Build 42 Fishing — Every Fish, Spot, and Bait Rule Verified on 42.20

Build 42 overhauled fishing completely: procedural fish schools that react to noise, chum to attract them, a tension-based minigame, and a roster of real Kentucky fish species replacing the old generic catches. If your Build 41 memory is "cast anywhere and wait," you will starve. Everything on this page comes from PZwiki's Fishing page (stamped 42.18.0 at check time) and the Build 42 feature list, checked against stable 42.20 on 2026-08-04.

The Build 42 fishing overhaul

Per the official Build 42 feature list, fishing now uses procedurally determined fish groups — locations, sizes, and behaviors spawn dynamically. Fishing zones react to noise and can be attracted with chum. Large lakes and rivers, especially the Ohio River, remain prime grounds; fish are high-satiety, high-calorie food that fattens up a waterside base.

Gear: rods, hooks, and repairs

A dead rod's line is fixed by reline: one nail or paperclip (consumed) plus twine or fishing line (units consumed). Hooks change bite rate — paperclip ×0.8, nails ×1.0, and fishing hook / forged hook / bone hook all ×1.2.

To cast: stand in combat stance beside water, then use the targeting cursor. Casting into visible ripples gives the best odds. A tension meter appears over your character: left mouse reels in, right mouse gives slack. When the character arches backward, something's hooked — reel, slacken when the fish tugs, and repeat or the line snaps.

Where and when to cast: verified multipliers

Fishing skill does not speed up bites — it raises big-fish odds and lowers trash odds. Bite frequency comes from these tables:

Three placement rules decide half your success:

1. Cast 8+ tiles from shore — closer halves your medium/large fish chance and doubles bite time (piers don't count as shore).
2. Cast 3+ tiles from your character or eat a 3× bite-time penalty.
3. Keep the spot zombie-free and quiet — zones react to noise in B42.

The fish table

Weight = size in cm ÷ weight modifier; hunger reduction = weight × 10. A 60 cm trout (modifier 60) is 1 kg and removes 10 hunger.

Size odds: live bait rolls 50% small / 30% medium / 20% big; lures shift to 60% / 25% / 15%. Pike are the trophy target — biggest size range, and best approached with bait fish from a fishing net.

New species added in Build 42

The butchering tables now carry 21 additional uncut fish: salmon, walleye, sauger, muskellunge, alligator gar, paddlefish, freshwater drum, yellow perch, bluegill, white bass, largemouth / smallmouth / spotted / striped bass, black and white crappie, redear and green sunfish, and blue / channel / flathead catfish. Expect these as the population system rolls deeper catches on big water.

Bait, chum, and the net loop

Valid bait spans insects (worms, crickets, grasshoppers, cockroaches, maggots, and many caterpillars), lures (jig lure, minnow lure), fish fillets, and bait fish. Maggots and fillets are the workhorses — maggots drop from killed zombies, fillets from cutting up your own catches. Chum (1 sand unit from a sack, Fishing 5) attracts fish groups. The fishing net (Twine ×10 units + Wire ×5 units, Fishing 6) catches little bait fish, closing the pike-fishing loop.

No bait at all? You'll only pull trash: socks, shoes, empty bottles, seaweed, rags, tin cans, broken nets.

Fishing recipes and leveling

XP scales with fish weight, so chasing big fish levels you fastest, and higher levels produce bigger, heavier, more filling catches while reducing the chance your gear breaks. The Fishing Guide occupation starts at level 3; Exposure Survival VHS tapes E1 (+50) and E2 (+75) cover the first levels. One quirk: the Life and Living fishing broadcast airs Day 1 at 6 AM, which ends before the default 9 AM start — change the start hour in sandbox options if you want that +75.

You can also gauge your catch from line tension alone: trash gives almost no tension, while bigger fish fight harder as you reel. Learn that feel and you'll know when to stop wasting time on a hooked sock.

Verified on 42.20 · Last checked 2026-08-04

Multipliers, fish ranges, and recipes are from PZwiki's Fishing page as updated for 42.18.0; the overhaul facts come from the official Build 42 feature list. Both were cross-checked against stable 42.20.0 (July 29, 2026). Population behavior around noise and chum is still being tuned by The Indie Stone — treat exact spawn counts as community-reported until the wiki re-verifies them.