In Minecraft, fishing is more than just a simple activity – with an automatic fish farm, you can collect valuable resources like food and rare items. In this guide, learn how to build an effective AFK fish farm to catch fish, treasures, and XP! Reason: “AFK fish farm” is a strong keyword that attracts many users. The benefits of fishing (food, items, XP) are more clearly highlighted to make the advantage for the reader immediately understandable.
Minecraft Fishing: Why Automatic Fish Farms Are Worth It
Fishing rods have been around for a long time in Minecraft, but over the years, what you can catch from the sea has changed significantly. New fish have been added, but also many other items that are hidden deep underwater. Basically, there are three categories from which you can fish something.
You always have an 85% chance of catching fish. You can catch four different types of fish, including raw cod, raw salmon, a pufferfish, and a tropical fish. You can use fish to fill your hunger bar, trade them with villagers, or feed them to cats and ocelots.
Junk is the second category and makes up 10% of the yield. Some of it is indeed junk, like sticks or lily pads. However, there are also some cool items, such as water bottles, bones, and hooks.
The valuable items are only 5%, but they can be really significant! Here you can find enchanted fishing rods and books, including the highly coveted “Mending” enchantment. You can also obtain nautilus shells, saddles, and name tags.
Additionally, you receive some experience points with each successful catch of an item. A fish farm is therefore also an XP machine, albeit a very slow one.
The Best Enchantments for Your Minecraft Fishing Rod
You can also enchant a fishing rod to make your fishing trips easier and increase the various percentages. It’s definitely worth it!
The enchantments are:
- Luck of the Sea (1-3): More valuable items (up to 11.3%).
- Lure (1-3): Faster biting (-15 seconds with the highest level).
- Unbreaking (1-3): Less wear.
- Mending (1): XP restores the wear of the rod. And since fishing gives you XP, the rod is practically usable indefinitely.
Building a Minecraft Fish Farm: Step-by-Step Guide for an Automatic Fishing Machine
One of the simplest fish farms is one that even works without your input! Therefore, it is often referred to as an AFK farm (“away from keyboard”) in many circles.
Note: Unfortunately, this method was adjusted with the 1.16 update, so you can no longer receive valuable items with it. You can still catch fish and junk with this small farm. This is because valuable resources now only spawn in the open sea, which is not the case with this design. Nevertheless, we will introduce it to you in more detail. For Bedrock players, this should not be a problem, as you can still obtain valuable treasures here. Why Mojang made these changes is probably unknown to anyone.
Materials for Building a Minecraft Fish Farm
- Chest
- Hopper
- Fence post
- Iron pressure plate
- Iron trapdoor
- Note block
- Water bucket
- 1 full block
Step-by-Step Guide: Building an Automatic Fish Farm in Minecraft
Dig four blocks into the ground and place a double chest at one end. Then you need to place a hopper leading into the chest to collect your fish while fishing.
Next, build the fence post on the hopper and fill it with a water bucket. The water remains around the fence and flows down into the still open block.
Then place the pressure plate on the fence. Finally, build a note block one block below and place a trapdoor between the pressure plate and the note block. It’s best to use a block above the note block for this. This prevents sounds and allows you to attach the iron trapdoor.
To use this AFK fish farm, stand in front of the chest and cast your rod so that you aim at the trapdoor and the note block. It’s important to hold down the right mouse button. This way, you will continue fishing continuously.
Tip: If you don’t want to hold the mouse button yourself, there’s a wonderful and simple trick! With F3, you can open your debug menu. But if you press F3 and T simultaneously, Minecraft will reload your texture pack. The Mojang logo will appear, and if you then release your mouse, the fishing rod should work without your input!
Are There Other Designs for Valuable Items?
As already mentioned, the old design no longer works to obtain valuable resources like enchanted books. This is, of course, very unfortunate, especially for Java players. To obtain these items, the water source must be considered open. This means that the fish bait must be surrounded by water on all sides by at least two blocks, and there must be open sky above. Only then does the game recognize the water as open and add the loot for treasures.
There are some new designs for AFK fish farms, but they are very complicated and not really useful. You are definitely better off just fishing yourself.
The Best Minecraft Fishing Tips: Catch More Fish and Treasures
Fishing in Minecraft is actually a great and relaxing activity! Here are some tips to make it easier for you.
- It’s best to fish in the sea where it’s deep enough.
- Pay attention to the particles in the water.
- Check in the options if your particles are set to “Full”.
- Reel in the bait as soon as the particles approach it.
- When it rains, you catch more fish.
Minecraft Villager Trading: Making the Most of Fish and Items
Even if you only use the small fishing machine, you can still do a lot with all the fish and junk. The items are not as worthless as you might initially think. They are best used in combination with villagers and trading. More on this in our previous article (How to Build a Villager Trading Post: Obtain Valuable Items through Trading) . You can get a lot of emeralds without lifting a finger.
- Fisherman: Four types of fish, string
- Fletcher: Sticks, string, hooks
- Leatherworker: Leather
- Cleric: Rotten flesh
Conclusion: Benefits of an Automatic Fish Farm in Minecraft
There are hardly any video games without fishing, and Minecraft set the standard! To this day, this activity is still popular, especially due to the wonderful treasures you can reel in. And even though the old AFK fish farm is no longer suitable for this, you can use it in combination with villagers for emeralds. Either way, automatic fishing in Minecraft is a great addition to your world. Continuously fish valuable resources on your own server. Rent your Minecraft server and build the ultimate fishing machine!
