Tall Tails: a fishing guide

Updated 16 October 2026

Tall Tails looks gentle, and it is, right up until a thirty-kilo salmon takes your line and keeps going. This guide covers the whole fishing loop, from the first cast off the village dock to the legends that only show up under the right sky.

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An angler in a straw hat on the woodland path down to Willow Lake on a rainy morning. — Tall Tails on SyphonGames.

The four parts of a catch

1. The cast

Walk up to the water and press E to start fishing. Point where you want the line to land, then hold Space (or the mouse button) and let go when the power meter is in the green. A long cast is not always better: fish hold around weed beds, logs, drop-offs and the riffles below stones, so cast to where they live rather than as far as you can.

2. Bait or lure

Bait is the patient way. Cast it out, wait, and strike when the float goes right under; a fish that is only nibbling can steal your bait. Lures have to be worked: hold to reel, tap to twitch, hold and release to jig, and add Shift for a fast retrieve. Every species has its favourites, so a bass that ignores a spinner may jump on a worm hopped along the bottom.

3. The strike

When a fish bites, press Space at once to set the hook. The window is short, and shorter still for fast fish; three-pointed treble hooks make it more forgiving, especially with lures.

4. The fight

This is where fish are won and lost. Hold to reel, and stop reeling when the fish runs: the reel gives it line, so let the drag do the work and reel again when it slows. If the line goes slack, reel. Keep the tension out of the red. If the game warns you the line is too tight, let go or loosen the drag with S; if the fish is taking all your line, tighten it with W. Lean the rod against the fish's direction with A and D to turn it. Jumping fish such as rainbow trout throw the hook if you pull while they are in the air, so ease off until they land. When the fish tires, land it.

Time of day and weather

A full day passes in twenty-four minutes, and the fish keep their own hours. Some feed at dawn and dusk, some only at night, and the weather changes everything:

Rain stirs up food and is one of the best times to fish. Big predators go into a frenzy.
Murky, churning water favours loud lures and smelly bait; poppers get lost in it.
Fog brings strange things up. Glow lures cut through it.
Storms mean fewer bites, but storm-touched fish surface, and some legends only feed in a storm.
Scorching sun sends fish deep at midday; fish the mornings and evenings instead.

The six worlds

You start at Willowmere, with its lake and village dock, the mill creek and a pond in the woods. More worlds open as your angler levels up:

Mirewood Marsh (level 8): a black bayou and a drowned cypress forest, full of gar, bowfin and catfish.
Frostpeak (level 14): a frozen lake you fish through holes in the ice, and a glacier river with a waterfall where the king salmon run.
Coral Coast (level 20): a sunset pier and a reef lagoon.
Sunken Isles (level 27): a harbour town half under the sea, and a sea cave that sings at dusk.
The Veil (level 34): a lake of starlit water in a glowing wood, where the oldest fish in the game live.

Each world has its own locals with quests and its own hidden fishing spots, and there are tackle shops along the way. The rewards for quests are often exactly the tackle you need for that world's hardest fish.

Tackle that makes a difference

Rods suit different jobs: a light rod is magic with flies and small lures and hopeless with monsters, while a surf rod throws a lure past the breakers.
Reels differ in speed and drag. A smooth drag forgives sudden runs.
Line is what breaks. Heavy line for heavy fish, and a steel leader for anything with teeth, like pike.
Baits: worms for almost anything in fresh water, live bait for predators, cut bait for catfish, and glowworms for night and deep fish.
Lures: worm lures for bass, swimbaits for big predators, deep divers for fish sulking at the bottom, and glow lures for night and fog.

Rare fish and legends

There are 131 species, each with its own weights, habits, favourite baits and preferred times and weather. Any of them can turn up as a rare variant: golden, albino, giant, glowing, shadow, lunar, storm, crystal, ancient or corrupted.

Legends are a different matter. Each one has its own conditions, and the locals will tell you what they are if you listen. A few to start with:

Old Whiskers, Willowmere's monster catfish, comes up on rainy nights in the deep water or by the sunken log. Use cut bait or leeches, and heavy line.
The Bog King lives in Mirewood's deep channel and only feeds in a storm. Cut bait or a frog, a swimbait, and very strong line.
The Lantern Eel is the brightest light in the Sunken Grove on a foggy night. Bring a glow lure or glowworms.
The Frost Sovereign rises at Frostpeak under falling snow, and the Koi Empress waits for a full moon.

Money, collections and friends

Every catch can be sold, kept or released. Selling buys better rods, reels, line, hooks, baits and lures; keeping fills your journal and lets you mount trophies. Daily challenges, titles, trinkets and achievements reward steady fishing, and nothing in the game costs real money.

To fish with friends, make a room and share its four-letter code. Up to eight anglers fish the same water at the same hour in the same weather. The host can run competitions of three, five, ten or fifteen minutes for the biggest fish, the most fish, the most valuable, the rarest or the most total weight; only catches made while a competition is running count.

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