I don’t care for the bait either, crafting it is just too tedious. I remember being disappointed in the very low fish spawn rates when the game first came out too, as fishing was always one of my favorite things and it’s just not as fun to me in this game. Suppose it doesn’t help that fishing rods break now as well :P

 

[Licorice]

You don’t have to use bait if you don’t want to. I’ve caught every fish so far except the giant trevally without bait. The few times I’ve tried bait I never spawned anything I needed. I have more luck fishing normally.

 

[BalloonFight]

I really wish they didn't make it such an annoyance to get fish bait. If they just made it so you could bulk craft (in general of course, but for fish bait it would be super useful) it really wouldn't be too bad. The extremely low spawn rates for rarer fish definitely make it annoying though and another layer of time consumption related to fish bait. Definitely annoying, particularly with the no bulk crafting option.

 

[Mairen]

I'm not a fish bait user either and haven't felt myself stressing out about catching all the fish. I don't think fish bait is a requirement at all for catching rarer fish. It makes fish spawn, but it doesn't necessarily make rare fish spawn. Of course I'm not sure if my opinion really counts in regards to this discussion because I don't mind if I don't catch all of the available fish or not by the end of each month. I figure if I miss any, it'll just give me something to look forward to next time. So I can understand how fishing could be more stressful if you are setting a time limit on yourself like that!