How To Catch Catfish In Stardew Valley- Not IRL

Stardew Valley stands as an open invitation to learn about the importance of love for the craft of video game development. It is a testament to the immense success that indie games and games, in general, will always see regardless of the massive scalability that these megacorporations look for.

But, let’s discuss what we are here for, shall we?

Like many more adventure RPGs, Stardew Valley allows you to navigate around several activities, ranging from the bizarre such as raising a literal dinosaur to the regular everyday stuff, such as fishing. The game has legendary fish that you can catch not just the regular old fishing. 

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The catfish in Stardew Valley is one such legendary, and we will discuss where and how to catch it!

Where To Catch Catfish In Stardew Valley

Before you start to head to your nearest water body in search of the catfish, there are a few requirements that the game has in order to give you your coveted reward. 

First off, fishing in Stardew Valley works very realistically, so the kind and frequency of fish that you will acquire are going to depend on the season as well as the climate. Also, you cannot acquire the catfish in anything but freshwater, so that is something to keep in mind as well.

In the specific case of catfish, the location is also a big deal. Catfish locations in Stardew Valley are – 

• Pelican Town’s River, 
• the Hill-top Farm or 
• the Riverland farm, 

You can fish for catfish in these locations, but only in Spring and Fall.

If you want your catfish in the Summer, you will have to travel to the Secret Woods or the Witch’s Swamp.

To catch fish in the Witch’s Swamp, you will have to unlock permanent access to it, which can be done by completing a quest.

There are three steps to it, the first of which is to go and talk to Krobus in the Sewers after beating the game.

Next, you will have to travel to the northwest corner of the same location to enter the Mutant Bug Lair and collect the Dark Talisman.

After this, the third and final step will be to use the Dark Talisman and move the artefact in front of the cave.

After you get the cave opened, you will have to deal with the Witch’s henchman. You can just offer some void mayonnaise, which you can acquire through the quest called the Goblin Problem.

While he is busy doing his thing, you can go in and collect the Magic Ink from the Swamp, and pass it on to the Wizard in the Tower. That will give you access to the Swamp for fishing.

Although there are ways to catch catfish in the Winter, we suggest fishing as a better alternative to roaming around looking inside garbage cans.

And like we mentioned, the climate plays a huge role in you being able to catch a catfish. In all of the above locations, regardless of the season, it must be raining when you are fishing to catch a catfish.

Now that we have discussed the conditions, let’s talk about the actual catching.

How to Catch Catfish in Stardew Valley

So, even though the conditions might be perfect for you to rush to the nearest freshwater source and start putting your line in, there are a few caveats that you must know about.

Starting with the fishing mechanics in the game, all fish in Stardew Valley, including catfish, have specific hidden difficulty tiers.

This determines how hard they make the fishing minigame for you, meaning that you might catch a sardine and anchovy in a jiffy, but will have a lot of trouble if you want to jump straight into lining up a catfish, which has a marginally above-average difficulty rating.

What you can do, is do some simple fishing in normal conditions to level up your fishing ability, get the right Bait and Tackle, and of course, if you want to catch the hardest fish, the Iridium Rod, which is the strongest rod in the game and the only one which can use Tackle.

As for items, the Barbed Hook, Cork Bobber and Trap Bobber are three must-haves that will help make it easier for you to catch your first catfish!

Don’t let the fun stop, check out the best games like Stardew Valley.