Fishing Rod

Fishing Rods are tools which were added in the 1st Seecret Saturday update on September 18th, 2010. They can be crafted from sticks and strings. These rods remain the first and only stackable tool in the game. Fishing rods take on the usage bar of the rod being stacked upon. Therefore, it would be good strategy to keep two fishing rods to have infinite uses.

Players can cast the line using the right mouse button. Right-clicking again will reel the line in. The rod can be cast and reeled in 33 times before breaking. Casting it in water and reeling it up without a catch or reeling it up before it reaches its destination does not reduce its durability. The line will be reeled in automatically if the player wanders more than 34 blocks away from the place the bobber is stuck in.



If the line is cast in any sort of water, whether player made or naturally formed, after a while, the bobber on the end of the line will sink briefly before bobbing back up to the surface and will play the splash sound. The line must be reeled in at that precise moment otherwise the catch will escape. The line can be left there to wait for another catch opportunity as long as needed. If successful, a fish will fly out of the water and land somewhere around the fisher. The line will disappear after 60 seconds if nothing gets hooked, although this timer is reset every time the hook bobs in the water.

Fishing rods can hook mobs and drag them towards the player. Although the hurt animation plays, it deals no damage to the mob. This makes it an excellent tool for shearing sheep without hurting them, similar to the snowball. Reeling it up will cause the mob to be pulled towards the caster at a very fast rate, however. Players can take advantage of this to impact vertical momentum onto the mob when reeled at great height, dealing enough fall damage for a guaranteed death. It is also possible to bring the mobs up to the place where the player is standing on with accurate aiming. This does not work with flying mobs like Ghast, however.

The tip can also be used to activate Pressure Plates or even knock down Paintings from a distance. The fishing rod can also be used to grab onto boats and minecarts and pull them towards the player. Boats will often break in the process, however. Strangely enough, the Ghast's Fireballs can also be hooked with the fishing rod.

Trivia

 * The Fishing Rod was introduced in version 1.1.0 but served no purpose until version 1.2.0.
 * Skeletons can be pulled into their own arrows.
 * Casting the rod into lava will set the bobber on fire.
 * Casting the rod into lava will cause it to clip through and fall forever.

Angel