In this tackle guide I will be providing you with the necessary equipment to catch all reserve fish of bronze quality or higher.
Ultimate Universal Tackle Guide
Сrеdit gоеs to Weerum!
Foreword
Remember The Golden Rule:
- A small hook can catch bigger fish, but a bigger hook can’t catch small fish.
I wrote this guide with a 60 slot tackle box upgrade capacity and whilst I am listing the best possible rods in the game, you do not necessarily need to have these rods (they are rather a pain to get). They are simply listed for the sake of statistical value and should be swapped with their non-souvenir counterparts or something of similar statistics. Or, simply, the best that you can obtain currently while you work towards that tackle.
Rods
- Devil’s Advocate – Universal fishing & general use. A lazy man’s rod with high adaptability and lots of line poundage.
- Whippet – Light lure & jigging, primarily trout and bass fishing. Anything under 22 lbs of weight with a maximum average of 5-18 lbs will be defeated with this rod.
- Deft Nexus – General use float fishing rod with excellent reach and line strength threshold, good for getting tight spots and shore fishing.
- Graureiher X – Extremely heavy fishing, primarily used for legendary fish and deep water jigging and luring. Excellent choice for large species especially on Norway like the Atlantic Salmon, or gold to diamond Lake Trout on Golden Ridge Reserve. Not often used but very convenient to have.
- Goldhorn – A very light Dock Demon model, used for pier, boat, and shallow water fishing. Used almost predominately for float fishing & jigging panfish. The low reach on short casting with this rod helps position your float right into the panfish. My go-to rod for sniping panfish that get close to the boat. With a size 9 hook/heavy jig head & bloodworms/tube you can pretty much guarantee a catch on that little fish thats been hanging out around your boat or dock.
Reels
- Pure Champion #1 – Used for the Devil’s Advocate.
- Lurcher – Used for the Whippet.
- Pure Champion #2 – Used for the Deft Nexus.
- True Mediator – Used for the Graureiher X.
- Epilogue – Used for the Goldhorn
Line
Disclaimer: Line type is up to the caster’s preference and currently does not make a difference in performance. Also please feel free to match your line poundage to the species you are looking to target if you wish to maximize your score and experience gain. (I.E. Swap the 22 lb line on the Whippet to a 2-3 lb line to target Kohanee Salmon)
- 99.21 lb Braid – Used for the Graureiher X/True Mediator combination.
- 38.58 lb Mono/Fluoro/Braid – Used for the Devil’s Advocate/Pure Champion combination.
- 33.07 lb Mono/Fluoro/Braid – Used for the Deft Nexus/Pure Champion combination.
- 22.05 lb Mono/Fluoro/Braid – Used for the Whippet/Lurcher combination.
- 5.51 lb Mono/Fluoro/Braid – Used for the Goldhorn/Epilogue combination.
Tackle
- Glow Bobbers x3 – Used for the Devil’s Advocate, Deft Nexus, & Goldhorn.
- Poppers – Sizes 6 & 7, used primarily for topwater bass fishing on the Whippet.
- Swimbaits – Sizes 4 & 6, used primarily for Tiger Muskie & Northern Pike fishing on the Devil’s Advocate/Whippet respectively.
- Grubs – Sizes 3/1, 5/4, 7/6, used for jigging with the Graureiher X/Devil’s Advocate/Whippet respectively.
- Tubes – Sizes 10/9 & 8/7 , used for jigging with the Goldhorn/Whippet respectively for panfish and various other small species. Good for targeting specific species that populate among other types that eat the same bait.
- Worms – Sizes 2/1/0 & 5/3, used for jigging with the Graureiher X/Devil’s Advocate for large species such as Lake Trout & high rating Largemouth/Smallmouth Bass. Can be used with the whippet but be careful of line tension.
- Shad – Size 5/3, used for jigging with the Devil’s Advocate/Graureiher X for large species, but mostly for Tiger Muskie/Northern Pike in deeper water. Can be used with the whippet but be careful of line tension.
- Crankbaits – Sizes 6, 7, & 8, used primarily for Walleye with the Whippet but can fill in various niches for specific fish that tend to hang around other species that like to eat the same bait.
- Hooks – Sizes 3-4 are recommended for the Devil’s Advocate/Deft Nexus respectively. Sizes 5-7 are recommended for the Whippet. Sizes 8-9 are recommended for the Goldhorn.
- Heavy Jig Heads – Sizes 1 – 4 are recommended for the Graureiher X/Devil’s Advocate respectively. Sizes 5-7 are recommended for the Whippet. Sizes 8-9 are recommended for the Goldhorn.
But why not medium or light jig heads?
It’s one simple thing. Sink rate. When you’re jigging you’re going to want to have fast sink rate. A good method I use for grubs & shads for example is to cast and start jigging as it falls to the bottom, and then slow retrieve while continually jigging for about 10-15 feet. I then swap it to twitching while still retrieving, eventually if it floats over a deeper pocket I will let it sink again by reverting to the jigging method. At about half my cast distance to the boat while retrieving I will swap to the constant and twitching methods, occassionally letting it drop back down to use the jigging method. This is what I like to call “dancing the jig”, the extra movements and erratic nature of the grub attracts fish like flies to a corpse, it’s irresistible to whatever fish takes a grub/shad (which is a whole lot of species) and will almost guarantee a strike. It’s only downside however, is that it is extremely active fishing and can get tiring fast. So don’t be afraid to let it drop down and go back to just jigging as often as you’d like.
- Spoons – Sizes 1 & 3 are recommended for the Graureiher X. Sizes 4-5 are recommended for the Devil’s Advocate. Size 6 is recommended for the Whippet.
- Used for a multitude of different fish and are an excellent choice for universally testing new areas to research what’s biting. I tend to use them & spinners mostly for Trout/Salmon species.
- Spinners – Sizes 1 & 3 are recommended for the Graureiher X. Sizes 4-5 are recommended for the Devil’s Advocate. Size 7 is recommended for the whippet.
- One Open Slot – Simply for a bigger lure/hook if you are looking to track down a very specific rating, such as gold or diamond ratings.
Hook Size Charts
Hook Sizes
Golden Ridge Reserve (USA)
Click to enlarge…
Trollsporet Reserve (Norway)
Click to enlarge…
Free Gear!
You can also obtain free gear from completing in-game missions, on top of tackle you can acquire from the free DLC!
The Wright Baitcasting Line
The Perk’n’Kins Baitcasting Line
The free DLC pack also comes with a set of lures in very useful sizes.
The Stallo Rod & Hund Reel, with a free Size 1/0 Fløyte swimbait to complete the set
If you have the Norway Reserve DLC (You should, its great fun. You’ll want some heavy tackle first.) All you have to do is complete the “Find The Rod” missions on the reserve. It’s got great line poundage and is an amazing universal rod.
The Stallo Rod
The Hund Reel
Fløyte Lure
I have noticed that lines now have different visibility and abrasion resistance. Don’t know if it truly makes a different but I figured flouro would be the one used the most with braid good for big fish setups and mono for the goldhorn setup. Also since the classic tackle pack is not available on consoles just yet what would be good rods and reels to use in place of the whippet and ghigalmesh early on? Level 25 and under?
Yeah just stick with the default shop rods 25 & under. It doesn’t make a huge difference, those rods are just free.
The lines do have difference resistances but they currently do not have any effect in actual gameplay, they most likely will very soon though so its really just preference for now.
what about frogs? I missed them in the guide maybe I just missed them
From my experience frogs are in the same lot as spinnerbait. While yes you can use them, they are not the most preferred bait of any specific species. I set up the tackle for the most preferred bait/luring method for every species and then their species specific tackle utilizing the environments they most frequent. If they don’t have a species specific tackle then I included their second most preferred method.
If you really want to use frogs they are quite literally just a side grade to Poppers and you can swap them out, they produce a little slower than Poppers though. Same thing with swimbaits.
Sorry not swimbaits, spinnerbaits.
Also, fun fact: For whatever reason, tiger Muskie absolutely DESTROY spinnerbaits and shad with a passion.
then, why frogs in game.
Variety as far as I can tell
what can i use lines??? Mono/Fluoro/Braid
You can use either of the 3, currently line type doesn’t make a difference. I’m assuming it will in the future.