Sims 3 fishing skills

Firstly I will start this guide off with all things fishing, because fishing IS fun! I was pleasantly surprised by all the various things you can do in the SIMS 3, and fishing is definitely a productive and useful trait for your sims.

Choosing Traits

First things first. You will want to choose the Angler trait when creating or growing your sim. The benefits are as follows:

• catch fish faster
• have fun while fishing
• your sim will want to go on fishing trips
• sim can fish even when stressed

Improving Fishing Skill

Firstly you can improve fishing skill by fishing, but I suggest buying every fishing book at the book store. These are awesome because they tell you what “perfect bait” to use while fishing! Once your fishing skill has improved the more you fish, the bigger and better each fish you catch will be. For example when you first start fishing, you will be lucky to catch anything. Then as you improve it will go from good to great to exellent, and eventually you will reach perfect fish.

note: I had my sim through 2 careers already before I started fishing and was still able to max fishing skill just by reading and fishing. It didn’t take very long, if I had been able to obtain the Angler trait, it would have been much easier. Just wanted to let you know it is possible to fish without it.*

Basics

1. use overhead map and look for the fishing hook, click to visit that area.
2. look for groups of fish in the water, these are the best spots
3. click on the group of fish and select “inspect water”
4. fish in spots that are “Active”, fish will flop in the water. “Decent” areas will get much less bites.
5. Each skill level you go up, you’ll be able to catch additional fish.
6. The ability to use bait will catch mostly a specific fish. see “perfect bait list” below.
   

Challenges

• Amateur Ichthyologist – Catch every type of fish – roll over fish in your journal to see if you have caught them.
  

Reward: Catch bigger fish

• catching bigger fish fulfills more of your lifetime happiness goals

• larger fish also can be sold for more money or mounted in your house

• Commercial Fisherman – Catch 350 total fish

Reward: Catch fish faster

PERFECT BAIT LIST (All fish listed from highest level to lowest)

skill level: goal fish -> bait -> bait

1. Level 10. Deathfish -> Angelfish -> Alley Catfish -> Cheese
   
2. Level 9. Lobster -> Tuna -> Onion
3. Level 9. Robotfish -> Piranha -> Minnow -> Apple
4. Level 8. Vampirefish -> Garlic
5. Level 8. Angelfish -> Alley Catfish -> Cheese
   
6. Level 7. Swordfish -> Anchovy -> Tomato
   
7. Level 7. Shark -> Red Herring -> Sausage Links
8. Level 6. Black Goldfish -> Goldfish -> Lettuce
9. Level 6. Salmon -> Lime
   
10. Level 5. Blowfish -> Potato
11. Level 5. Tragic Clownfish -> Watermelon
12. Level 4. Piranha -> Minnow -> Apple
13. Level 4. Siamese Catfish -> Bell Pepper
14. Level 3. Tuna -> Onion
15. Level 3. Red Herring -> Sausage Links
    
16. Level 2. Jellyfish -> Grape
17. Level 2. Rainbow Trout -> Egg
18. Level 1. Alley Catfish -> Cheese
    
19. Level 1. Goldfish ->Lettuce
20. Level 0. Anchovy -> Tomato
    
21. Level 0. Minnow -> Apple

Useful Traits

Loves Outdoors

• better mood when outdoors
• can fish and garden better than other sims

Other (possibly useful)

• • Loner (not around people when fishing) – negative for when around people
    
  • Greenthumb (can use fish as fertilizer, also helps grow better food for cooking)
    
  • Cooking (can cook what you catch)
    
  • Bookworm (read fishing books faster) not a priority, but can be used for other skills as well
    

Useful Lifetime Purchases

• Collector (40,000)- easily find the best fishing spots in map view
  
• Vacationer (15,000)- take a day off from work, no one will notice
• Dirt Defiant (15,000)– hygiene decreases slower
  
• Steel Bladder/Hardly Hungry/Etc. (see my defaults)
  

Other Tips I’ve found

• Stock Pond – put fish you have caught into a pond you build.

Basically stock pond allows you to have all the best fish nearby. You can stock a pond with every fish you catch, but you MUST have 10 of each kind of fish or you will not be able to stock it. I have also heard you can add fish to a fishbowl, but I have been to busy to try it 🙂

• when stocking the pond, fish are stocked from lowest quality – it has no effect when you catch them from the pond. Stocking only 10 of a fish seems to have minimal effects (…still testing…) update: through my tests I’ve found that a stocked pond doesn’t become “active” it will only be “a decent place to fish” so use at your discretion – stocking more than 10 and multiple varieites has no effect.

stocking different varieties doesn't lead to an active pond unfortunately

• Deathfish
  

Secondly the hardest fish to catch is the deathfish, which is an ingredient in ambrosia – the highest level recipe available. The reason it is hard to catch is because it can only be found in one area in the town, and it also only comes out in the morning hours between 12 and 5 am. I have tested this many times and it’s impossible to catch it at an any other hours. I am not sure about midnight, but I know for a fact you will stop catching them at 5 am everytime. Hint: deathfish like to be near graveyards.

• Fishing Locations

Deathfish can always be found near graveyards, even in Riverview. The same goes for Robot Fish, they are always found near the science building in both towns. The other good spots are blatantly laid out in the overhead map view with a big hook 🙂

• Job Situation

While a fisherman’s job is full time fun, you may find some rewards in the science field. The problem with the Science industry is that your performance is based on about 3 different skills comprised of gardening, handiness, and fishing. While fishing will be the easiest to maximize, it is also time consuming to juggle those three characteristics on a highly skilled level. So while it may be a good fit, you may want to max out a few other categories, then use Lifetime Purchase of Mid-Life Crisis to change your traits to something else (for example, handy to loves outdoors, or bookworm to loves outdoors)

Honestly when it comes down to it, you can make plenty of money just fishing and gardening, you would actually make LESS money by working. But the real benefit of having a job is earning the lifetime rewards.

with all the fish you’ll be raking in, there’s really no need for a job

If you would like to append this with any information you have acquired or find any incorrect info, just leave a remark in the comments and I will add it to the post, giving you credit for the info.