As a survival game more focused on base building, PvP, and raiding, most tend to forget that you need to eat and drink in Rust to remain alive and fit for the next combat encounter. Sadly, most freshies wind up scrounging for canned goods, the occasional pumpkin, or consuming human meat to survive for a few minutes before my neighbor roof camps them with a bolty. But hey, learn how to fish in Rust, and you can feed a village!
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How to Fish in Rust
If you want to learn how to fish in Rust, then follow along! Fishing allows you to feed yourself, your clan, your neighbor, and the zerg that farms your body after every fishing trip. But it’s not just fish lurking in the waters of Rust. You can find scrap, low-grade fuel, and other items floating below the surface.
That said, fishing is somewhat limited to a few areas of the map. You have plenty of options, though. You can fish in four regions: Swamp, River, Ocean, and the Underwater Lab Moon Pool.
Once you acquire a fishing rod, either via a mission, the fishing village, a large fishing village, or through crafting, then get bait from foraging, hunting, or food crates, you can fish at any of these locations.
To fish in Rust, apply bait, then hold the right click and cast with the left click. Eventually, a fish will bite, and a small mini-game will appear. This mini-game involves hitting “A” and “D” to pull the rod to the left or right, respectively, then hit “S” to reel in your catch. If you fail this mini-game, the line will snap, and the fish will swim free. If the line is tense, stop reeling in for a moment, then repeat the process.
What to Do With Fish
Once you’ve captured a fish and successfully reeled them in, it’s time to either cook, trade or sell your catch. Most will bring the fish back to the base to cook, as they’re a fantastic food source offering long-term sustenance.
However, if you’d rather craft, you can gut fish for resources. Lastly, there’s always the entrepreneurial route of selling fish at fishing villages for scrap. The more you catch, the more you earn.