Fishing Made Better is a mod that adds a new realistic fishing mechanism that is complex and detailed and very fun and rewarding. It introduces the concept of reeling and making sure your line is not too tight and not too loose as well as proper drag to ensure the fish coming to the surface. The actual fish behavior is also very complex and requires research. Every fish have different behavior and personality. The fishes now live in a realistic ecosystem where they can go extinct by overfishing or adapt to a certain condition. Some fishes like certain biomes, others lives on saltwater or fresh water. Some fishes reproduce faster than others do. Some fishes also lives in deep water whilst others more shallow. Some fishes also only come out during night time or day time or when it's raining. Fishes even have their favorite spot. It is a successor to Better Fishing mod (https://minecraft.curseforge.com/projects/better-fishing) but with more compability and more customizable and even more new features and mechanism.

Now all fishes have different characteristics which is fully customizable. Things like how intelligent a fish signifies how long they are going to stay on the hook. Things like their weight signifies how tight the reel needs to be and how much bigger drag for a fishing rod you will need. Once you do get a fish, you can check it's weight in pounds on the item. Every fish have different weight including the ones on the same type. Depending on the maturity of the fish and how well it survived in the depths, you might get a Tuna that is huge. Or you will get a Tuna that can't even feed a cat. Once you get your fish, put it on the crafting area and you will get some slices of fish or number of quantity of the fish depending on how big the fish was. Also, you can determine if a fish is quick, agile and intelligent by how bubbles it creates when it's on the hook.

After you fish, you can scale a fish to get unique resources which makes catching the fish really worthwile.

You can also transfer a fish that is alive and breathing to a bucket and put it in your controlled pond to create a fish hatchery. Make sure to feed them through the bait box so they can reproduce more.

The goal of this mod is to improve the vanilla fishing by making the mechanism a bit more detailed and complex aswell as rewarding and requiring more research about the fishing ecosystem. It is highly compatible with any other fish mods. So you can use the fishes from other mods easily and customize their behavior with this mod and use the new fishing system.

This mod is for anyone who wants to have a fun and realistic fishing experience with more in-depth and challenging mechanism and have compatibility with your favorite fish mods around as well as have a better reward to catch fishes.

Reeling Mechanism Explained:
When you cast your fishing rod, you will wait for a bite. Now depending on the environment and if that chunk is overfished or not, or if you have a bait, or even the shyness of the fish on that chunk, you will get a bite faster or slower. Also if fishes there are being fed periodically, then they may not have to get the tasty bait you are giving them.

When a fish bite your hook, you will get a HUD on top of your screen. First you will see a bar which shows how balanced your line is. Based on the fish, you want to get the line as perfect as you can in the green area or even on the blue line in the middle which is the perfect balance. Depending on the drag speed of your fishing rod, when you are in the green area which resembles good line, the fish's distance will be reduced. When the fish's distance gets to 0, you can right click to catch the fish. You can press the "Reel In" and "Reel Out" button to adjust the tightness or the looseness of the line to get it to a perfect balance. Tip: You know a fish moves fast if it's pulling the line a lot or the bubbles it produces on the water and if it's a fat fish, the distance gets reduced much more slower. Also some fishes are very much in deep water and some in surface so they can be caught faster. If you happened to have a bait on your hook, based on the configuration you have set, you will lose your bait as well.

Ecosystem Explained:
So when you load up the world, each chunk gets set to a population based on the rarity of the fish, the biomes the fish lives at, the water quality, the water level, if it's saltwater or freshwater, etc. To check the population of fishes on a chunk, use the Bait Box and fill it up with the fish's favorite food. If you see the quantity lowered, you will know there are fishes of that kind. If you have a Fish Tracker item, it will be even much more easier by right clicking on the chunk and waiting for the information based on how good the fish tracker is. Now based on how much they eat, you will have a estimate of their population. Be warned that can overfish. When you do so, you will have to wait before new fish migrates to the area. If a fish population is low, you can feed it using the Bait Box and wait until they start reproducing more fishes. That's how hatchery works.

Features:

Realistic fishing system by introducing the reeling mechanism. Allowing fishing to be a fun and challenging experience.
Each and every single fish have their own personality and characteristics. Some fishes are extremely harder to catch than others. Some fishes lives deeper whilst other's more shallower. Characteristics includes when the fish goes to the surface(day, night or any), if they only go to the surface when it's raining, if they are saltwater or freshwater fish, how fast they move, how intelligent they are, or how big they are(weight in pounds), or how rare they are. You can turn those fish into slices to then cook and eat. Depending on the weight of the fish, you will get that portion of slices. Even fish from the same specie will have a bit of different attributes like weight or speed.
Realistic Fish Ecosystem and Migration. Now based on the chunk and the environment, certain fishes thrive more than others. However if you overfish them, you will have to wait a while before new fishes migrate at that location. Every fish has a population at a specific location. Use a Bait Box block to find out the nearby fishes population. Certain fishes will be at different hotspots as well.
Custom Bite System. Now based on the population of a fish, they will bite either quicker or slower. So if you are waiting a long time before you get a bite, make sure to relocate to a different area to fish
Fish Baits. Baits can be used to target specific fish on the water or get a general bait that can lure any fishes faster. You can turn the fish you catch to a bait to catch another fish.
Custom Fishing Rods. You may now use the vanilla fishing rod which functions how vanilla fishing rod does. However custom fishing rods will have all the new mechanics and features.
3 new fishing rods each with it's own attributes and stats. Explained below!
Bait Box that feeds the fish on the chunk.
Knife that can slice fishes into slices or into portion.
Magnetic fishing option so you don't lose any fishes.
Fully Customizeable. Every part of the mod is customizeable including the HUD, the difficulty of fishing, the fishes themselves.
Custom Drag System.
It is compatible with any other fish mods and you can add their fish to the mod with the new mechanism.
Presets file for the most popular fish mods so you can use it on a modpack.
Fish Tracker Item which allows you to track fishes nearby. There is a tier for each fish tracker item which allows more rare fish to be able to be tracked as well as fishes at the most depth.
Lose bait if a fish bites the hook with a bait on it.
Fish will reproduce if there are atleast two fishes of the same specie on the chunk. Fish will only reproduce based on time and if they are fed and not hungry. Different fishes have different reproduction time.
If you feed fish, they will be less hungry and have more weight and fed fishes are also more eager to reproduce.
There are different fishes on different biomes so you will have to explore the world to find the rarest of fishes.
Fish bucket that can store live fishes that can be placed on your own personal pond or anywhere else. Depending on the fish's weight, it might require bigger room. If you have atleast 2 of the same fish and they are well fed, they will start reproducing. Good for fish hatchery.
Fish Scale Remover can give you unique resources from the scale of the fish. It could even be diamond, gold or any resource you want. Fully customizable

Video:

Mod Compability:

This mod is compatible with any/all fishing mods including Aquaculture, Advanced Fishing and even Pam's Harvest Craft as long as it doesn't replace the fishing hook entity.

For Advanced Fishing mod, make sure to set "B:OverrideVanillaFishing" to false instead of true to use this mod's fishing rod.

Fishes:

Vanilla

Cod: Can be found at any time of the day and in the depth of 4-6 with fast reproduction rate and eating rate, in almost every salt water biomes. It can live around 12 seconds outside of the water and it loves red mushroom. It's a very abundant fish. It has bad intelligence so your line doesn't need to be perfect. When you scale the fish, you get slime balls based on the weight of the fish.

Clownfish: Can be found at any time of the day and in the depth of 10-20 with normal reproduction rate and fast eating rate, in almost every salt water biomes. It can live around 10 seconds outside of the water and it loves carrots. It's a very rare fish. It's fast speed with good intelligence. Hard to catch. When you scale the fish, you get emeralds based on the weight of the fish.

Pufferfish: Can be found at any time of the day and in the depth of 2-4 with slow reproduction rate and fast eating rate, in almost every salt water biomes. It can live around 8 seconds outside of the water and it loves ink sacks. It's a common fish. It's a dumb slow fish. Should be easy to catch. When you scale the fish, you get arrows based on the weight of the fish.

Salmon: Can be found at any time of the day and in the depth of 14-24 with slow reproduction rate and fast eating rate, in almost every salt water biomes. It can live around 12 seconds outside of the water and it loves cod fishes. It's a rare fish. It's a fast intelligent fish. Pretty hard to catch. When you scale the fish, you get iron ingots based on the weight of the fish

Advanced-Fishing

Coming soon!

Aquaculture

Coming soon!

Items:

Basic Fishing Rod: Pretty much your regular fishing rod that tugs hard and is weak. The drag speed of this rod is also weak so it takes longer to reduce distance of a fish. Can attach baits though. Not recommended for heavier fishes.
Iron Fishing Rod: Same reel length as the basic fishing rod however it is more stronger and doesn't get affected by the fish tugging as much. The drag speed of this rod is medium so it doesn't take as long to reduce the distance of a fish.
Diamond Fishing Rod: It has a higher reel length and decreases fish tugging by a lot. The drag speed of this rod is pretty good so it's fast to reduce the distance of the fish. Recommended for heavir fishes.
Knife: A knife is used to cut fishes into slices of fish or portion. Every time you cut a fish, you lose a bit of durability. Crafting recipes will be below.
Fish Scale Remover: A tool used to remove a fish's scale. You can get unique resources from a fish scale fully customizable.
Fish Slice: Every fish has it's own fish slice that you get from slicing a specific fish.
Fish Bucket: You can put an alive fish with a water bucket to get a fish in a bucket. It is used to transport fish from one water to another. Useful for fish hatchery.
Fish Tracker: A fish tracker is an item that can track movement of fishes in a water and give description of them including quantity, physical attributes, and weight.
Fish Tracker Gold: It's better than a regular fish tracker and can catch more rare fishes and fishes that are in the depths.
Fish Tracker Diamond: It's better than the fish tracker gold and can catch the most elusive fish and fishes that are really deep in the water.

Blocks:

Bait Box: Bait Box is used to determine a fish population in a chunk as well as to feed fishes in a chunk so that they can reproduce. To use it, fill it up with the fish's favorite food. If you see the quantity lowered, you will know there are fishes of that kind. Now based on how much they eat, you will have a estimate of their population

Configuration:

There are two kinds of configuration in this mod. One is the normal mod configuration which you can find on the config folder or the config GUI in the minecraft itself. It has basic settings you can configure based on your liking. The other configuration are the fishes themselves. Those configurations can be found in the fishdata folder inside the fishingmadebetter folder inside the config folder. You can include multiple config files preferably one for each mod if you want for organization sake.

Main Configuration

# Configuration file

general {
    # Check when to update the bait box in minutes.
    I:"Bait Box Update Interval"=5

    # Allows the fish to be cut into custom slices instead of fishes.
    B:"Custom Fish Slicing"=false

    # Enable/disable fish bucket.
    B:"Fish Bucket"=true

    # Get fish regeneration time in a chunk in minutes.
    I:"Fish Regeneration Time"=60

    # Get how fast it should lower a reproduction tick of fishes in a chunk in minutes.
    I:"Fish Reproduction Time"=4

    # Loose the bait whenever a fish bites to it.
    B:"Loose Bait"=true

    # Enable/Disable fishes automatically dropping near you.
    B:"Magnetic Fishing"=true

    # The random factor that gets added/substracted from the rarity to count population.
    I:"Random Population Factor"=24

    # Allows you to hold the reeling key instead of pressing it.
    B:"Reeling Hold"=false

    # Enable/Disable the reeling hud.
    B:"Reeling Hud"=true

    # Move the Reeling Meter.
    # Valid values:
    # TOP_LEFT
    # TOP_CENTER
    # TOP_RIGHT
    # BOTTOM_LEFT
    # BOTTOM_CENTER
    # BOTTOM_RIGHT
    S:"Reeling Meter Position"=TOP_CENTER

    # Changes the X-Offset of the reeling meter.
    I:"Reeling Meter X-Offset"=0

    # Changes the Y-Offset of the reeling meter.
    I:"Reeling Meter Y-Offset"=4

    # When the distance is 0 and you are about to catch the fish, does the reel also needs to be correct? (Only for Difficulty)
    B:"Require Correct Line"=false

    # Time it takes to track fishes in seconds.
    I:"Tracking Time"=8
}

Example vanilla.json file inside fishdata folder(supports multiple files)

{
	"cod": {
		"fishId": "cod",
		"itemId": "minecraft:fish",
		"itemMetaData": 0,
		"description": "a fast greenish-brown to gray on their sides and back fish, with a lighter underside",
		"minFishTime": 8000,
		"maxFishTime": 14000,
		"minReelAmount": 10,
		"maxReelAmount": 20,
		"minErrorVariance": 0,
		"maxErrorVariance": 5,
		"minWeight": 2,
		"maxWeight": 6,
		"time": "any",
		"rainRequired": false,
		"rarity": 92,
		"minDeepLevel": 4,
		"maxDeepLevel": 7,
		"reproductionTime": 1,
		"eatingFrequency": 3,
		"trackable": true,
		"biomeBlacklist": false,
		"biomeList": [0, 10, 24],
		"timeOutsideOfWater": 40,
		"resultingItem": "minecraft:iron_ingot",
		"resultingItemMetadata": 0,
		"resultQuantityUseWeight": true,
		"baitItemMap": {
			"minecraft:carrot": 0
		}
	},
	
	"salmon": {
		"fishId": "salmon",
		"itemId": "minecraft:fish",
		"itemMetaData": 1,
		"description": "a big silvery-blue in color fish which also have some have black spots on their sides",
		"minFishTime": 8400,
		"maxFishTime": 12600,
		"minReelAmount": 30,
		"maxReelAmount": 60,
		"minErrorVariance": 0,
		"maxErrorVariance": 4,
		"minWeight": 10,
		"maxWeight": 20,
		"time": "any",
		"rainRequired": false,
		"rarity": 70,
		"minDeepLevel": 1,
		"maxDeepLevel": 2,
		"reproductionTime": 2,
		"eatingFrequency": 1,
		"trackable": true,
		"biomeBlacklist": false,
		"biomeList": [0, 10, 24],
		"timeOutsideOfWater": 40,
		"resultingItem": "minecraft:gold_ingot",
		"resultingItemMetadata": 0,
		"resultQuantityUseWeight": true,
		"baitItemMap": {
			"minecraft:carrot": 0
		}
	},
	
	"clownfish": {
		"fishId": "clownfish",
		"itemId": "minecraft:fish",
		"itemMetaData": 2,
		"description": "a small quick orange and white striped fish which also have black edges",
		"minFishTime": 6000,
		"maxFishTime": 8000,
		"minReelAmount": 8,
		"maxReelAmount": 12,
		"minErrorVariance": 0,
		"maxErrorVariance": 3,
		"minWeight": 1,
		"maxWeight": 4,
		"time": "any",
		"rainRequired": false,
		"rarity": 30,
		"minDeepLevel": 1,
		"maxDeepLevel": 4,
		"reproductionTime": 3,
		"eatingFrequency": 4,
		"trackable": true,
		"biomeBlacklist": false,
		"biomeList": [0, 10, 24],
		"timeOutsideOfWater": 40,
		"resultingItem": "minecraft:diamond",
		"resultingItemMetadata": 0,
		"resultQuantityUseWeight": true,
		"baitItemMap": {
			"minecraft:carrot": 0
		}
	},
	
	"pufferfish": {
		"fishId": "pufferfish",
		"itemId": "minecraft:fish",
		"itemMetaData": 3,
		"description": "a spikey gray fish with black dots and bulging eyes",
		"minFishTime": 7600,
		"maxFishTime": 13000,
		"minReelAmount": 15,
		"maxReelAmount": 25,
		"minErrorVariance": 0,
		"maxErrorVariance": 4,
		"minWeight": 3,
		"maxWeight": 9,
		"time": "any",
		"rainRequired": false,
		"rarity": 75,
		"minDeepLevel": 4,
		"maxDeepLevel": 8,
		"reproductionTime": 2,
		"eatingFrequency": 3,
		"trackable": true,
		"biomeBlacklist": false,
		"biomeList": [0, 10, 24],
		"timeOutsideOfWater": 40,
		"resultingItem": "minecraft:coal",
		"resultingItemMetadata": 0,
		"resultQuantityUseWeight": true,
		"baitItemMap": {
			"minecraft:carrot": 0
		}
	}
}

Screenshots:

If you have any questions/concerns/suggestions/bugs, please join our discord and help us out: https://discord.gg/sHX77Db