Guild Wars 2: How to Fish

Fishing is an incredibly popular mechanic in many different games. From old school to modern, many different titles have fishing in some capacity. From an active minigame like in Stardew Valley, to a more sedentary activity like in World of Warcraft, or even being a straight up away-from-keyboard activity like in Black Desert Online: fishing in video games can take shape in a variety of different ways.

Fishing has entered the game with the most recent expansion to Guild Wars 2, End of Dragons. A long-awaited feature that has been planned from the start and heavily desired form the community for over a decade: fishing meets the expectations of many players. A fun, active minigame that allows players to pass some time or dedicate hours to fishing across Tyria and becoming one of the greatest anglers that has ever lived.

In order to unlock fishing, you must complete the first chapter of the End of Dragons story. In order to do this, you must also have End of Dragons unlocked on your account.

You can decide to do the entire story in order and eventually reach End of Dragons, or you can skip ahead and do the first part of the story if you do not mind spoilers.

In order to access your End of Dragons story: Open your Hero Panel (Default press H), find the star icon on the left hand side of the panel and click on it, navigate to End of Dragons, and begin the story until you complete the “Old Friends” story mission.

Once you complete the mission, you will have fishing permanently unlocked on your account and you can begin fishing.

You can begin fishing by pressing the mastery button (Default press J) or by clicking on the mastery button your skill bar.

In order to fish, you must have bait and/or lure equipped. In order to obtain baits and lures, you can purchase them from various fishing merchant around the world.

One merchant that you can buy fishing supplies from is the Dock Worker at Sanctum Harbor in Lion’s Arch.

The waypoint code to reach this merchant is: [&BC8EAAA=]

You can copy paste this code (everything in the brackets with the brackets as well) into any chat in-game to get a clickable link to this waypoint.

Once you purchase baits and lures, you can equip them in your fishing panel. You can access your fishing panel by pressing “5” when you have your fishing rod equipped or by navigating to it through your hero panel.

Once you have unlocked fishing, have equipped bait and lures, have your fishing rod in hand, and have found a body of water: you may begin fishing.

When holding your fishing rod, you can begin fishing by pressing “Cast Line” which is the first ability with the fishing rod. This is a ground target ability that allows you to target in area of water that you would like. Drag your mouse over to any water and then press the ability again to cast your line.

Once your line is cast, you now wait until a fish bites!

You can tell that a fish bites your line when your bobber splashes and you get a red exclamation point above your head.

Once a fish bites, activate your first ability again to set the hook. Upon setting your hook, a mini game will begin.

Your objective is to keep the green bar (the fish you are trying to catch) within the yellow bar. You move the yellow bar by reeling in left (by pressing a, 2, or ←) or by reeling in right (by pressing d, 3, or →).

While you keep the green bar inside of the yellow bar, you will fill up the lower bar. The green bar being outside of the yellow bar will deplete the lower bar. Once the lower bar is full, you will catch the fish.

For a full demonstration of what fishing looks like, you should check out my full fishing video. I showcase the fishing mini-game at 0:44.