My first thought on seeing the fishing function was, “Oh, cool! We can fish and use it for cooking awesome!” As I started trying to fish I noticed that the only use for any of the fish that I caught was as bait. This kind of bummed me out, I mean why have a fishing utility when it doesn’t do anything useful. I’ve seen it posted on some sites that you can use fish for alchemy and cooking, but I’ve yet to run into a recipe that uses them. It also says that they can be sold for a good amount of gold, but the amount you can sell them to a vendor seems to be negligible. If anyone knows how they are useful please let me know. The only benefit you can get from fishing is to get Achievements. Every time I think about the achievement system all I can think about is Foamy the Squirrel, but that’s beside the point.
So, for those of you that have to have ALL the achievements no matter how useless and time consuming, I’ve figured out some hints from in game as to how to get these achievements. There are two sources that I’ve had for this enlightenment: an in-game load screen (yes, I am one of those people that actually reads things like load screens) and a book (again, I actually read these too). The in-game load screen lets us know that the more people that fish in one fishing hole the better the rewards are that you get. So, if you’re looking to go achievement hunting be sure to bring along a friend or two. It does say that the fishing hole will go away faster, but that would make sense if you ask me. The other source of information is a book called, strangely enough, A Guide to Fishing Tamriel. Here’s what it says:
So, what can we gather from this as cardinal rules for working on fishing achievements:
- Always go fishing with a friend, the more the merrier.
- Slaughterfish and Trodh – found in foul water (sewers, swamps, and near corpses) – bait with crawlers and fish roe
- Salmon and River Betty – found in flowing rivers and streams – insects and small shad
- Spadetail and Silverside Perch – found in deep holes or under overgrowth – guts and minnows
- Dhufish and Longfin – by the sea – worms and small chub
There is also a mod that will help you with fishing. It is called “Luminary – FishMe – Know your Bait & Fish.”
Happy Hunting!