A fishing rod is a tool used primarily for fishing.
Obtaining
Crafting
| Ingredients | Crafting recipe | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Stick + String |
||
| Damaged Fishing Rod | The durability of the two fishing rods is added together, plus an extra 5% durability. |
Fishing
Enchanted fishing rods can be obtained as "treasure" items from fishing, and unenchanted ones as "junk" items.
Trading
Journeyman-level fisherman villagers sell enchanted fishing rods for 6 emeralds. The enchantments are the same as the ones obtained from an enchantment table at levels 5–19.
Natural generation
| Item | Structure | Container | Quantity | Chance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Java Edition | ||||
| Enchanted Fishing Rod[A] | Underwater ruins | Big ruins chest | 1 | 21.7% |
| Small ruins chest | 1 | 41.7% | ||
| Bedrock Edition | ||||
| Enchanted Fishing Rod[A] | Underwater ruins | Big ruins chest | 1 | 21.7% |
| Small ruins chest | 1 | 41.7% | ||
- ↑ a b All enchantments are equally probable, including treasure enchantments (except Soul Speed, and Swift Sneak), and any level of the enchantment is equally probable.
Carrot or warped fungus on a stick
If a carrot on a stick or a warped fungus on a stick is used to the point of zero durability, it becomes a fishing rod again.
Mob loot
In Java Edition, the drowned mob has a 3.75% chance of spawning with a fishing rod equipped. In Bedrock Edition, naturally-spawned drowned has 0.85% chance to spawn with fishing rod, while converted drowned has 1% chance to spawn with it. If killed, they have an 8.5% chance of dropping this fishing rod. That chance increases by 1% for each level of Looting applied to a weapon (up to 11.5% chance). The dropped item is damaged and never enchanted.
Usage
Fishing
Fishing rods can be cast into water. After a short period of time, a stream of bubble particles approach the fishing rod. If the rod is reeled in once the particles "bite" the bobber, the player obtains a fish, junk, or possibly a treasure item.
Crafting ingredient
| Name | Ingredients | Crafting recipe | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carrot on a Stick | Fishing Rod or Damaged Fishing Rod + Carrot |
The fishing rod must be diagonally above the carrot to craft the carrot on a stick. | |
| Warped Fungus on a Stick | Fishing Rod or Damaged Fishing Rod + Warped Fungus |
Crafting from a damaged fishing rod is available only in Bedrock Edition. Java Edition requires a pristine fishing rod. The 2×2 grid can also be used for crafting instead of a crafting table. |
Hooking mobs and other entities
The fishing rod can be used to hook mobs, items[Java Edition only] and some entities, and even players. The fishing rod can then be reeled in, which drags them toward the player and deals no damage. Reeling in a mob or entity costs 5 points of durability, and reeling in an item costs 3 points. Reeling a mob pulls it toward the player with a speed of 1⁄10 the distance between mob and player.
Besides mobs and items, entities that can be reeled in include:
- Boats
- Minecarts of any type
- Armor Stands
- Shulker Bullets
- Ghast fireballs
- Shot fire charges
- Primed TNT
- Any falling block
- Such as Sand, Gravel, Dragon Eggs or Anvils.
Some entities can be hooked, but cannot be reeled in:
- Mobs riding/being ridden by other mobs
- Paintings
- Item Frames
- Lead knots
- End Crystals
- Shulkers
Attempting to reel in said entities still costs durability to the rod.
The rest of the entities cannot be hooked at all:
- Thrown eggs
- Thrown snowballs
- Thrown ender pearls
- Thrown eyes of ender
- Thrown potions
- Thrown bottles o' enchanting
- Dragon fireballs
- Wither skulls
- Firework rockets in flight
- Arrows in flight
- Area effect cloud
- XP orbs
Using it on a villager lowers the player's popularity and causes any naturally-spawned iron golems nearby to attack.
Reeling in an entity riding on another entity causes it to dismount.[Bedrock Edition only]
Fuel
A fishing rod can be used as fuel in furnaces, smelting 1.5 items per fishing rod.
Other usage
The hook can also be used to activate wooden pressure plates or weighted pressure plates.
Enchantments
A fishing rod can receive the following enchantments:
| Name | Max Level | Method |
|---|---|---|
| Lure[note 1] | III | |
| Luck of the Sea | III | |
| Unbreaking | III | |
| Mending | I | |
| Curse of Vanishing | I |
- ↑ Lure levels above V don't work.
A fishing rod with the Mending enchantment has infinite durability if used for fishing only. The rod incrementally repairs itself using the experience gained each time a player reels in a fish, even if starting from nearly 0% durability. Players wearing damaged Mending armor have a lower average rate of repair, because the mending mechanic can ignore damage to the rod while repairing armor instead. Unbreaking III can nearly guarantee that the rod does not break, unless it's already at low durability.
Fishing Bobber
Fishing bobbers have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the entity. They also appear to despawn after a while.
Data values
ID
| Name | Identifier | Translation key |
|---|---|---|
| Fishing Bobber | fishing_bobber | entity.minecraft.fishing_bobber |
| Name | Identifier | Numeric ID | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fishing Bobber | fishing_hook | 77 | entity.fishing_hook.name |
Entity data
- Entity data
- Tags common to all entities
Sounds
The specific instructions are: Old throwing sound (pre-Sound Update), which was used for fishing rods
| Sound | Subtitles | Source | Description | Resource location | Translation key | Volume | Pitch | Attenuation distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bobber thrown | ? | ? | entity | subtitles | ? | ? | 16 | |
| Bobber retrieved | Friendly Creatures | When reeling rod in | entity | subtitles | ? | 2.4 | 16 | |
| Fishing hook splashes | Friendly Creatures | ? | entity | subtitles | ? | ? | 16 | |
| Item breaks | ? | When durability is exhausted | entity | subtitles | 1.0 | 0.9 | 16 |
Data values
ID
| Name | Identifier | Form | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fishing Rod | fishing_rod | Item | item.minecraft.fishing_rod |
| Name | Identifier | Numeric ID | Form | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fishing Rod | fishing_rod | 392 | Item | item.fishing_rod.name |
Achievements
| Icon | Achievement | In-game description | Actual requirements (if different) | Gamerscore earned | Trophy type (PS4) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS4 | Other | |||||
| Cow Tipper | Harvest some leather. | Pick up leather from the ground. | 15G | Bronze | ||
Advancements
| Icon | Advancement | In-game description | Parent | Actual requirements (if different) | Resource location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Fishy Business | Catch a fish | Husbandry | Use a fishing rod to catch any of these fishes: | husbandry/fishy_business
|
History
| Java Edition Alpha | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| v1.1.1 | |||||
| Fishing rods currently have no function. | |||||
| Fishing rods are stackable. | |||||
| v1.2.0 | ? | Fishing rods have been updated to be able to catch fish from any body of water. | |||
| v1.2.2 | Fishing rods now work in multiplayer. Previously, fishing rods could be used in multiplayer, but would produce fake client-side fish that could not be picked up. | ||||
| Fishing rods in multiplayer repeat the cast sound when reeling in, do not render the line, and do not switch textures when cast. | |||||
| Java Edition Beta | |||||
| 1.6 | Test Build 3 | Fishing rods are now no longer stackable, stacking rods would allow the player to change the damage values of any rods stacked to the first rod. This could be exploited to have fishing rods that lasted forever. | |||
| Sound Update | The fishing rod cast sound has been changed. | ||||
| Java Edition | |||||
| 1.3.1 | 12w17a | Fishing rods now have infinite durability in Creative mode. | |||
| 12w18a | Fishing rods in multiplayer no longer repeat the cast sound when reeling in, now properly render the line, and now switch textures when cast. | ||||
| 1.4.2 | 12w36a | Added carrot on a stick, which can be crafted using a fishing rod and a carrot. | |||
| 12w37a | Fishing now give the player experience with each fish caught. | ||||
| 1.4.6 | 12w49a | Fishing rods can now be enchanted with Unbreaking using enchanted books. | |||
| 1.7.2 | 13w36a | Fishing rods now have 2 new enchantments: Lure and Luck of the Sea. | |||
| Fishing rods can now be enchanted in an enchantment table. | |||||
| Enchanted fishing rods can now be obtained as a "treasure" item from fishing, and unenchanted ones as a "junk" item. | |||||
| 1.8 | 14w02a | Fisherman villagers now sell enchanted fishing rods for 7–8 emeralds. | |||
| 14w33b | Cast fishing rods now use the cast texture in third person, rather than the stick texture. | ||||
| 1.9 | 15w31a | Cast fishing rods now look cast in the hotbar and inventory. | |||
| 15w32a | Fishing rods no longer damage the ender dragon. | ||||
| 15w36a | Fishing rods now properly hook entities. | ||||
| Reeling in while hooked to a non-item entity now costs 5 durability (was 3) to the fishing rod. | |||||
| 1.10 | 16w21a | Fishing rods now hook items, which costs 3 durability. | |||
| 1.11 | 16w33a | Fishing rods can now be used to fuel furnaces. | |||
| 1.12 | 17w13a | The sound of the bobbers of fishing rods being thrown has been changed. | |||
| 17w16a | Added sounds for reeling in fishing bobbers. | ||||
| 1.13 | 17w47a | Prior to The Flattening, this item's numeral ID was 346. | |||
| 17w50a | Crafting a carrot on a stick no longer requires the fishing rod to be at full durability.[1] | ||||
| 18w02a | The bobber of fishing rods now has its own entity ID: fishing_bobber, although summoning the bobber alone is still not possible. | ||||
| 18w09a | Enchanted fishing rods now generate in the chests of underwater ruins. | ||||
| 18w11a | Added drowned, which have a chance to spawn drop fishing rods upon death. | ||||
| 18w14a | Catching a fish with the fishing rod now grants the "Fishy Business" advancement. | ||||
| ? | Fishing rods no longer display as unknown when called by a target selector. | ||||
| 1.14 | 18w43a | ||||
| 1.16 | 20w13a | Fishing rod is now used to craft warped fungus on a stick. | |||
| 20w14a | The bobber of fishing rods is now considered a projectile and can ignite (if on fire) TNT, activate targets and ring bells. | ||||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| v0.11.0 | build 1 | ||||
| build 8 | If an entity is mounted on another entity, reeling it in with a fishing rod now pulls it off its ride. | ||||
| build 11 | Fishing rods are now functional in third person view. | ||||
| v0.12.1 | build 12 | Fishing rods now make a less repetitive sound. | |||
| Fishing rods now grant experience when successful. | |||||
| Fishing rods can now be enchanted. | |||||
| Enchanted fishing rods can now be found as "treasure" from fishing. | |||||
| v0.15.0 | build 1 | Fishing rods are now used to craft carrot on a stick. | |||
| Pocket Edition | |||||
| 1.0.4 | alpha 1.0.4.0 | Fisherman villagers now sell enchanted fishing rods. | |||
| 1.1.0 | alpha 1.1.0.0 | The entity ID of fishing rods has been changed from fishinghook to fishing_hook. | |||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.4.0 | beta 1.2.13.8 | Added drowned, which can spawn with and drop fishing rods. | |||
| beta 1.2.20.1 | Fishing rods and enchanted fishing rods can now be found in underwater ruins. | ||||
| 1.10.0 | beta 1.10.0.3 | ||||
| 1.11.0 | beta 1.11.0.4 | Fisherman villagers now sell enchanted fishing rods for 6 emeralds as part of their third tier trade. | |||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU1 | CU1 | 1.0 | Patch 1 | 1.0.1 | |
| As a result of Legacy Console Edition using an internal server, fishing rods repeat the cast sound when reeling in, do not render the line, and do not switch textures when cast. | |||||
| TU7 | |||||
| The cast fishing rod texture appears in first person, while the stick texture is used instead in third person. | |||||
| TU27 | CU15 | 1.18 | Cast fishing rods now use the cast texture in third person, rather than the stick texture. | ||
| TU69 | 1.76 | Patch 38 | Enchanted fishing rods now generate in the chests of underwater ruins. | ||
| Added drowned, which have a chance to spawn drop fishing rods upon death. | |||||
| 1.90 | |||||
| New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||
| 0.1.0 | |||||
Issues
Issues relating to "Fishing Rod" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia
- The maximum distance the player can get between the bobber and themselves is 33 blocks.
- Skeletons can be pulled into their own arrows.
- When casting the rod into a portal, the bobber may stick to it like a normal block, go through and travel in the Nether, or stop on the next block behind the portal.
- If the player stands directly in front of a column and casts the line onto a block above the player, the line falls downward.
- If the bobber hits a painting, the painting breaks.
- The player can get into bed after casting a line, and the line remains in the water until the player wakes up and reels it in.
Gallery
13w36a snapshot banner.
Trail of bubbles indicating that a fish is about to bite.
Two-dimensional bobber in Java Edition.
Three-dimensional bobber in Bedrock Edition.
A drowned holding a fishing rod.









