Bait

Bait

Loading bait into a Copper Fishing Rod changes what you catch and how the fishing session plays out. Without bait the rod still works — vanilla fish dominate the pool (~95% of catches) and mod fish are rare finds (~5%). Bait shifts those odds and unlocks additional bonuses.

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Loading Bait

Bait is stored inside the rod, not consumed as a held item:

• Slot → Rod: Drag bait onto the rod in any inventory slot to load up to a full stack.
• Rod → Slot (cursor): Right-click the rod with an empty cursor to unload all bait at once.
• Rod → Empty slot: Right-click an empty slot while holding the rod to deposit the bait there.

Only one bait type can be loaded at a time. Attempting to add a different type while bait is already loaded plays an error sound. One piece of bait is consumed each time you complete a session and receive at least one reward.

The rod's tooltip shows the currently loaded bait and count as a small item icon.

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Bait Types

There are three baits, each tuned for a different style of play:

Worms

Recipe — Worms

Shapeless — combine 3× Dirt (any order).

Yields: 1× Worms

The volume bait. Loads up each session with more targets on average, so you'll catch more items per cast. Mod fish appear at a noticeably higher rate than bare-hook fishing (~15% of catches vs ~5% with no bait), making worms a solid stepping-stone before you unlock Gummy Worms.

Property	Value
Luck bonus	+0.5
Treasure chance	10%
Target count bonus	+1 (mean of 3 instead of 2)
Vanilla fish weight	×1.0
Mod fish weight	×0.6
Quality bias	none

Gummy Worms

Recipe — Gummy Worms

Shapeless — combine all four ingredients (any order):

• 1× Worms
• 1× Golden Carrot
• 1× Sugar
• 1× Diamond

Yields: 1× Gummy Worms

The mod fish unlock bait. Slashes vanilla fish weights and dramatically boosts mod fish weights — mod fish will make up ~78% of your catches instead of ~5% with no bait. Also shifts the quality distribution toward higher tiers, so you'll see more Rare, Epic, and Legendary fish when using gummy worms.

Property	Value
Luck bonus	+1.0
Treasure chance	10%
Target count bonus	none
Vanilla fish weight	×0.2
Mod fish weight	×4.0
Quality bias	+1.5 (see Fish Quality)

Blazed Grub

Recipe — Blazed Grub

Shapeless — combine both ingredients (any order):

• 1× Worms
• 1× Blaze Powder

Yields: 1× Blazed Grub

The high-risk, high-reward bait. Half of all targets will be treasure from the vanilla fishing treasure loot table (with a high luck bonus applied), and any fish targets are drawn exclusively from the exotic fish pool — the large, unusual, or dangerous species. You will almost never catch a cod or a bluegill with this bait.

Property	Value
Luck bonus	+2.0
Treasure chance	50%
Target count bonus	none
Fish pool	Exotic fish only (see below)
Quality bias	+0.5

Exotic fish pool (the only fish eligible when using Blazed Grub):

• Giant Manta Ray
• Frozen Giant Manta Ray
• Longnose Gar
• Molten Moorish Idol
• Northern Pike
• Ocean Sunfish
• Portuguese Man O' War

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Environmental Factors

Even without bait, where and when you fish affects which species appear. Each fish species has a data-driven profile that defines weight multipliers for the current biome, time of day, and weather.

All three factors multiply together:

final weight = base_weight × biome_mult × time_mult × weather_mult × bait_mult

Time of Day

Period	Ticks	Best for
Dawn	0 – 2399	Giant Manta Ray, Northern Pike, Royal Garden Eel
Day	2400 – 11999	Bluegill, Garden Eel, Moorish Idol, Neon Tetra, Ocean Sunfish
Dusk	12000 – 13999	Northern Pike, Royal Garden Eel, Starfish
Night	14000 – 23999	Longnose Gar, Molten Moorish Idol, Portuguese Man O' War, Starfish

Weather

Weather	Best for
Clear	Standard baseline for most species
Rain	Rainfordia, Portuguese Man O' War, Frozen Giant Manta Ray
Thunder	Molten Moorish Idol (×4), Portuguese Man O' War (×3), Blazed Grub-as-catch (×3)

Biome

Biome tag	Best for
#minecraft:is_river	Bluegill, Longnose Gar, Neon Tetra, Northern Pike, Rainfordia
#minecraft:is_ocean	Garden Eel, Giant Manta Ray, Lizardfish, Moorish Idol, Ocean Sunfish, Parrotfish, Portuguese Man O' War, Royal Garden Eel, Shrimp, Starfish
#minecraft:is_jungle	Neon Tetra, Rainfordia
#minecraft:is_nether	Blazed Grub-as-catch

Biome tags are additive — if a fish has two matching biome entries, both multipliers apply.

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Data-Driven Profiles

Fish profiles are defined in:

data/fishtastic/fish_profile/<fish_name>.json

Each entry controls base weight, size distribution, and all environmental multipliers. This means pack authors can override or add profiles without touching any Java code.

Inspecting a Profile In-Game

/fishprofile fishtastic:northern_pike

Tab-completion suggests all registered profile IDs. Output example:

=== Fish Profile: fishtastic:northern_pike ===
  base_weight : 7
  size        : mean=70.0 cm, std_dev=15.0 cm
  biome_weights:
    minecraft:is_river                          3.00x
  time_weights:
    dawn        3.00x
    dusk        2.00x

Requires gamemaster permission level.