ARK Survival Ascended fishing guide: Best strategies, tames, and more

Fishing is an important part of the crafting ecosystem in ARK Survival Ascended. As expected of a survival-focused game, fishing provides you with a consistent food source consisting of raw fish meat and raw prime fish meat. Both of these items can also be used to tame carnivore animals. Ironically, the bigger catch often lies in the minigame's by-products unrelated to the fish itself.

You can obtain various materials from fishing, ranging from common resources like flint and fiber to rare ones like Black Pearls. The lower tier of resources fished out of the water is immensely helpful in the early game, but fishing remains relevant even when you do not need the basics.

The main hook for the fishing minigame, even when you ascend the progression curve of ARK Survival Ascended, is the equipment blueprints you can pick up. Despite the low chances for these blueprints to drop, fishing is one of the most reliable ways to obtain high-tier body armor, saddles, and even weapons.

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How to get a fishing rod in ARK Survival Ascended

You can find Alpha Masosaurs deep in the sea (Image via Studio Wildcard)

Like in the original title, ARK Survival Evolved (2017), rewards earned from fishing scale with the size of the fish you catch, as well as the rarity of your fishing rod.

Naturally, the first order of business is to get a fishing rod of high quality. Fishing rods drop from two specific deep sea creatures:

• Alpha Mosasaurs
• Alpha Squids (officially called Tusoteuthis)

Alpha Squids always drop a fishing rod on death, whereas Mosasaurs have approximately a 20% chance of doing the same. Nevertheless, given the relative plentitude of Mosasaurs on The Island, you are better off farming them en masse.

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Best fish baits to use in ARK Survival Ascended

Honey is the highest tier of bait you can use in ARK Survival Ascended (Image via Studio Wildcard)

Before setting out on your first fishing expedition in ARK Survival Ascended, you need to stock up on baits. Different baits essentially unlock different weight caps on fish you can reel in. These are:

• Tree Sap. You can collect these very easily, but they also make for the most rudimentary bait material.
• Leech Blood. Leeches can be found in swamp areas, exposing you to a good number of hostile creatures. However, Leech Blood works well enough as bait to be worth the trouble.
• Giant Bee Honey is the premium fish bait in ARK Survival Ascended, but you need a beehive and a tamed Queen for a consistent supply

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ARK Survival Ascended fishing spots

The Redwood lake is one of the best fishing spots (Image via Studio Wildcard)

There are many places you can hunker down on a chair to fish in The Island. Anywhere you spot Coelacanth swimming around under the water can be considered a fishing spot.

That being said, you can find several hotspots for fishing near the Red Obelisk, as well as the many riverways that run across the southwestern quadrant of The Island. Among these, arguably the most popular is the lake in the middle of Redwood, with an islet at its center.

If your server has cave building toggled on, the Ice Artifact Cave at the northeastern snow biome is also a lucrative fishing hotspot. Provided you have a powerful escort of tames to fend off the hostiles here, this spot contains the biggest quantity of large fish on the entire island.