So, I was totally into this Trout Derby thing in Stardew Valley last week, held on Summer 20 and 21, you know? I’m not a pro or anything, but I thought I’d give it a shot ’cause why not? Sounds fun, right?
First off, I went straight to the Cindersap Forest, near the river. That’s where all the action is, apparently. Got my fishing rod ready, and guess what? The goal is to catch as many Rainbow Trout as possible. Sounds simple, but it’s kinda tricky.
I started fishing, and man, it took a while to get the hang of it. I used some regular bait at first, but then I remembered reading something about Challenge Bait. Supposedly, it lets you hook up to three fish at once. I was like, “No way!” But I tried it, and it kinda worked! I mean, I didn’t catch three fish every time, but it definitely felt like I was catching more.
There’s this thing about Golden Tags, which some of the Rainbow Trout have. If you catch a trout with a Golden Tag, you get special prizes. I read online that there’s only about a 33% chance for a trout to have one. So, it’s mostly luck, I guess. But using that Challenge Bait seemed to help a bit in getting those tags.
- Day 1: Caught a few trout, but only one had a Golden Tag. Got some random prize, can’t even remember what it was.
- Day 2: Did a bit better, used the Challenge Bait more. Caught two trout with Golden Tags! One of the prizes was a Bucket Hat. Not bad, I guess. And there was this Mounted Trout thing, which is kinda cool for decorating, I suppose.
Oh, and here’s a tip I found somewhere: if you don’t get all the prizes you want one year, the guy running the booth remembers how many tags you turned in. So you can continue next year. Pretty neat, huh?
I tried to imitate what the pros do. I saw some people using special flies, like the Black Nose Dace or something called a Mylar-tubing. There’s also this thing called a Muddler Minnow. I tried using the Muddler Minnow, and it seemed to work okay, but I’m no expert. Some folks said minnows work great too. There were so many different types of flies to use. I felt dizzy.
Overall
It was a fun experience, even though I didn’t win big or anything. I might try again next year and see if I can get more of those Golden Tags. If you’re playing Stardew Valley, you should definitely check out the Trout Derby. It’s a nice little break from all the farming and mining.
