The purpose of this guide is to help you understand and take advantage of the game's fishing system. If you're after the All Your Fish in a Roe achievement, this guide will also make it easier to track which fish you need and when/where to get them.

Most of the data in the tables below is the same that's found in the in-game journal, but I've organized it in what I feel is a far more useful manner. I've split the California Trail fish into their own table and properly alphabetized the fish. I've also added the fish sizes so that you know what to look for when hunting for a particular fish.

If you prefer, you can use my original spreadsheet, found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KMotStwJSabRGeomB6eAhH17IXQmIUvxcJnEJvt99r4/edit?usp=sharing

Below are some useful tips I've picked up while playing the game:

• A red sparkle guarantees a trophy fish, but you can catch them randomly as well. Don't wait for sparkles unless you're low on bait.
  
• You can catch multiple fish with one piece of bait by casting where their circles overlap. There is some luck involved, as you'll only catch fish that bite at the same time, but you should get at least one. So there's no downside unless one of them is a guaranteed trophy fish or you're hunting for something specific.
  
• Most fishing maps have both a river section AND a lake section, each spawning different fish according to the tables in the sections. Lakes will always be a lighter blue-grey, while rivers will be dark blue.
  
• You can walk out into water that the game considers "shallow", though this is wildly inconsistent. If you're seeing a lot of fish that you can't reach, that's probably how you get them.
  
• Pay attention to the fish sprites! When fishing, you'll see three different fish sprites in the water: short, medium and long. A given species of fish will always have the same sprite!
  
• Fishing events have a 2-3x trophy fish multiplier. This makes them the best place to catch trophy fish, by far. This goes double if the fish you need is the daily special, but it still applies to any fish that spawns in the weekly biome.
  
• Keep an eye out for the Gluttony contract. This contract gives you infinite bait, which means unlimited fishing!
  
• Once you get about half of the trophy fish, start keeping track of which ones you still need and where they spawn. Feel free to copy the spreadsheet in the introduction and use it as a checklist. You can save a ton of time just by skipping areas where you already have all the fish!
  
• Beyond hunting for all of the trophy fish, fishing is the best way in the game to make money. A character with full stamina can get 95 pounds of fish (120 with a knife) per event, excluding fishing traps. If you successfully haggle, you can get $2 a fish at any waypoint. That's $190 ($240 with a knife!) per fishing encounter.

Fishing events are easily the best way to catch trophy fish. The regular daily events have a 2x trophy fish rate and the special events (e.g. Panfish Day) have a 3x rate (except Fresh Spawn, which is still 2x). The only downside is that the event is timed, so you have to work in 3 minutes intervals.

The way the events work is simple: each week is dedicated to a particular biome and either rivers or lakes in that biome. Additionally, a daily fish gets a 20% spawn rate increase. Finally, one special events occurs each Thursday and adds additional modifiers. Thankfully, none of this is random. You can use the lists below to figure out when a biome or fish you need will be coming up, based on the current day's event.

A note on this section: these lists are extracted directly from the game's data. That means they should be accurate as of the time I'm writing this guide, but that may change in the future.

1. Prairies - Rivers
   
2. Desert - Lakes
   
3. Snake River Valley - Rivers
   
4. Mountain - Rivers
   
5. Prairies - Lakes
   
6. Desert - Rivers
   
7. Snake River Valley - Lakes
   
8. Mountain - Lakes
   
9. California Trail - Rivers
   
10. California Trail - Lakes

Note that not all fish show up as the daily catch and many are repeated multiple times.

1. Flathead Catfish
   
2. Longnose Gar
   
3. Goldeye
   
4. Paddlefish
   
5. Lake Sturgeon
   
6. Blue Catfish
   
7. Shovelnose Sturgeon
   
8. American Bullfrog
   
9. Leatherside Chub
   
10. Bluegill
    
11. Desert Pupfish
    
12. Green Sunfish
    
13. Desert Dace
    
14. Common Shiner
    
15. White Sturgeon
    
16. Shortnose Sucker
    
17. Chinook Salmon
    
18. Pacific Lamprey
    
19. Cutthroat Trout
    
20. Pink Salmon
    
21. Burbot
    
22. Chinook Salmon
    
23. Pacific Lamprey
    
24. Cutthroat Trout
    
25. Coho Salmon
    
26. Columbia Sculpin
    
27. White Sturgeon
    
28. Sockeye Salmon
    
29. Pumpkinseed
    
30. Bowfin
    
31. American Bullfrog
    
32. Channel Catfish
    
33. Great Plains Toad
    
34. Northern Pike
    
35. Plains Leopard Frog
    
36. Green Sunfish
    
37. Common Shiner
    
38. Razorback Sucker
    
39. Colorado Pike Minnow
    
40. Bonytail Chub
    
41. Leatherside Chub
    
42. Bluegill
    
43. Lake Chub
    
44. Redside Shiner
    
45. Burbot
    
46. Bluegill
    
47. Lake Trout
    
48. Burbot
    
49. Mountain Whitefish
    
50. Yellowfin Cutthroat Trout
    
51. Great Basin Redband Trout
    
52. Klamath Lake Sculpin
    
53. Rocky Mountain Tailed Frog
    
54. Bull Trout
    
55. Cascades Frog
    
56. Bluegill
    
57. Pilose Crayfish
    
58. Lahontan Cutthroat
    
59. Kern Brook Lamprey
    
60. Sacramento Pikeminnow
    
61. Golden Trout
    
62. Lahontan Redside
    
63. Green Sturgeon
    
64. Tule Perch
    
65. Cui-ui
    
66. Sacramento Blackfish
    
67. Sierra Nevada Yellow Legged Frog
    
68. Sacramento Perch
    
69. Hitch
    
70. Common Carp

One special event occurs each week, on Thursday. In addition to the listed effects, these events give you a 3x trophy fish rate for the day, except for Fresh Spawn, which is still 2x. Each event occurs once every 6 weeks in the following order:

1. Hop To It - Boosts "frog" spawns, 50x spawn multiplier, 1.2x active fish
   
2. Fresh Spawn - 1.5x bite time (50% slower!)
   
3. Feeding Frenzy - 3x fish spawns, 3x active fish, 0.9x bite time
   
4. Trout Day - Boosts "trout" spawns, 5x spawn multiplier
   
5. Feeding Fever - 2x fish spawns, 3x active fish, 0.9x bite time
   
6. Panfish Day - Boosts "panfish" spawns, 10x spawn multiplier

For the purpose of these events:

• "Frogs" are American Bullfrog, Boreal Chorus Frog, Cascades Frog, Great Plains Toad, Oregon Spotted Frog, Plains Leopard Frog and Rocky Mountain Tailed Frog.
  
• "Panfish" are Black Crappie, Bluegill, Green Sunfish, Mountain Sucker, Pumpkinseed, Rock Bass, Sauger, Utah Chub, White Crappie and Yellow Perch.
  
• "Trout" are Brook Trout, Bull Trout, Cutthroat Trout, Great Basin Redband Trout, Lake Trout, Rainbow Trout and Yellowfin Cutthroat Trout.