Harvest Moon: Echoes of Teradea fishing is a real minigame, not a single button press, and it is the fastest route to money, cooking ingredients and request items in the whole game. There are 139 fishing spots across Teradea and its islands holding 68 different fish.
Harvest Moon: Echoes of Teradea fishing step by step
| Step | What to do | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Buy an Old Fishing Pole in any town general store | The game assumes you buy it rather than wait for a gift |
| 2 | Find a fishing spot and choose a bait | Bait makes fish bite faster and fight less hard |
| 3 | Press A the moment the fish bites | Missing the bite loses the fish |
| 4 | Point the left stick opposite the struggle, do not mash A | Mashing loses the line |
| 5 | Press A again once the fish stops struggling | This is the reel-in |
The 68 fish are 62 in the base game plus 6 added by the Nera's Rescue Operation DLC: Mahi-Mahi, Pompano Mahi-Mahi, Marlin, Gourami, Chocolate Gourami and Three Spot Gourami.
Step 1: buy a rod
The Old Fishing Pole costs 1,000 G in a town general store. If the secret merchant is already on your route you can pay 800 G for the same rod instead, so buying early is worth it. The general store in every town stocks one.
Before you have the upgrade there are no fishing skill bonuses at the Harvest Goddess Power Exchange, which is exactly why the Guardian on Tornado Island is nearly impossible to land on a plain rod. The rod itself, and the one upgrade that exists, are on the fishing rod page.
Step 2: find a spot and pick bait
Fishing spots are marked on the DocPad map once you have seen them. The seven baits are Minced Fish, Minced Bug, Minced Shrimp, Ragworm, Worm, Cut Bait and Peeled Shrimp.
Bait is worth the money because it changes both ends of the minigame: fish bite faster and fight less hard. Some fish are picky — Cod are attracted to Ragworm, Cut Bait and Peeled Shrimp, and the Saffron Cod in the icefield is a completely different fish that will not count toward a request.
Some of the best spots are shared between three species, so if you want a specific fish you may have to work a spot several times. Walleye is one of them, and its four spots are on the walleye page.
Step 3: work the minigame
- Press A the moment the fish bites.
- While it struggles, do not press A again. Point the left analog stick in the direction opposite to the pull.
- Press A again only once the fish stops struggling — that press reels it in.
- If the fish tries to break away, release A and rotate the stick against its escape direction.
On Switch the equivalent is to push the left stick down until the fish stops fighting. The one place the controls really matter is this minigame, so it is worth practising on a common fish before you go after something rare.
What the 139 spots and 68 fish mean
The interactive map records 139 fishing spots across Teradea and its islands, holding 68 distinct fish. Tidewind is in constant rain, so the water there never runs dry, but stormy weather can interfere with sensitive catches.
Restoring a region's Spirit Tree adds a Hyperblossom effect. In Tidewind every fishing spot enters splashy-water mode and fish bite more easily, although the splash does not make reeling a fish in any easier.
Two competitive forms sit on top of the open-water fishing: the Fishing Faceoff, a tournament held in Tidewind in Spring and Fall, and Priya's Fishing Zone, where points replace fish. The zone rules are on the Fishing Zone page.