The fishing minigame in Stardew Valley is something that players either love or dread. But, it can sometimes take ages to even access this activity. Don’t fear! The Spinner is a cure to the boring task of waiting for your next catch. This thing, while named adorably, is perfect for mid-game fishing profiteering and introduces you to a new item type. So, let’s chat about it.
The Spinner is the first type of Tackle that a player can get in Stardew Valley from standard progression. Tackle can be attached to an Iridium Rod to boost your efficiency while fishing. This guide will explain how to get one for yourself, and how to equip it to your rod.
How to Get the Spinner
To unlock the Spinner in Stardew Valley, you must reach Fishing Level 6. This will unlock the recipe and let you purchase the item from Willy’s Boat Shop for 500g. The recipe for a Spinner is quite simple, since it just asks for two Iron Bars.
The Spinner’s unique quality is reducing the time for a fish bite by 3.75 seconds. Since you can reuse it a few times – up to 20 bites, specifically – this makes it boost your catches per day by quite a lot.
It does not, however, make the fishing minigame any easier. While you are going to collect fish at a much faster rate, you are still going to need to make the fishing minigame romp by yourself. In fact, the only Tackle that does improve your chances during the minigame is the Barbed Hook. And that isn’t unlocked until Fishing Level 8!
To even unlock the Spinner in the first place, you’ll need to do a lot of fishing. Level 6 doesn’t come for free. To level up quickly, be sure to consistently check your Crab Pots and keep them near a place you pass by frequently. While you should expect to fish often for your reward, you want to maximize experience by hooking in Crabs as well! If you are not looking to hook specific fish, the Beach tends to be nice just because it’s easy to check on your crabs.
How to Equip the Spinner
Once you have your spinner ready, you can equip it by selecting it, dragging it over to your Iridium Rod, and right-clicking to combine them. To separate them, right click on the Fishing Rod to remove bonus elements on it, such as bait, before removing the Tackle.
You can only equip the Tackle onto the Iridium Rod, the fishing pole that you can purchase once you reach Level 6. To do so, you simply move the tackle over the rod and then hit the “Check” button. This will equip the tackle onto the rod, much like you would equip bait.
Other Tackle and Bait in Stardew Valley
The Spinner is not the only thing that you can equip to an Iridium Rod, though. There are a handful of additional tackle and bait options to improve your fishing skills. They are the following:
- Lead Bobber: Fishing level 6 for unlock. Prevents bouncing from hitting the bottom of the minigame (which can also be done by slowing the green bar manually).
- Price: 200g
- Crafting Ingredients: This tackle cannot be crafted.
- Trap Bobber: Fishing level 6 for unlock. Decreases progress bar slower when you aren’t actively on them.
- Price: 500g
- Crafting Ingredients: 1 Copper Bar, 10 Sap
- Cork Bobber: Fishing level 7 for unlock. Increases the fishing bar size.
- Price: 750g
- Crafting Ingredients: 10 Wood, 5 Hardwood, 10 Slime
- Treasure Hunter: Fishing level 7 to unlock. Buffs the chance to find treasure by 5% and makes it easier to catch treasures.
- Price: 750g
- Crafting Ingredients: 2 Gold Bars
- Dressed Spinner: Fishing level 8 for unlock. Reduces delay before nibble by 7.5 seconds.
- Price: 1,000g
- Crafting Ingredients: 2 Iron Bar, 1 Cloth
- Barbed Hook: Fishing level 8 to unlock. The progress bar will auto-path to stick to the fish, making less jittery catches a bit easier.
- Price: 1,000g
- Crafting Ingredients: 1 Copper Bar, 1 Iron Bar, 1 Gold Bar
- Curiosity Lure: Found randomly in the Quarry Mine, Skull Cavern, Volcano Dungeon, or through farming special monsters in the Skull Cavern.
- Price: Cannot be purchased.
- Crafting Ingredients: Cannot be crafted.
- Quality Bobber: Recipe earned from Willy once you do the Juicy Bugs Wanted! special order. Increases the quality of the fish that you catch with it.
- Price: Cannot be purchased
- Crafting Ingredients: 1 Copper Bar, 20 Sap, 5 Solar Essence
Most types of tackle can be found in fishing treasure chests once they are unlocked. Willy will also gift several types of tackle as a gift, such as the Dressed Spinner, once the tackle type is unlocked.
There are also several different bait types. Like Tackle, most bait can be crafted or purchased once you reach their unlock requirements. However, unlike tackle, Bait is used up the first time a fish bites. You can put Bait on a Fiberglass Rod instead of an Iridium one. The different types of bait include:
- Bait: Fishing level 2 to unlock. Causes fish to bite 50% faster and reduces the chance to get trash.
- Price: 5g
- Crafting Ingredients: 1 Bug Meat
- Magnet: Fishing level 9 to unlock. Highly boosts the chance to grab treasure while not effecting standard bite rate.
- Price: 1,000g
- Crafting Ingredients: 1 Iron Bar
- Special: Can be bought at the Casino for 1,000 Qi Coins, won at the Ice Fishing Contest, or can be given to you from Willy. Krobus’s Shop has one on Wednesdays for 200g.
- Wild Bait: Linus’s Four Heart Event to unlock. Decreases bite time taken while also giving a small chance to hook two fish. Though, you’ll never get two of a Legendary Fish.
- Price: Can’t purchase this bait from Willy’s Store or elsewhere.
- Crafting Ingredients: 10 Fiber, 5 Slime, 5 Bug Meat
- Special: This can be dug up at various Artifact Spots along Ginger Island.
- Magic Bait: Purchased from Qi’s Walnut Room for 20 Qi Gems. Allows you to catch fish from a section of water which would normally have time, season, or weather requirements.
- Price: 5 Qi Gems (from Qi’s Walnut Room, not from Willy).
- Crafting Ingredients: 1 Radioactive Ore, 3 Bug Meat
Expert Tip
You can actually make a profit through crafting some of the Tackle in the game. The Trap Bobber, Barbed Hook, Spinner, and Cork Bobber are worth a lot when crafted. Trap Bobbers especially are worth a fortune by themselves. Most of these lose their luster if you decide to become a Blacksmith, though.
