reeldeel

🎣 Reel Deal

**Real fishing for Minecraft.** Every bite is a fight. Every fish is a real species that lives somewhere specific, bites at certain times, and wants the right bait. Land it, lay it on the ground, and butcher it into fillets.

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🎣 Fight Every Fish

When a fish bites, the reeling minigame begins:

• **Hold the mouse** (or **Space**) to reel it in
• When the fish **fights**, **let go** and give it line until it calms down
• Keep reeling through a fight and your **line snaps**. Let it run too far and it **gets away**
• A warning flashes right before each fight, so it's about timing, not luck
• Bigger, stronger fish fight harder and longer. A minnow takes seconds. A marlin is a battle

Works with **any fishing rod**, enchantments included.

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🐟 124 Real Species

From tiny shiners to 4,000 lb great white sharks:

• **Freshwater:** largemouth & smallmouth bass, rainbow & brown trout, walleye, northern pike, muskellunge, channel & blue catfish, sturgeon, gar, arapaima and more
• **Saltwater:** cod, red snapper, mackerel, flounder, red drum, tarpon, grouper, barracuda, mahi-mahi and more
• **Deep sea giants:** blue marlin, swordfish, bluefin & yellowfin tuna, halibut, opah, mako & great white sharks, giant oarfish

Every fish has its own:

**Habitat**	Rivers, lakes, swamps, cold/warm fresh water, oceans, warm/cold oceans, deep oceans
**Depth**	Shallow (1-3 blocks), mid (4-9) or deep (10+), measured under your bobber
**Time**	Some only bite at night: catfish, burbot, swordfish...
**Weight**	Real-world ranges. Every catch is weighed, and trophy sizes are rare
**Rarity**	Common, Uncommon, Rare and Legendary

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🪱 Bait Matters

Bait	What bites
**No bait**	Tiny baitfish only
**Worms / Fish Guts**	Small and medium fish
**Live bait** (minnows & other baitfish)	Medium, large, and the **giants** (deep water only)

• Keep bait in your **offhand** (or anywhere in your inventory). One is used each time a fish bites
• **Worms:** dig dirt or grass **during or right after rain**
• **Minnow Cage:** sink it in water and it slowly fills with live bait
• Baitfish you catch can be used as bait or eaten in a pinch

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🔪 Butcher Your Catch

Lay your fish on the ground and chop it with an **axe, sword, or knife**. The **3D model changes** with every stage:

1. **Scale it:** drops Fish Scales
2. **Gut it:** the head comes off and drops Fish Guts (great bait!)
3. **Fillet it:** down to the skeleton, plus **Raw Fish Fillets** (up to 16 from a giant)
4. **Clear the bones:** drops bone meal, plus bones from big fish

Big fish take more chops per stage. Pick it up partway and you keep everything that's left.

**One meat for every fish:** Raw Fish Fillet cooks into Cooked Fish Fillet in a furnace, smoker or campfire.

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🕸️ Fishing Nets

Want passive fishing? Set a **Fishing Net** underwater and it'll catch a few small and medium fish a day... **on a good day.** Some days it catches nothing at all. It's a bonus, not a replacement for a rod.

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🎨 3D Fish

• Every fish is a rounded **3D model** in your hand, on the ground and in item frames
• Each species has its own scaled, gutted and skeleton models for butchering
• Inventory icons stay as crisp pixel art so you can tell species apart at a glance

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🔌 Compatibility

All optional. Reel Deal works on its own.

• **JEI:** look up any fish to see where, how deep, when, and with what bait it bites
• **AppleSkin:** fillets show their hunger and saturation
• **Butchery:** cleavers and skinning knives butcher fish
• **Farmer's Delight:** knives butcher fish, and fillets count as fish in its recipes

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🛠️ Recipes

• **Minnow Cage:** iron ingots + iron bars
• **Fishing Net:** string + sticks
• **Bone Meal:** 3 Fish Scales

Look them up in JEI for the exact layouts.

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⚙️ Config

config/reeldeal-common.toml lets you change:

• Worm chances, and how long after rain worms stick around
• How fast minnow cages fill and how many they hold
• How often nets have bad days, and how much they catch

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📦 Requirements

• Minecraft **1.20.1**
• **Forge 47** or newer
• Needed on **both** the server and the client

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❓ FAQ

**Can I still get vanilla fishing loot?**
Fish bites are handled by Reel Deal's minigame and species. Vanilla loot can still appear in rare cases where no species lives in that water.

**Why do I only catch tiny fish?**
You're fishing without bait. Find worms after rain, or set a Minnow Cage for live bait.

**Why won't the big ones bite?**
Giants need **live bait** and **deep water (10+ blocks)**. Some only bite at night.

**My net is empty!**
Some days are like that. Check back tomorrow.