Fishing Rod

Fishing Rods were added in the 1st Seecret Saturday update on September 18th, 2010. They are put together using three sticks and two string (see formation below). The Minecraft Halloween Update added the ability to catch fish using a Fishing Rod.

They are crafted in this formation:



= Fishing = Casting is done by right-clicking with the fishing rod in hand. This will cast a hook in front of you connected to the tip of the rod by a thin black line. Right-clicking again will reel the line in. If you cast into the water and wait patiently, eventually the bobber on the end of the line will sink briefly before bobbing back up to the surface and will play the slash sound. This is your cue to reel the line back in, so react quickly. If you are fast enough, a raw fish will fly out of the water and land roughly near where you are standing. If too late, the fish will escape and you will reel in an empty line. A line may bob multiple times so long as you don't reel it in but will disappear after 60 seconds if you don't hook anything (this is reset every time the hook bobs in the water).

Note: The bobber has to be free-floating in water to succeed. When fishing in shallow/small waters, make sure your bobber isn't attached to the block at the walls or base of the pool instead.

Fishing rods can hook mobs and drag them toward you. However, though the hurt animation plays, it deals no damage to the mob. This makes it an excellent tool for shearing sheep without hurting them, similarly to the snowball.

If aimed correctly, the tip can also be used to activate pressure plates or knock down paintings from a distance.

When the bobber is out, the fishing pole itself turns from the fishing rod into a stick until reeled in, item change, or otherwise.

The fishing rod can also be used to grab onto boats and minecarts and pull them towards you. The boat or minecart will not do damage if it hits you at high speeds, although boats will often break in this process.

Your fishing rod will impart vertical momentum onto whatever mob or enemy you try to reel in from a great height. This works best if you stand on the edge of a tall, sheer wall (either player-made or created from a cliff). The mobs you reel in from this position will be launched high in the air, allowing you to either kill them with fall damage or pull them up to the perch where you are standing.



Fishing can be done in a body of water created by the player. This includes water created pre-update.

= Tactics =
 * The fishing rod not only reels in fish. If you hit a mob with it, they will get thrown towards you. This can be useful to pull cows, sheep, or pigs closer if you are hunting, or maybe pull a hostile mob into lava or a deep cactus pit.
 * When stacking fishing rods the rods take on the usage bar of the rod being placed upon. If you stack a used fishing rod onto an unused one then all uses will be reset for that rod, but if you stack an unused fishing rod onto a used one both become used. Therefore, it is good strategy to keep 2 fishing rods on you to have infinite uses so long as you remember which way to stack them.
 * Ghast Fireballs can be hooked with the fishing pole.
 * Skeletons can be pulled into their own arrows.
 * Single hostile mobs can be picked out of a group of hostile mobs to keep them from all attacking you at once.