Minecraft is one of those games filled with extremely rare items that can only be acquired by the unfortunate yet necessary repetition of menial, tedious tasks that take up massive amounts of time. Whether it be farming mobs, mining at a certain elevation, or in this case, fishing. Some of the rarest, most sought-after items in the game can only be acquired realistically through fishing. That being said, if you would like to do so in the easiest way possible while not even playing the game then you’re in luck! Today, we’re going to learn how to fish while away from your keyboard. Let’s begin.
What is AFK Fishing?
AFK Fishing simply stands for ‘Away From Keyboard Fishing’ which means to have Minecraft somehow continuously reset your fishing rod after successfully catching something without needing player input to do so. The obvious benefit to this is that you can catch numerous fish and items which would typically take hours while you can go do something more worth your time in the real world.
But how exactly is this achieved? I don’t know many games that can play themselves besides those dogwater mobile games that play themselves while you’re AFK. (my friend Chris has dropped too much money on those games) We have a few options.
How to AFK Fish
To properly AFK Fish we need to create an environment where your game is doing a few things on its own. First, you’ll need to build yourself an AFK fishing farm. There are many designs to choose from online. You can build your own as well, or you can just copy the one I’ll be working with here. What’s important for every AFK fishing farm is that you can interact with a block while your fishing bob is placed in the water. This is necessary for a few reasons.
When AFK Fishing, we need to have our computer automatically reset our fishing rod every time a fish is caught. The problem is, there’s no way an auto-clicker or a piece of scotch tape on my mouse button could distinguish when I have or have not caught anything. This is why you’ll need to line your cursor against an interactable block (for example I am using a Note Block) while having your auto-clicker (or tape) set to the right mouse button to cast the lure. For some reason, the interaction with the block will override the action to reset your lure EXCEPT when your fishing rod is not cast.
For the sake of ensuring your cybersecurity, we won’t recommend any auto clickers in particular, so I suggest giving the old ‘tape on the mouse button’ strategy a whirl and if it works out for you then you can graduate to an auto clicker! After that’s all done, you’ll have yourself a fully automated AFK Fishing farm. But why all the hassle?
Why AFK Fish?
While fishing is primarily used to capture..well…fish, it can also be a great way to get treasure loot. Treasure is typically finite, often being found in chests discovered in villages or looting sites, but fishing is infinite. You’ll keep rolling the dice on your chances to acquire some good treasure so long as you keep casting your rod.
Your treasure loot can range from enchanted books, enchanted bows, saddles, nametags, and even better fishing rods. What’s most interesting though is the chance of acquiring Mending, the rarest and most valuable enchantment in Minecraft. Mending can’t be acquired through enchanting, so the only way to get it is by trading with villagers or fishing.
Tips
Some tips for the road to make sure your AFK Fishing farm goes as smoothly as possible.
Place your farm near another farm that requires your attention. For example, a Creeper killing farm that you may have built needs the player to be nearby, so kill two birds with one stone by placing your AFK Fishing farm close.
The actual fish you’ve accumulated from fish farming may not be too valuable to you, but they fetch a few emeralds when sold to the fisherman villager. Give him a visit!
If you do have a Mending book, consider using it on your Fishing Rod. AFK Fishing still costs durability on your rod, but if you have Mending the experience gained from fishing will repair the Rod faster than it can be damaged.
Consider applying Luck of the Sea to your fishing rod to improve the quality of the loot you fish.
Conclusion
That’s all there is to it! AFK FIshing is quite lucrative, if not a little boring. But I believe that we should automate everything that feels even remotely tedious. Some may feel that it isn’t in the spirit of Minecraft, but after a certain point in endgame Minecraft, you’re just not interested in going through the tedium of mining, fishing, or normal farming. And so the automation and wonders of Redstone come into play. While AFK Fishing is the simplest implementation of Redstone farming and requires third-party interference to work properly, I still fully support it. With that being said, have a great day!
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