I recently put in one of the hardest single-session shifts of my life to compile my guide to rank up fishing quickly in New World. Not only did I get to level 44 in one sitting — I guess that was the easy part — I also tracked every single fish I caught in a spreadsheet as I went.
You might be wondering: why on earth would you track every fish in a spreadsheet?
Well, a simple answer is that I’m a huge nerd. But in addition to this, I wanted to be able to get cold hard information about the best depths to be fishing at, whether to use bait, and more.
Now I’m left with a spreadsheet of data that tells me I was able to catch large salmon in New World in a specific place using specific tactics.
Want to know what I learned so you can find large salmon in New World yourself? Keep reading.
Where to Catch Large Salmon in New World
If you don’t know where to catch large salmon in New World, you can do that in the Broad Fishing Hotspot in Windsward, west of Greenhaven, just outside Cooper’s Ranch. It’s highlighted with a fish icon on the map.
If you don’t already have a fishing rod, talk to Master Fisher Michael Shield at the Broad Fishing Hotspot and complete his quick quest — he’ll give you one.
You can also catch salmon in salt water, so if you’re not near this location then you should still be able to find somewhere suitable to catch salmon in New World.
However, there are still some important things you need to know.
The Best Way to Catch Large Salmon
Unfortunately, despite being a common fish, the New World salmon fishing rates of large salmon — at least in the Broad Fishing Hotspot — are quite low.
Whilst tracking the catches of over 350 fish and other items, I only managed to catch 5 large salmon. To put that into perspective, I also caught 5 treasure chests — rare items that give nearly twice the XP of a large salmon catch.
That said, the interesting thing to note is that all of my large salmon were caught using Firefly Bait. I didn’t manage to catch a single one without bait — I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it might well be less likely.
As for the depth of water to go for, I didn’t notice any correlation between water depth and large salmon catch rates, though I didn’t catch a large enough number of them to be able to apply any statistical significance anyway.
My advice would be to use deep water because it’s the most efficient — you get bites faster in deeper water — and avoid the active fishing hotspots because they give higher chances of rarer fish and salmon is listed as ‘common’. The active hotspots are good for catching tadpoles in New World, as well as other less common items.
I don’t have data to back this theory up, but it makes sense in my head and hopefully it will in yours too.
If you get a better fishing rod in New World then you can add Perks that increase the likelihood of catching larger fish more often, so that might be something to consider.
Fresh Water or Salt Water?
You can catch salmon in both fresh water and salt water, good news for those that can’t find the Broad Fishing Hotspot or that just can’t be bothered to travel there.
I am yet to analyze the catch rates of salt water fish so I can’t say whether the chances of finding large salmon are higher here, but as so many players seem to be asking “where do you find large salmon?” I’m going to guess that catch rates are similar at best.
Despite being common, they seem to be surprisingly elusive. but so do large fish overall. Only 8% of the fish I caught were large, a rate that slightly increases when using bait, and then there are multiple types of large fish you can catch too.
Summary
To put it simply: if you need to catch large salmon in New World, you’re going to have to put a bit of time and effort in.
Get to the Broad Fishing Hotspot, find some Firefly Bait from within the Bulrush or Briar plants, and put in a couple of hours of time.
I’d estimate the average person will catch 3-5 large salmon in a three hour period using the method above.
One common mistake that many players make is not doing the appropriate research when it comes to finding the best new world salmon location and wasting time in different places where catching salmon is impossible.
