How to Catch Fish in Among Trees

Once you find the blueprint for the fishing rod in Among Trees (and then subsequently craft said fishing rod), it’s time to hit the lakes and start casting. There is an in-game tutorial for fishing — a single pop-up text overlay that gives you the basics — but it doesn’t effectively articulate what you need to do in order to catch a fish.

I ended up having to do quite a bit of experimentation — while simultaneously watching playthroughs on YouTube and matching their findings with my own — before I was able to successfully reel in my first catch. Getting fish to bite, and also avoiding your lure getting caught on the shoreline or dangling miles away from shore (thus making the reeling process longer), is a task in and of itself.

If you’re having issues, hopefully I can be of some assistance. Because you will need the byproduct of various fish in Among Trees for crafting already, the fish meat proves an invaluable food and heart source when cooking.

Once you cast off, your lure seems to naturally float back toward shore without any reeling. So you’re gonna want to cast off at least 30 feet or so from shore.

You might notice that fish are visibly swimming below the water surface, but as far as I can tell, they are just there for visual flourish and they don’t seem to actually exist as physical objects, nor do they seem to actively bite your bait. The fish that do bite just seem to just appear. (Red Dead Redemption 2 this ain’t.)

The game instructs you to watch for ripples on the surface of the water and cast in those areas. Again, as far as I can tell, landing in one of those areas doesn’t seem to increase your chances for a bite. I could be wrong, but nothing that I’ve experienced offers a concrete answer either way (I’ve successfully gotten bites in areas with no ripples, for example). As long as you’re casting in a lake, you should eventually get a bite.

Now, once you actually do get a bite, you will need to reel using the left mouse button while moving the mouse in the opposite direction the fish is swimming. This will wear down the fish and allow you to successfully reel in your catch. There is a tension meter, but it’s a little tricky to read.

The game doesn’t specify this, but clicking the left mouse button — instead of holding it in — to lessen the tension on the line doesn’t seem to count towards reeling. The tutorial also doesn’t clearly define how far in either direction you must move the mouse while counteracting the fish’s attempts to break free.

The key to success once you’ve gotten a bite is to hold down the left mouse button and hold your line in the opposite direction the fish is attempting to swim in. You also want to keep pole somewhat close to the tension meter, but not pointing directly at it. You want to counteract the tension from the fish while not losing site of the tension meter above the fish. Try moving the line closer to the fish while counteracting its tension. As long as the meter doesn’t clip above or below the two lines near the top and bottom of the tension meter, the line shouldn’t break.

It’s a delicate dance, but once you master it, you’ll be reeling in fish by the dozen.