Stardew Valley/Fishing

Fishing is available in Stardew Valley starting which a cutscene with Willie, who runs the fish shop. Willie sends you a letter the day after you arrive inviting you to Pelican Beach, and the scene starts as you enter. Willie gives you a Bamboo Rod, which is the basic level rod, but if you're new to the game then it's a good idea to buy a Practice Rod from him as well. Use the practice rod until you been able to practice reeling in fish for a while.

Before starting
Before starting you should probably have some idea when, where, and for how long you're going to be fishing. Store any unneeded items in chests before you leave the farm, especially if you haven't upgraded your backpack yet. Fishing tends to fill up your inventory quickly, so it's best to remove any clutter before you start. If you plan on fishing a long time, it may help to bring some food with you to replenish your energy.

Fishing mechanics
To start fishing, first make sure you have a pole selected in your inventory. Stand facing a body of water, and click on the water and hold to start casting; you can also press C. While casting, you'll see a meter moving left and right, and changing from red to green and back. The further to the right the meter, in other words the more green it is, when you release the mouse, the stronger the cast will be, and the farther the line will travel. The idea is to cast so the line lands as far as possible from the nearest land, and the stronger your cast, the farther you can get the line.

Once the line is cast, just wait until you get a nibble on the line. You'll a kind of chirping sound and see an exclamation point when this happens, press the mouse button to set the hook. You must set the hook quickly, otherwise whatever was on the line will get away. There are three types of things you might get when you set the hook:
 * Various types of trash - This gets pulled out of the water without any struggle. As implied by the name, it's nominally worthless. But don't throw it out because there is a way to turn it into useful items.
 * Algae or seaweed (depending on location) - This also gets pulled out of the water without any struggle. This has several uses, for example you can eat it to restore a small amount of energy.
 * Fish - This does put up a struggle and you have to play the fish in order to reel it in successfully.

Reeling in a fish
A vertical bar appears representing the water appears, and a fish appear representing the location of the fish in the water. You control a green segment on the bar, pressing the mouse button (or C) raises the bar, and releasing the button lets the bar drop down. The idea is to keep the bar under the fish as much as possible. When the fish is over the bar the meter on the right will go up meaning you are reeling in the fish. When the fish is not over the bar then the meter goes down, meaning the fish is starting to free itself. If you manage to get the meter full, then you pull the fish out of the water, but if you let the meter get to the bottom then the fish escapes.

Fish vary widely in difficulty so don't be discouraged if you lose a fish every so often. First, it takes practice to judge when and how long to hold down the button/key in order to place the bar where you want. You also have to master the technique of lightly tapping on the button/key to hold the bar in place. Meanwhile, the fish moves around in the water so you have to keep moving the bar to keep it under the fish. The more difficult the fish, the more and faster it moves around. The easiest fish to catch is the Carp; is moves very slowly and often stays near the bottom. So it's an idea fish to target if you're a beginner at fishing. As your Fishing Level increases, the green bar becomes larger, and fishing more difficult fish becomes more manageable.

Game time stops while you're reeling a fish, and continues again when you either pull it out of the water or it escapes.

Bubbles
Occasionally you may see bubbles on the water. This means there is a school underneath and if you can get you line to land on it, the fish take much less time to nibble at the line. The bubbles sparkle when you successfully land the line on them.

Chests
Sometimes when you hook a fish, you'll see a treasure chest on the fishing bar as well as the fish. The chest does not move, but otherwise it's reeled in about the same way; when the green bat is under it the chest meter increases and when that meter fills up you've caught the chest. But you can't pull up the chest by itself, in other words you have to successfully real in the fish to actually bring up the chest. So before going after a chest, it's best to get the fish meter almost to the top so you have time to fill the chest meter while the fish meter is decreasing. This is much easier when the fish is easy, and for difficult fish you may want to just ignore a chest if it appears.

Most of the time chests contain token items such as coal. But many different items can be "caught" this way, including weapons and armor.

Fish size and quality
When you reel in a fish, the game records its size and lets you know if it's a size record for that type of fish. You can see the record size in the Fish Collection tab, but otherwise there isn't any difference. Fish also have levels of quality. The higher your Fishing level you greater your chances of catching high level fish. Getting you line to hit far way from the nearest land will improve the average size and quality of the fish you catch.