How to Attach Hooks and Tackle to Fishing Rods — Set Ready Game

Stardew Valley isn’t just about farming up some crops and selling them to better the town (and your own pockets). There are also a bunch of different side activities and quests you can complete. From raising animals, brewing your own alcohol and mining, you won’t get stuck for different avenues to make that farmer cash. One other profitable enterprise in Stardew Valley is fishing.

To get the most out of fishing in Stardew Valley, you are going to want to use some bait and different types of hooks and tackle. As the fishing mini-game is notoriously difficult in some cases, you’re going to want to get all of the handicap you can! This guide will show you how to attach hooks and tackle to your rod!

(If you’re wondering how to attach bait to your fishing rod in Stardew Valley, check out this guide!)

Contents:

• Attack Hooks and Tackle on PC
• Attack Hooks and Tackle on Consoles:
  • Nintendo Switch
  • PlayStation
  • Xbox
• How to Get Hooks and Fishing Tackle in Stardew Valley

How to Attach Hooks and Tackle to Your Fishing Rod

In order to attack hooks and tackle to your rod, you’re going to have to first acquire fishing tackle. If you don’t already have that you can click here to move down to the how to get hooks and fishing tackle section of the page.

To equip hooks and tackle to your rod in Stardew Valley, simply left click on your hook to select it, then hover over your fishing rod and press the right-mouse button. Hooks and other fishing tackle can only be equipped to certain fishing rods. The Iridium Rod is the earliest fishing rod you can get with space to place a hook onto it.

As you can see in the image above, when I mouse over the Iridium Rod, there are two spaces free on the rod. The top space is reserved for bait, which will help to catch fish faster. The bottom space is for placing hooks or tackle on the rod. Spinners, sinkers and hooks all go into the same place in the rod. In the bottom image, you can see what the rod looks like with both a hook and bait equipped.

How to Equip Hooks and Tackle on Consoles

The instructions to attach bait are fairly similar on consoles. You are more or less going to be doing the same thing which is taking the bait or tackle that you want to attach to the rod and selecting the fishing rod afterwards. Again, make sure your fishing rod actually can have something attached to it before you try to do this. Some attachments go onto the hook (instead of bait), whereas some are attached to the rod itself.

Attaching Tackle and Hooks to Fishing Rods on Nintendo Switch

To attach items to your rod on the Switch version of Stardew Valley follow these steps:

1. Acquire some tackle
2. Open up your inventory.
3. Select the Hook or Tackle attachment you with to use
4. Hover over the Iridium(or other) rod and press the Y button
5. Go fishing with your new gear!

Attaching Tackle and Hooks to Fishing Rods on Playstation

To attach spinners and barbed hooks to the iridium rod on the PlayStation 4 version of the game follow these steps:

1. Acquire some tackle
2. Open the Inventory
3. Select the attachment using the X button
4. Move over to the Rod and press the SQUARE button to attach the item to the rod

As you can imagine, the steps are going to be pretty much the same for the Xbox versions of the game but with the buttons changed…

Attaching Tackle and Hooks to Fishing Rods on Xbox

1. Acquire tackle or accessory
2. Open your inventory
3. Select the attachment using the A button
4. Move over to the fishing rod and press the X button to attach the item to the rod

How To Get Hooks and Fishing Rod Tackle in Stardew Valley

The following sections contains information relevant to all versions of the game. In order to attach rods and other fishing tackle you’re going to have to get some first. New players will benefit the most from this information.

Fishing gear can be purchased from Willy’s fishing shop down by the beach. You can find this by going to the town (east of your farm) and then taking the path to the south. Once at the beach you can find Willy’s shop on the dock at the south. Check out the in-game map underneath.

Obviously you can only purchase items from the Fish Shop while it is open. 9am to 5pm every day. You can usually find Willy outside fishing before the store opens but you can’t purchase anything from him until he is in his shop behind the counter.

To purchase fishing items from Willy, walk over to him and right-click him. (Use the respective button you would usually use to interact with things if you’re on console.) This will open up the shopping menu.