Best Fishing Rod Enchantments in Minecraft

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Penned by Nathan Hart

I'm a stand-up comic by night and write for HGG by day. Most of my gaming happens at an improvised desk at the Days Inn right outside whatever small town I'm in for the night.

Reviewed by Benjamin Barr

Fishing rods are a great way to keep from starving in Minecraft. They also have a few other niche uses, like pulling mobs away from your friends, or making a carrot or warped fungus on a stick that lets you steer pigs and the lava-walking striders of the Nether dimension. In today’s article, we’ll cover the best fishing rod enchantments in Minecraft, ranking them from worst to best. We’ll also break down what each enchantment does so you know what to prioritize for your ultimate fishing rod.

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Best Minecraft Fishing Rod Enchantments, Ranked

Before we get into our list, let’s first cover how to make a fishing rod in Minecraft. You can make any fishing rod with sticks and string, both of which you’ll likely acquire very early on. Sticks come from breaking down wooden planks, while the string is mostly looted from the spiders you’ll kill overnight. You can also break down the cobwebs you might find around abandoned mineshafts or villages.

With that in mind, let’s get to our list of the best enchantments for the fishing rod in Minecraft!

4/4

Lure

The Lure enchantment comes in three different levels, and can only be applied to fishing rods. It simply reduces the amount of time that your bobber needs to be in the water before hooking a fish or a floating piece of treasure. This in turn reduces the amount of time you need to spend fishing overall. This reduction goes up with each level, with a total fifteen second reduction at its max. Considering the maximum time an unenchanted rod needs to be in the water is only thirty seconds, this essentially doubles your fishing production.

In this way, Lure functions similarly to the Efficiency enchantment you can apply to other tools. This enchantment maximizes the results of your time so you aren’t just sitting around watching a bobber all day.

3/4

Luck of the Sea

Luck of the Sea is invaluable for fishing rods, and can’t be applied to any other item. This enchantment increases your chances of finding treasure while fishing, which is ultimately the best use for a fishing rod. Some enchantments are incredibly difficult to get without using a fishing rod for treasure-seeking. Each of the three levels you can apply to your rod increases your chances of catching treasure by 2.1%, shifting the loot table away from junk items and closer to more useful treasures.

While the best thing you can catch is enchanted books, there are other assorted treasures out there. This includes bows, fishing rods, nautilus shells, name tags, and even saddles. If you spawn far away from any villages or structures, this may be your only way to get ahold of a saddle.

By default, an unenchanted fishing rod has an 85% chance of catching a fish, a 10% chance of catching junk, and a 5% chance of catching valuable treasure items. These chances are all improved if you have the Luck of the Sea enchantment.

2/4

Unbreaking

Unbreaking reduces the chance of your fishing pole losing durability when you cast it. Fishing rods aren’t the most durable piece of gear — in Bedrock, they boast only 384 units of durability, which goes down to 64 in Java. Each time you successfully cast your rod, your durability goes down by a point. Other, less traditional uses of your rod will potentially bring it down by more durability points.

Each level of Unbreaking reduces your rod’s chance of taking any damage when you cast it. This essentially doubles the life of your rod with each level of Unbreaking you apply.

1/4

Mending

Unfortunately, Unbreaking doesn’t let your rod last forever. While it may not be the most crucial tool, plenty of players need to know how to repair the fishing rod in Minecraft. Thankfully, that’s where Mending comes in.

Mending is one of the rarest and most beloved enchantments in the game because of its ability to make a piece of equipment last forever. You have to be pretty devoted to fishing to use Mending on your rod, though. In most cases, you’re better off saving it for your Netherite gear.

However, putting it on a fishing rod does mean that the rod will never break down. Mending works by repairing the durability of an item whenever you earn XP. Anything you catch out of the water with your enchanted fishing rod will give you enough XP to immediately repair the durability strain that comes with normal use. When the rod hits max durability, the XP you earn will either increase your level normally or go toward other Mending-enchanted items in your main inventory.

How to Fish for Treasure in Minecraft

Fishing for treasure is the most beneficial part of owning an enchanted fishing rod. There are unique items you can get via fishing that aren’t easily accessible through other means. This includes powerful enchantment books, which you would otherwise have to seek out in overworld chests.

There are a few requirements for catching treasure in Minecraft. While you can catch fish and junk at any water block in the entire overworld, including inside caves, treasure is a bit pickier. You can only catch treasure in areas defined as “open water.” This means your bobber must be surrounded in all directions by two blocks of open air, water source, lily pads, or bubble columns.

Additionally, you’ll catch more items altogether if you go fishing in any area that is actively exposed to sunlight or moonlight, even if there are blocks of transparent glass in the way. Rain gives a similar speed bonus as long as the rain is able to fall directly into the pool of water where you’re fishing.

Join the High Ground

That’s it for our list of the best Minecraft fishing rod enchantments — thanks for reading! With all of these tips to make your fishing rod the strongest it can possibly be, you’ll be ready to catch yourself some food and some amazing treasures wherever you go. Follow our newsletter and keep up with High Ground Gaming on social media for more Minecraft tips.

Now, go get on the water!