Dinkum is a unique farming simulator game is on the town, and this one is based in Australia. One of the main attractions in farming simulators, apart from farming, is definitely fishing.
Catching a fish in Dinkum can be particularly tricky as it features a unique mechanic for fishing. When you get your first fishing rod, it will most likely break before you can catch much fish. There is a learning curve to this, and some tips can definitely go a long way.
How To Unlock Fishing
While fishing is one of the early-game mechanics that can be unlocked on the second day itself, it has a few steps to it, including the license mechanic that Dinkum features.
- On the second day, everyone will get their first visitor, John. When you enter his tent, you will see a fishing rod, but he won't allow you to purchase it just yet.
- Head over to Fletch in the temporary town hall tent and talk to her to acquire a fishing license. Click on the first option to look at all the licenses, with the fishing one among them.
- After unlocking the license, you can head back to John and purchase your own fishing rod. Once you have that, you can head out to the beautiful waters in Dinkum to catch yourself a prize.
How To Fish In Dinkum
Once you have your first fishing rod, head over to the nearest water body and find a fish. Unlike many other farming simulators, you physically have to find a particular fish to catch it. You can't just plop the line into the water and wait for a bite.
Once you locate a fish, get near it and equip your fishing rod. Hold the action button to cast it - the longer you hold the button, the farther your bait will go. So, if the fish is right next to you, simply press the button. But, if the fish is a few tiles away, you'll need to hold it for a while.
The aim is to get the bait to drop right beside a fish. If it's not within their detection range, the fish will just ignore the bait and keep going about their business. Although you can keep waiting for another fish to pass that area, it's a waste of time.
Casting the rod itself consumes energy, so it's really important to land the bait perfectly near the fish in order to not waste your attempt, especially in the early game when your energy is very limited.
If you've cast the bait correctly, you will know as the surrounding fishes will start circling it. This is where you need to be attentive in terms of both visuals and audio. When the fish gets attracted to the bait, they tend to check it, in a way.
They will touch the bait, making a small puddle on its location and a similar sound effect. You need to be patient and not move the rod at all. After a few touches, they will bite it, making a larger puddle and a deeper sound effect.
Once you hear this, you need to instantly click on the button to reel in. This is a reflex-based action, and you can completely miss the fish if you're even a few milliseconds late. This is the most difficult part of fishing in Dinkum and will definitely take you a few tries to get used to.
Once you've grabbed the fish, it's time to slowly reel it in. As soon as you grab the fish, it will struggle and try to run as far away from you as possible. At this point, you need to make sure you let it do that and not reel it in during this time.
If you attempt to reel in the fish while it's struggling, the tension of the string will get affected, and a bar will appear on the right side of your screen. If this bar reaches zero, the string will break, and the fish will get away.
This process requires quite a lot of patience. Don't touch anything while the fish is struggling, and start reeling it in whenever it stops. This can be judged by the puddles it makes in the water. Eventually, it will come near you, and you'll acquire the fish.
Now, you can take the fish and sell it to John for a handsome amount of Dinks, or give it to Theodore in the museum to add to his collections, which will net you some tickets to obtain more licenses.
Best Fish In Dinkum
The world of Dinkum is huge, and it has a healthy number of fish species that you can get over the course of four seasons. But, one of these fish stands out the most because of its price.
The Barracuda can be obtained in the northern oceans during the nighttime in every season except Winter. This is when the oceans turn blue, which is around 5:30 pm. You can recognize a Barracuda by its thin-long body in the waters, but they're rare.
If you can get your hands on one of these, they sell for 16,000 Dinks each at John's goods. If you have Tele Towers unlocked, you can easily get seven of these in one night which can get you a total of over 100,000 Dinks, which is huge.