Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Drew776]

So I dig a canal from the nearby brook to my fort, build walls around the canal on the ground level and floor above to keep goblins out, and then try to fish from the canal. I keep getting the no more fish message. I have not once successfully fished from a canal I have dug.

Is it possible to fish from canals you dig yourself? Is there a certain trick to it?

Any help would be appreciated.

[AngleWyrm]

I dug an underground passage between the river and a room that I had dug a pit in, so that the pit filled with water and I had an indoor pond to fish in. I then built a fishery right next to the pond, zoned the pond for fishing/drinking, and designated a food stockpile that only accepted raw fish right next to the fishery.

That food stockpile filled up with raw fish from my fisherdwarves. But occassionally I would get the "nothing to catch" message, and I think it just means that the current batch of fish are all used up, but may be restocked at the next season change. It is also possible that there are no fish to catch at all, or to fish out the region so that there are no fish remaining to restock the river.

tldr: Maybe your map doesn't have fish on it.

[Ibid Straydrink]

I don't think you can fish from said canal, as it sounds like the position of your fisherdwarves would be 2 z-levels above the water. From my experience, they need to be 1 z-level above instead. If you're intent on having a secure fishing spot, I would suggest a retractable bridge into a pit, with all of the fishing "infrastructure" in a nearby room..

[CaptRory]

I think you can fish through Floor Grates. Its something to try. Slap a floor grate over the hole and see if your guys will fish through it. You don't need to be more than one level over the water then.

[Sphalerite]

The thing with fishing is that what if any fish you get is unrelated to where the water came from.  When a dwarf is fishing the game only cares where the dwarf is at that moment, which biome he is standing in, and if the invisible fish population which that biome is registered as having contains any fish.  When you dig a canal from your river to somewhere else in your fortress and have a dwarf fish from the canal, the game looks at where the dwarf is standing (underground in a stone layer) and then looks to see if the underground in a stone layer biome has any fish.  It doesn't, because there are no fish that live in that biome, so you get the no fish message.  That the water he is fishing in came from the brook, or that the canal is still connected to the brook, is irrelevant.  The brook may still have plenty of fish in it, but to catch them you have to have your dwarf fish directly from the brook.

[Qinetix]

Ok fish ocasionally may move to your pond (randomly, if its conected to the river , just Don't BLOCK the flow , if youre that paranoic that goblins might swim thru it then you could build traps during winter) , you know there npcs too
Anyways you could redirect the river to your pond , but I think thats abit of imposible
It might work during winter , if you are in a temperate/cold zone

[Sphalerite]

Ok fish ocasionally may move to your pond (randomly, if its conected to the river , just Don't BLOCK the flow , if youre that paranoic that goblins might swim thru it then you could build traps during winter)

The fish which you see swimming around are completely unrelated to what if anything you get from fishing.  I realize that this doesn't make sense, but what your fisherdwarf is doing to catch fish has nothing to do with vermin fish and turtle creatures physically crawling around the map.  Furthermore, vermin fish teleport randomly between water sources anyway, and will appear in isolated bodies of water they couldn't possibly reach by swimming.  Anyway, it doesn't matter if your indoor fishing zone is connected to the brook by flowing water or water at all.

[Lord Darkstar]

But the game doesn't care if you are 10 z levels down in the rock, does it? When I've made underground fishing and water source ponds, my fishermen have caught fish, when skilled enough. They caught the same kinds of fish that they caught on the surface in that area--- that is, it was the same fish 10 z levels down as at the surface.

It is possible that the canal example above just doesn't have fish for the biome that the canal is passing through, or his fisherdwarves are too low level to catch anything.

[Drew776]

Thanks for all the great replies.

@Ibid: I actually am fishing from only 1 z level above the canal, not 2, I just built a roof over it (sorry if this wasn't clear).

@Sphalerite: I see what you're saying, that it depends on what biome my fisherdwarfs are standing in when they fish. Is there a way I can see where the biomes end and where they start? Does this have anything to do with the tile being "Inside Dark Subterranean" as opposed to "Outside Light Above Ground"?

[melomel]

*headtilts*  My map straddles three biomes--evil forest, good swamp, and ocean.  Does that mean I should make fishing zones in each biome to take full advantage of fish variety?

[Ibid Straydrink]

*headtilts*  My map straddles three biomes--evil forest, good swamp, and ocean.  Does that mean I should make fishing zones in each biome to take full advantage of fish variety?

If it does, don't make one in the evil forest. The curse of the trout has claimed many a man.

[Hans Lemurson]

Does this mean that you can't fish for cave-fish in subterranean lakes?