What is the best way to catch a sturgeon in Stardew Valley?

A player's first instinct might not be to fish in Stardew Valley, but it can actually be one of the most profitable and useful hobbies to take up in the game. While it's necessary to complete the bundles in the Community Center, players who take the Joja Mart route could realistically never even dive into the game's collectibles. Fishing is certainly not a minigame that appeals to everyone in this relaxing farming simulator, but knowing how it works can lead to some serious profits for players who aren't looking to use the game's item ID cheats.

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Sturgeon, a type of fish that players can reel in, is a key but rare catch in Stardew Valley. It only appears during two in-game seasons, with one of those seasons requiring players to have a rain totem. The mountain lake is the only body of water where the sturgeon can be caught, though its rarity and difficulty are made worth it by the fish's high selling price. A base quality sturgeon can sell for 200 gold, with the highest quality maxing at a selling price of 600 gold.

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How to Catch Sturgeon In Stardew Valley

Sturgeon can only be caught in the summer or winter, though it's worth noting that they also only appear on rainy days. This means that a rain totem is required to make sturgeon appear during the winter. The summer is really the best time to hunt down sturgeon, especially if players want to complete the Community Center bundles quickly.

The mountain lake is located near the mines. While it's a fairly large body of water, the distance between the lake and the player's farm means that there won't be as much time in the day to fish. Players will want to arrive as early as possible to maximize the amount of time they have before the sturgeon stops appearing, which happens at 7:00 PM in-game. It's worth noting that the sturgeon is the highest-selling non-legendary fish that can be found in Pelican Town.

Given the sturgeon's difficulty to locate and catch, players will want to maximize their chances of hooking the fish. The easiest way to do so is by upgrading the starting rod and by leveling up the fishing skill. A high fishing level means that players can cast out their line further, which impacts how frequently certain fish are hooked. The sturgeon is one such fish, as it's supposedly more common farther away from shore.

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Having a high-quality fishing rod makes fishing mini-game easier, which in turn can help players get a perfect catch. Perfect catches are almost essential to maximizing the quality of the fish, as a perfect catch will always raise the quality of a silver or gold fish by one. Perfect catches are capable of reeling in iridium quality fish by themselves, but using a quality bobber and getting a perfect catch is the best method to reeling in an iridium sturgeon.

Why Catching Sturgeon Is Worth The Trouble

After catching the sturgeon, there are a few uses for the fish beyond just selling it. First, a sturgeon is required for the Community Center's Lake Fish bundle. The fish can also be gifted to Willy to raise his friendship with the player, as he's the only villager who has the sturgeon listed as a love. All other villagers are either neutral about the fish or dislike it.

Gifting away a sturgeon isn't really worth the hassle of catching it. Selling sturgeon, however, can quickly add up to bring in some serious profits. A sturgeon's base selling price is 200 gold, though an iridium sturgeon sells for 400 gold. The Fisher profession that players can get when they reach level five fishing increases the base selling price to 250 gold, while the level 10 profession Angler boosts it to 300 gold. With both skills, iridium sturgeons sell for 600 gold apiece.

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While selling the fish outright makes a solid profit, Stardew Valley has ways to increase the value of various items with the right crafting methods. Fish can either be farmed for their eggs in a fish pond or turned into sashimi. While sturgeon will never lead to a profit if turned into sashimi, making caviar out of sturgeon eggs is extremely profitable. Placing sturgeon into a fish pond allows players to collect roe, which can then be turned into caviar with a preserves jar.

Sturgeon caviar sells for a bit more than the iridium version of the fish if players have the Artisan profession from the farming tree. If players haven't leveled their farming enough to get the 40% selling price increase for artisan goods, it's best to just sell any sturgeon outright. With the perk, however, it's possible to make caviar from any quality sturgeon that will always sell for 700 gold.

Selling is really the main draw to catching sturgeon, especially given how difficult and rare the fish can be. It can be used to make a fishing vest, but so can many other, more common fish. Gifting it to Willy isn't really worth it either, as pumpkins are a much easier gift for players to farm if they want to max out their friendship with him. However, players looking to max out their fishing profit should absolutely spend the time to reel in a few sturgeons.

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