Fishing (LoH)

Fishing is a skill in Harvest Moon: Light of Hope.

How To Fish

 * 1) To fish you must first acquire the fishing rod, which is obtained the next morning after repairing Cyril's house.
 * 2) To cast the fishing line, stand facing any body of water (ponds, rivers or the ocean) and press the Action button once the green targeted square appears in the water (directly in front of your character).You will be prompted to select a bait to use - No bait can be used as well (see Fishing Bait for more information).
 * 3) After selecting your bait, press the Action Button to confirm and cast your line.
 * 4) You should now see fish near your bob displayed as shadows of fish lurking about in the water.If no fish are shown in the water after casting, you will need to reel in and cast again.Reeling in an empty fishing line does not use the selected bait.
 * 5) Wait for a fish to bite, denoted by a red exclamation point ❗ to appear over your character's shoulder, then press the action button (or press the touchscreen on your character).If the action button is not pressed within a short period of time after the fish bites the lure (❗), the fish will get away and you have to cast a new line with your fishing rod.An exhaustion bar will appear, and will be fully filled from left to right - This is the fish's stamina bar.Continue to spam-press the action button until the Fish's stamina bar has been drained all the way to the left, at which point your character should automatically reel in the fish and catch it.</li></ul></li></ul>

Fishing Rods
There are some locations and fish which require upgraded rods to fish. After you receive the fishing rod from Cyril, Gus will be able to upgrade it given sufficient materials and payment. An upgraded rod won't allow your to catch anything you can't with the basic one you received from Cyril, but it does allow you to occasionally catch multiple fish. This makes it invaluable for winning higher ranks of the monthly Fishing Contest. The Master Rod upgrade is also required to fish at the Beach and Lighthouse Outlook.

Fishing Bait
You can catch most fish without using bait, but there are some fish out there that have more particular tastes. Bait will making fishing easier and will cause fish to bite down faster, which is nice as it saves you a lot of time. Regular bait is the first kind of bait you will get your hands on, and can be bought from Sam 's shop in the second tab. He sells it quite cheaply, so it is definitely worth your while to buy some. There are also some specialty baits which can only be made in your windmill, and which require a recipe to unlock. You can acquire recipes for additional baits by completing Cyril's requests.

Fish
The following table shows all of the   unique fish which can be caught in LoH, including their favorite bait, time and place.

Fishing Contest
The Fishing Contest occurs every month on the 5th, and is a competition where you catch as many fish as you can within the time limit and compete for points, with bigger fish being worth more points. Taking any kind of bait with you is strongly adviced since fish will bite more quickly, allowing you to catch more fish within the time limit and thus earn more points. You will NOT be able to purchase bait on the day of the contest, since Sam's shop will be closed, so either stock up the day before or make some at the Windmill if you have unlocked it. To get the fishing contest started, go to the town square and talk to Sam between 10am to 3:59pm.

If you win the Fishing Contest in a certain class, the next class will unlock. The prizes you can earn for each class and the points required to win are detailed the the below table.