This guide will focus on leveling as quickly as possible while accruing the most money and spending the least money. This isn’t a guide for exploring the map or for trying to catch all of the different fish on the map, it’s just for plowing through the levels. (Though I do encourage you to explore the maps, they’re all very pretty ^.^)
I’m also not going to tell you where to put skill points – choose whichever you like the look of most 🙂 The Economist skill will get you more money per fish and cheaper store items, while the Dodger skill will make fish easier to catch and give you more XP.
We’re mostly going to be going for XP over cash until we unlock Kiel, which is where we’ll start bringing in the megabucks 🙂
Level 1
ROD: UFE Feeder Master 270 (3.5kg)
REEL: UFE Barracuda 2001GN (4.5kg)
LINE: UFE Mono CLEAR 0.16 1.3kg
LURE: Robson Classic Twist 8cm
When you load into Jackson, turn around so that you’re facing the lake, and start fishing off the pier. We’re going to use the soft lure twist, and for now we’ll take anything that bites.
If you catch tiny fish under a $1 worth, release them for the extra XP.
Level 2
When you ding level 2, HAPDQ (haul ass, pretty damned quick) to the shop and buy the Sakura Aya 0.18 line with the 2.20kg strength. That’s the highest strength line you can buy at this point, and it’ll make your fish fights much easier.
Equip your new line, and keep fishing.
For levels 2-4 we’re just going to grind through catching anything we can at that lake location. If you’re lucky you’ll get some bigger fish for the XP 🙂
Level 3
Exit the location and buy a license for Zalasie, then head into the new map.
Open the shop and buy the level 3 UFS Mono 0.14 line with 3.2kg strength, a UFA Bait hook $14, and some delicious dough balls from the bait section. Try not to eat them on your way to the lake – I know it’s tempting.
In your inventory, click the button to reset your set, and build it again with the same rod, reel, the new 3.2kg line, the starter float, starter 3g weights, starter #16 hook, and your new bait.
Open the map and use the magical teleporter to go to location 2. No need to move, we’re going to fish from right here. Equip your rod and set the leader length as high as it’ll go – 2.5m. Do a short-ish cast, we’re going to fish in the shallows some 7-15 meters in front of us, and the leader will dangle our delicious dough just over the vegetation.
You’ll catch all sorts here – barbel, asp, roach, tench, lots of different types of carp. The dough should make sure that no pike bite, they’re big and heavy and we’re not quite ready for that fight yet!
If your fish are slipping off the hook a lot, make sure you’re striking with a high enough drag to keep line tension – but don’t worry, we’ll address this when we hit level 4!
Level 4
Assign your skill point and sell your fishies!
Head over to the Hooks section in the shop, click the Carp subsection, and buy a #10 Carptack Claw XL hook. We could probably handle bigger, but we’ll catch more on a smaller hook while not ruling out the big fish either.
In the Lines category, buy the UFS Mono 0.18 line with 4kg strength.
Under Lures > Soft Lures, buy the UFA Twister 8cm in blue and red.
Go back to Jackson National Park. Equip all your new stuff, including the twister lure, and go to spot 4. Walk out onto the pier and cast straight in front of you as far as you can. You’ll be catching mostly salmon and trout – the trout are better XP, salmon better $ – and you should hit Level 5 pretty quick 🙂
Level 5
In the shop, buy:
UFE Hyper Braid 0.20 (the black one) with 4,8kg strength
Carptack ClawXL hook #7 (under hooks > carp)
Dough balls, dough balls, dough balls
Head back to that spot at #2 in Zalasie and gear up with your new stuff. We’re using a line that’s significantly tougher than our rod now, and a bigger hook that’ll attract big fish, so we need to be very careful of drag – if you don’t like living life on the edge, use a #10 – #8 hook and keep the 4kg line on. Fights will take you longer but your gear will be safer.
Using the big hook we won’t get bites as often, but the fish that bite will be bigger, and worth more XP/$.
Level 6
If you want to spice things up, put a worm on the hook and go to the little T-shaped jetty between locations 4 and 5, then fish towards the long jetty at #4, angling slightly inland. You’ll still catch some big carp but might also land a pike.
Level 7
Buy the Slovakia license, and a Robinson Sonic s28 13g lure from the Spinners section, then equip it. Walk out into the river a bit, set your speed to 24, and fish to the right.
Welcome to the rainbow zone! 😛
The rainbow trout are great XP, while the huchen, salmon, and other trout are good money. Just fish until you’ve got trout coming out of your ear holes. You should be getting a catch on every cast. If you want a change of scenery, cross to location #4 and fish to the left.
If you reel in to within 8 meters of your position and don’t have a bite, stop reeling and let the line idle there for some ten seconds; sometimes the fish bug out and catch at your previous lure location and need a few seconds to right themselves. If you want to try avoiding this, you can also do a start-and-stop retrieve (actually called stop-and-go but it doesn’t really flag as that kind of retrieve in-game) where you reel for a few seconds, let the lure drop down, reel again, pause, etc. The fish will still bite because everyone in this river is starving.
Levels 8 – 9
Booya!
Spend your skill point if you want, or just stay in the river annihilating the local trout population. Either way, you’re coming back here to cause a trout extinction event.
LEVEL 9
As soon as you hit 9 and have $1500, head to the Spinning rods section of the shop and buy the Sakura Speciz SPES Light 762 Zander at 6.35 strength (note we want the cheaper one with the lower casting weight because we’re still using light lures and bait – not the slightly more expensive one with the heavier casting weight).
Equip your new Troutcatcher Extraordinaire. You should now be on the following setup, to recap:
ROD: Sakura Speciz SPES Light 762 Zander
REEL: UFE Barracuda 2001GN
LINE: UFE HyperBraid 0.20 4,8kg
LURE: Robinson Sonic s28 13g
Head back into the same spot in Slovakia. We’re not done harassing the trout yet!
Levels 10-11
The troutening is at hand!
Don’t forget your level 10 skill point.
Lines are cheap, let’s upgrade now that our rod is better. Buy the UFE Fluo Classic 0.30 with 5.9kg strength. It’s much higher than our reel but lower than our rod, and we’ll be upgrading the reel next.
Levels 12-13
Buy and equip a Robinson Trophy 14G pink spoon lure. Go back into Slovakia, location #1, and walk out into the river straight ahead until you reach a fallen tree trunk underwater on your left (it’s almost at the other bank). Walk to the end of the tree trunk, turn left, and fish upstream in the clear path between the rocks, with your lure at speed 20.
You should be catching salmon, brown trout, and hutchen by the gallon. If they stop biting, turn around and fish downstream for a little while.
Grind out another level here. When you have entirely decimated the local trout population, it’s time to move on!
More Guides:
- Ultimate Fishing Simulator 2: Jackson National Park Lure Fishing
- Ultimate Fishing Simulator 2: Thailand Map Guide
