Fishing is a great source of food, treasure, and Experience (Exp). However, before you can do some fishing, you’ll need a Fishing Rod. Here’s how to make and use one in Minecraft.
Table Of Contents
What You Need to Make a Fishing Rod
To make a Fishing Rod, you’ll need 3 Sticks and 2 String as well as a Crafting Table. On the Crafting Table, place the Sticks in a diagonal line from the bottom-left slot to the top-right slot. Then, place the pieces of String into the 2 slots below the stick in the top-right slot. After that, you can take the Fishing Rod out of the rightmost slot as a finished tool.
How to Get Sticks
Sticks can easily be made in your 2×2 inventory crafting menu. Place stacks of Wood Planks on top of each other in 1×2 lines to create Sticks. For every 2 Wood Planks used this way, you’ll get 4 Sticks.
The type of wood used in each crafting recipe slot doesn’t need to match. You should also keep in mind that Wood Logs can’t be used to make Sticks–only Wood Planks.
How To Get String
The easiest way to get String is as a drop from mobs–especially Spiders. Every time you defeat a Spider, there is a chance that they will drop 1 or 2 pieces of String. You can also get 1 String every time you break a Cobweb.
You can also potentially find String in Chests that spawn inside of Dungeons, Jungle Temples, and Desert Temples. And if you have a Cat, they will sometimes bring you pieces of String as gifts.
Other Ways of Getting a Fishing Rod
- Fishing Rods, as well as Enchanted Fishing Rods, can be caught by fishing
- Trading with Journeyman-level Fisherman Villagers
- Found in Underwater Ruins Chests
- The Carrot on a Stick and Fungus on a Stick items will turn into Fishing Rods when their durability is depleted
- Drowned mobs have a small chance to spawn with a Fishing Rod in their hand and drop one upon their death
How to Use a Fishing Rod
To cast a Fishing Rod, you must use it while facing a body of water. This will cause your hook to land on the surface of the water and begin bobbing gently. Soon, you will see bubbles approaching your hook and lure. When the bubbles reach it, the bobber will get pulled down. When you see your hook get pulled below the surface, use your Fishing Rod again to instantly reel in your catch.
You can catch many kinds of fish this way, as well as much more. When fishing, you will sometimes reel in a piece of junk in the form of a random item. You can also hook some treasure, such as enchanted items and more.
Other Uses for Fishing Rods
You can use a Fishing Rod to hook a mob as well as items, various entities, and even other players. Doing so will decrease the durability of a Fishing Rod just like regular fishing does. You can cast your Fishing Rod at certain things to snag them with the hook before using your rod again to pull them towards you. Here is a list of all the things you can both hook and reel in with your Fishing Rod:
- Any regular mob
- Any falling block
- Boats
- Minecarts
- Armor Stands
- Shulker Bullets
- Ghast Fireballs
- Fire charges
- Primed TNT
You can also hook Villagers, but they don’t like it very much and may call an Iron Golem to attack you. Additionally, mobs on horseback can’t be yanked off of their steeds.
