1.6 Update 1.6 Fishing: can't fish up trash, can't get [spoiler].

[TheSuperSquirrel]

As I understand it, Sea Jelly can be acquired by fishing in the ocean, where it has a chance to replace a trash item you'd otherwise fish up. I acquired one Sea Jelly early in the game, but now that my fishing is higher level (it was 8, now it's 9), I'm not able to fish up ANY trash in the ocean, let alone a Sea Jelly, regardless of "fishing zone". Near the shore, far from the shore, full casts, short casts... I've fished three straight in-game days, reeled in nearly 100 fish, and not gotten a single trash item. I've tried the Iridium Rod, the Fiberglass rod, bait, no bait, bobbers, no bobbers. I even started skipping every fish I hooked (by hitting esc), and while I now have a LOT of seaweed, there's no trash to be found. I even wasted a Lucky Lunch trying to increase my chances, but it turns out if you can't fish up trash, then it doesn't make any difference at all. How am I supposed to get a Sea Jelly to make a smoker to replace the one I accidentally knocked into the dang lake if it's seemingly impossible to even get trash at all? Is my game broken? It's completely vanilla, no mods, on Steam on Windows 10.

I don't have access to Ginger Island yet, so this is all done at the regular beach. From the shore, from the docks, from the far side, in the "river" that dumps into the ocean, everywhere I can think of. All fish (and seaweed), no trash, and therefore no chance at Sea Jelly.

Oh, I can still fish up trash elsewhere! Level 100 of the mines got me 5 Cave Jelly (and a ton of trash) in just a few in-game hours just prior to these ocean misadventures. I haven't tried the rivers in a while, but I still have 5 River Jelly from my previous fishing there.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as this is driving me up the dang wall and I've wasted SO much time trying to fix it. I just wanna smoke some fish!

 

[TheSuperSquirrel]

If anyone else has this issue, I have a cunning plan: I'm going to build a cabin and invite a friend to come fish for me with their zero skill. I bet they get the Jelly in no time!

 

[TheSuperSquirrel]

Well, no need for that. I hit level 10 fishing and started fishing up trash again! Now it's only a matter of time. I still have no idea why I got ZERO trash in hundreds of ocean casts at fishing levels 8-9, but I guess c'est la vie.

 

[FilthyGorilla]

The reason trash is so common in early fishing levels is because your cast distance is so low. Lower fishing zones have less fish checks and therefore more trash. The easy way to recreate this with higher fishing levels is just to cast as short as you can into the water, you’ll get plenty more trash in no time!

 

[TheSuperSquirrel]

The reason trash is so common in early fishing levels is because your cast distance is so low. Lower fishing zones have less fish checks and therefore more trash. The easy way to recreate this with higher fishing levels is just to cast as short as you can into the water, you’ll get plenty more trash in no time!

Thanks for the reply! I tried a LOT of short-casting, just barely off the shore into the shallows. I mean dozens and dozens of tiny casts with no trash to be found. I really can't emphasize enough how many casts I made into the shallows. I spent nearly two in-game days exclusively fishing 1-2 blocks from the shore. For one of those days I spent a good chunk of it cancelling every fish I got, and I got nothing but 20-something seaweed.

But then I hit fishing level 10, and no sooner did I get the new "You've got some new ideas to sleep on." message, then I got a soggy newspaper on a long cast! Suddenly I'm getting trash again! Close to the shore, far from the shore, it doesn't matter, I now occasionally get trash! I have NO idea what was broken, but I'm convinced it was literally impossible for me to fish up trash in the ocean at fishing levels 8 and 9.

 

[FilthyGorilla]

Thanks for the reply! I tried a LOT of short-casting, just barely off the shore into the shallows. I mean dozens and dozens of tiny casts with no trash to be found. I really can't emphasize enough how many casts I made into the shallows. I spent nearly two in-game days exclusively fishing 1-2 blocks from the shore. For one of those days I spent a good chunk of it cancelling every fish I got, and I got nothing but 20-something seaweed.

But then I hit fishing level 10, and no sooner did I get the new "You've got some new ideas to sleep on." message, then I got a soggy newspaper on a long cast! Suddenly I'm getting trash again! Close to the shore, far from the shore, it doesn't matter, I now occasionally get trash! I have NO idea what was broken, but I'm convinced it was literally impossible for me to fish up trash in the ocean at fishing levels 8 and 9.

Wow, must have been really unlucky or smt, seems incredibly odd.

 

[TheSuperSquirrel]

Right?? Exceptionally odd or unlucky! The fact that it returned to normal when I hit level 10 after a statistically absurd amount of no-trash prior makes me think there really is something screwy in my game files somehow. But at least it did fix itself. I might do some more testing in the future to see if I'm just nuts, unlucky, have a broken game, or maybe all three just for fun!

 

[blackholemountain]

Right?? Exceptionally odd or unlucky! The fact that it returned to normal when I hit level 10 after a statistically absurd amount of no-trash prior makes me think there really is something screwy in my game files somehow. But at least it did fix itself. I might do some more testing in the future to see if I'm just nuts, unlucky, have a broken game, or maybe all three just for fun!

Hello came here to say I also experienced this. I can't catch trash at level 9 fishing at the beach, then when I hit level 10 I caught trash again. No sea jelly wasted hours resetting the day and fishing sooo much lol >.<

 

[stardew_luv]

The reason trash is so common in early fishing levels is because your cast distance is so low. Lower fishing zones have less fish checks and therefore more trash. The easy way to recreate this with higher fishing levels is just to cast as short as you can into the water, you’ll get plenty more trash in no time!

This plus use a training rod. It can catch less different types of fish so your odds are higher. Short distance still as even training rod will cast as far as your level allows.

 

[TheSuperSquirrel]

Hello came here to say I also experienced this. I can't catch trash at level 9 fishing at the beach, then when I hit level 10 I caught trash again. No sea jelly wasted hours resetting the day and fishing sooo much lol >.<

I'm glad to know it's not just me!

 

[Glasia]

Fish in the sewer to get more trash.

 

[blackholemountain]

Fish in the sewer to get more trash.

Thank you so much and I appreciate everyone who is super knowledgeable about the game jumping in to give tips. The thing to note is that we weren't searching for trash. We were searching for sea jelly. Sea Jelly is only found in the ocean not the sewer. Additionally, the issue isn't that we couldn't fish up enough trash, the issue is that we were not catching ANY trash. My issue in particular was I kept resetting the day ensuring that I was always fishing level 9 which meant I would never catch a single trash (which means no sea jelly). Once I got to fishing level 10 I was back to catching trash in the ocean. Another user in this forum experienced it and I found it while Googling which is why I came to respond :D

 

[stardew_luv]

I also agree with those saying you catch trash at level 10 again now. It used to be you caught no trash then except in crab pots. I hope it’s a bug that they fix and not a change for balance or whatever. Fishing only became balanced in 1.6, with the fish smoker, change the level 10 thing and now it returns to why bother.

 

[FilthyGorilla]

This plus use a training rod. It can catch less different types of fish so your odds are higher. Short distance still as even training rod will cast as far as your level allows.

That's generally not how it works, as the fish chances aren't just flat amounts per fish, instead they're distributed equally (super simplified, imagine 9 fish each with 10% chance, or 5 fish with 18% chance each, leaving 10% for trash each)

Training rod is beneficial when you can force it to only catch fish, as the way it works is it can't catch 'hard' fish, so you can fish in areas that only have hard fish to only get trash (though oftentimes the more than double bite speed you can get with bait and tackle outweigh that chance). Due to how most of the jellies work too, you need to actually catch a fish to reset your chance for one, so you have to use 2 rods if you are using the training rod.

Overall not useless and has some uses (for catching jellies in the desert there's a setup that uses it), but it's a little more complex than just more chance for trash