Coastal Fishing

Become a Viking fisherman. Build lobster pots and gill nets, load them onto your boat, sail out and set them in the open sea - then come back later, hook the buoys and haul your catch up by hand. Sort it into fish boxes on deck, bring it ashore, clean it at a preparation table and cook it into some of the best food in the early game.

This isn't a fishing rod and a bobber. It's a whole working trade at sea, with every step acted out by your character - lifting the pot, swinging it over the side, aiming and throwing the net buoy, reaching out with the boat hook, heaving on the line until the pot breaks the surface.

And you can do all of it with your friends. One of you steers while another pays out the net, someone hooks the pots while someone else sorts the catch into the boxes - everyone sees everyone else's gear, buoys and animations.

• Requires BepInEx only (no Jotunn).
• Built for Valheim 1.0.20.
• Everyone who plays together needs the mod installed.

What you can do

• Craft fishing gear - buoys, lobster pots, gill nets, fish boxes, a boat hook and a preparation table.
• Carry gear in your arms - pots, nets and boxes are too big for your pack. Your character picks them up, carries them to the boat and sets them down where you're looking. Stow them in a cart to move several at once.
• Load up your boat - put gear on the deck of a raft, karve, longship or drakkar. It stays exactly where you put it while you sail, through rough seas, and after you log out.
• Bait and throw lobster pots - bait a pot, lift it and throw it over the side. It sinks to the seabed and a red buoy marks the spot.
• Set gill nets - aim the first buoy with a throwing arc, throw it, then sail away while up to 60 m of net pays out behind the boat. Drop the end buoy and leave it to fish.
• Hook the buoy and haul by hand - reach out with the boat hook, catch the buoy, then heave on the line. It costs stamina; stop to catch your breath and your character holds the pose until you carry on.
• Sort the catch - your character carries the fish and lobsters over to a fish box a handful at a time. The box visibly fills up.
• Bring it home - pick up the full fish box, carry it ashore, open it like a chest and take your catch.
• Clean and cook - fillet fish and crack crabs at the preparation table, roast fillets, boil lobsters and crab claws.
• Meet the coastal wildlife - crabs scuttle along the beaches (watch out for the swarms), and lobsters and crabs crawl on the deep seabed.

Fishing with friends

Coastal Fishing is built for multiplayer. Everything is shared through the world, so it works on a friend's hosted game or a dedicated server:

• Crew a boat together. Gear on a boat belongs to the boat, not to a player - anyone on board can use it, and it stays put however the boat is sailed.
• Split the work. One friend steers while another throws the net buoy and pays out the net. One hauls a pot while another hauls the next one. Someone else sorts the catch into the boxes.
• See each other work. Other players see you lift and carry gear, throw pots, aim and throw buoys, hook them and haul - the same animations you see, the buoys and nets in the water, and the fish in your hands.
• No tangles. Only one player can haul, sort or carry a piece of gear at a time - anyone else is told someone is using it. A fish box can be opened by one player at a time, like a chest.
• Share the catch. Bring a full fish box ashore and everyone can take from it.

Everyone needs the mod installed, and you should all run the same version with the same settings (the settings are not synced between players).

Contents

1. Gear and recipes
2. Carrying gear
3. Gear on boats
4. Lobster pots
5. Gill nets
6. Hauling
7. The catch and the fish box
8. Cleaning and cooking
9. Wildlife
10. Controls at a glance
11. Configuration
12. Console commands
13. Installing
14. Good to know

Gear and recipes

Carrying gear

Lobster pots, gill nets and fish boxes are too big for your pack. You never keep them in your inventory - you carry them in your arms, set them down, or stow them in a cart.

• Crafting one puts it straight into your arms as soon as you close the crafting window.
• Pick up gear lying on the ground or a deck: look at it and press E (fish box: Shift+E, because E opens it). Your character bends down and lifts it.
• Put it down: look at the ground or the deck and press E.
• Carts: while carrying, look at a cart and press E to stow the gear in it. Taking it back out of the cart puts it straight into your arms again. (A fish box must be empty to go in a cart.)
• Moving: you can walk and run while carrying - running is about 1 m/s slower than normal. You can't jump, dodge, attack or block.
• Facing: hold right mouse while carrying to face where the camera looks, so you can strafe with WASD and line the gear up exactly.
• Carry only one at a time. If another one turns up in your inventory (say you craft a second pot), it's set down beside you.

Gear on boats

Put gear down on any boat deck - raft, karve, longship or drakkar - and it stays exactly where you left it while the boat sails, turns and rocks on the waves. It stays on the boat when you log out and come back.

How much each boat can hold, of each kind of gear:

Boat hook on the deck: with the boat hook equipped, look at the deck (or the ground) and press Shift+E to lay it down - the crosshair shows [Shift + E] Lay the boat hook on the deck wherever it can go. Press E on it to pick it back up - it keeps its durability.

Lobster pots

1. Bait it. Put bait in your hotbar, look at the pot and press that hotbar number. Better bait catches more:

   Bait	Quality
   Entrails, fishing bait	Excellent
   Raw fish, any fish, serpent meat, neck tail	Good
   Raw meat, deer meat, lox meat	Decent

2. Take it to sea. Put the pot on your boat and sail out to water at least 4 m deep and at least 15 m from shore. Slow the boat right down (under 3 m/s).

3. Throw it. Stand next to the pot, face the open water and press Shift+E on the pot. You lift it, swing it and throw it over the side; it sinks to the seabed and a buoy marks the spot.

4. Let it soak. The longer it's down, the better (a full soak takes 40 minutes by default). Each pot has six chances at a catch, and longer soaks also give bigger lobsters and crabs.

5. Haul it. Come back with the boat hook equipped, get within about 2.6 m of the buoy, look at it and press E. The hook reaches out, catches the buoy and pulls it to the rail - then you haul the pot up from the seabed and set it on the deck. The hook goes into your pack while you haul (and while you sort the catch) and comes back to your hand when you're done.

The pot brings up a mix of lobsters and crabs in three sizes.

Gill nets

1. Take it to sea. Put the net on your boat, sail to water at least 6 m deep and 15 m from shore.
2. Aim the first buoy. Press Shift+E on the net. You hold the buoy in your hand and can still move. An arc and a ring show where it will land - green means a good spot, red tells you what's wrong (too shallow, too close to shore, aiming at the boat).
3. Throw. Left click to throw (right click puts the buoy back). You can watch it fly out and land in the sea.
4. Sail away. You're free to move: take the steering oar - or let a friend steer - and sail away from the buoy. The net pays out behind the boat - the counter on screen shows how much is out.
5. Drop the end buoy. Press Shift+E once at least 20 m is out (it stops by itself at 60 m). Hold right mouse at any time to pull the net back in instead.
6. Let it soak, then come back with the boat hook, get within 2.6 m of either buoy, look at it and press E to hook it and haul the net aboard.

Longer soaks and longer nets catch more, and bigger fish:

The net catches mackerel, haddock and pollack in three sizes.

Hauling

Hauling is done by hand, not with a single key press:

• Tap E (or left click) over and over to pull - each tap costs a little stamina and fills the bar.
• Stop tapping to catch your breath: your character holds their pose until you carry on.
• Right click lets go - the pot sinks back down (or the net drifts back out), nothing is lost.

When the bar is full, a pot is lifted over the rail and set on the deck; a net comes aboard in a pile with the catch in it.

The catch and the fish box

A hauled pot or net keeps its catch until you sort it:

• With a fish box nearby: press Shift+E on the pot or net. Your character carries the catch over to the box a handful at a time. Right click stops.
• With no box nearby: Shift+E puts the catch in your inventory.

Fish box

• Holds 15 stacks of catch. Its model fills up as you add fish.
• E opens it like a chest: click or drag the fish across to your own inventory, or use Take all.
• Shift+E picks the box up - with the fish still inside - so you can carry it off the boat, put it down anywhere on land and empty it there.

Cleaning and cooking

Preparation table - whole fish and crabs can't be cooked as they are. At the table:

• Press E to clean the next fish or crab in your inventory (hold to keep going), or use a specific one from your hotbar.
• Whole fish give fillets: small 2, medium 4, large 7.
• Crabs give raw crab claws: small 2, medium 3, large 5.

Cooking station - fillets roast into roasted mackerel, haddock or pollack.

Cauldron - boil a lobster into boiled lobster (small 1, medium 2, large 3 portions), and 2 raw crab claws into 2 boiled crab claws.

Wildlife

Beach crabs live on the sand just above the waterline in the Meadows and Black Forest:

Seabed creatures - small, medium and large lobsters and crabs crawl along the seabed in deep ocean water and keep away from you. You need a way to dive to reach them.

• Press E to grab one - you get the same lobster or crab a pot would catch.
• Or fight it: a lobster drops itself, a crab drops raw crab claws.

Both can be switched off in the configuration.

Controls at a glance

All key names on screen follow your own key bindings.

During fishing animations you can still look around with the mouse - only your body is held still.

Configuration

BepInEx/config/marc.valheim.coastalfishing.cfg

In multiplayer, give everyone the same settings - they are not synced between players.

Console commands

Open the console with F5. The ones marked cheat need devcommands first.

Installing

With r2modman / Thunderstore: install the package as normal.

By hand: copy CoastalFishingMod.dll and the marcfishing asset bundle into the same folder inside BepInEx/plugins/ (for example BepInEx/plugins/CoastalFishing/). The two files must sit next to each other.

Playing together: every player installs the mod. On a dedicated server, install it on the server too so everyone stays on the same version.

To check it loaded, look in BepInEx/LogOutput.log for:

Coastal Fishing 2.2.4 loaded (bundle marcfishing, 15/15 humanoid clips).

Good to know

• Reloading with gear on a boat: after a world loads, gear finds its own boat again and goes back to its spot on the deck (it can take a second or two while the boats load in). Gear that an older version left under a boat is moved back on top automatically.
• Placement problems: every time you try to put gear down, a line starting [Placement] is written to BepInEx/LogOutput.log saying what you were aiming at and why it was or wasn't allowed - handy for bug reports.
• Gear can't go through portals (it's carried in your arms, like a cart can't go through a portal).