Fishing is a first in Far Cry 5, and you can enjoy hours of pleasant contemplation as you try to beat every region’s fishing record — or you can skip the slow crawl and speed through this particular quest to unlock the best possible fishing rod. It’s a long voyage, but we can do it together. You’ll just need to find the best possible fishing spots and get the best possible fishing rods. That makes things way, way easier.
There are only four different fishing rods you can acquire in Far Cry 5, but that should be plenty for our purposes. You can tackle these harder-difficulty fishing zones in any order you want, but it’s probably a good idea to track down the next-best fishing rod before even attempting them. The Wonderboy is a start, and we’ll explain all the important little details in the full guide below.
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All Fishing Rods Guide
Right from the start, you can start fishing. Throw the hook out and reel in whatever you catch — there are twelve different fish you can catch, and each fish has an extra-hard “jumbo” version you can catch to beat the regional records. We’ll talk about the records more later.
For now, here’s a quick list of every fishing rod and how to unlock them.
- Basic Rod: Found a fishing spot? There’s a basic fishing rod there. One is found at every marked fishing spot on the map.
- Natural Rod: This slight upgrade can be purchased at any gun shop.
- Wonderboy Rod: The best fishing rod early on. Travel to Dylan’s Master Bait Shop in the Whitetail Mountains area and talk to Skylar. Complete her quests to receive the Wonderboy.
- Old Betsy Rod: Catch difficult fish at the Hard Fishing Spots found throughout Hope County. Beach every regional record to unlock this rod.
Before you begin fishing, I recommend purchasing a Natural Rod from the gun store, or going straight to Dylan’s Master Bait Shop in the Whitetail Mountains and beginning Skylar’s quest so you can earn the Wonderboy. That will make the hard fishing spot easier to complete.
- To catch harder fish, you’ll also need the Fisher King perk that gives you more types of flies you can use. Swap to the correct fly for each type of fish to catch larger ones — it’s the only way to beat the Old Betsy challenges.
Hard Fishing Spots – Unlocking Old Betsy
There are two types of regional fishing records — shared “county” records, and region-specific records. The first four on all the fishing boards will be the same. The two on the right are always the unique region-only types.
- All Regions:
- Bull Trout: 21 lbs – Jacob’s Region, northwest of Langford Lake, west of Stone Ridge Chalet.
- Golden Trout: 4 lbs – Jacob’s Region, west of the northern White Tails Mountain Rail Bridge entrance on Silver Lake.
- Lake Trout: 37 lbs – John’s Region, southwest of Rye & Sons Aviation, east of Eden’s Gate Greenhouse.
- Rainbow Trout: 28 lbs – John’s Region, in the small pond southwest from Rae-Rae’s Pumpkin Farm.
- Holland Valley Region:
- Pallid Sturgeon: 55 lbs – South of the Lamb of God Church.
- Paddlefish Sturgeon: 112 lbs – Far southwest of Rye & Sons Aviation, south of the southwestern-most gun shop / Seed Ranch.
- Whitetail Mountain Region:
- Chinook Salmon: 27 lbs – Northwest of the F.A.N.G. Center.
- Kokanee Salmon: 6 lbs – Along the southwestern shore of Cedar Lake.
- Arctic Grayling Salmon: 3 lbs – High up in a pond along the southwestern border of Jacob’s Region. Check your map and look for a high pond that’s far away from civilization, near the map’s boundary, at the top of Ozhigwan Falls.
- Henbane River Region:
- Smallmouth Bass: 6 lbs – Along the river on the eastern edge of the territory. The hard fishing spot is up the road north from Jessup Conservatory, near Gethsemane Greenhouse.
- Largemouth Bass: 8 lbs – North of the smallmouth bass spot, on the river close to the gun store at the Whistling Beaver Brewery.
- Rock Bass: 3 lbs – Right in the center of Rock Bass Lake.
