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.