How to Catch a Sturgeon in Stardew Valley

Sturgeon is one of the many fish you can find in the world of Stardew Valley. It’s super valuable and used for several different important reasons. So, if this is your first time catching a sturgeon, then let us help you out with this detailed guide on where you can get this fish, the whole process of catching it, and what you do with it. So, without any further ado, let’s begin!

Where and When to Catch a Sturgeon

You can only catch a sturgeon in the mountain lake area, right of Robin’s house. The ideal time of day to catch this fish is during the daylight period, i.e. from 6 AM to 7 PM. When it comes to the season, sturgeon is only available during summer and winter.

The weather doesn’t affect the sturgeon’s catch rate in any way, so you’re free to find it during sunny days and rainy days. Having said that, sturgeon is most commonly found during rainy summer days. However, if you’re on the wilderness farm, you can also catch a sturgeon during these seasons on the farm itself.

If you’re late in the game, you’ll even be able to use magic bait to catch the sturgeon regardless of the time of day and season. Apart from fishing though, you can also just buy the sturgeon in the Krobus’ shop on Wednesdays for 200g or at the traveling cart for 600-1000g.

How to Prepare to Catch a Sturgeon

Just like you catch any other fish, you can catch a sturgeon by completing their minigame challenge. According to Stardew Valley Wiki, the difficulty of catching a sturgeon is 78. To put it in perspective, the difficulty for the Legend, the hardest fish to catch in the game, is 110. So, sturgeon is also not at all an easy fish to catch.

Now, there are some things you can do to make it easier. First, you will have the highest chance of catching this fish when casting further from the shore. So, the higher the fishing skill you have, the further you’ll cast. Though, this doesn’t mean a high fishing skill level is required, it just helps.

The same goes for the green bar in the fishing minigame. The higher the fishing level you have, the bigger the bar will be, making it easier to catch the sturgeon. Though, you can change the size of the green bar in other ways, like with food items that give you the fishing buff, such as chowder, lobster bisque, or seafoam pudding, or cork bobber tackle on your iridium rod.

How to Catch a Sturgeon in Stardew Valley

So, if you’re ready, let’s go over the process of catching a sturgeon in Stardew Valley.

• First of all, reach the mountain lake and cast your fishing rod. Then, wait for the fish to bite. The sturgeon has about an 11-16% chance of biting, so it might take a few tries before you have it.
• Once it bites, you’ll know as it’ll start moving pretty quickly. As you can see from the GIF below, the fish icon moves very fast upwards at the beginning of the minigame. So, you’ll need to hold the LMB so the bar rises.
• Soon after the fish icon rises, it’ll start moving downwards quickly as well. Basically, the entire sturgeon mini-game is pretty intense, as the fish icon changes direction quickly.
• It will also have some calmer moments, when the icon moves relatively slowly, so you can have the bar on the right fill up. To keep your green bar stable in one spot, keep clicking and holding the LMB a bit.
• Don’t press anything to make your bar get to the bottom as fast as possible.
• The GIF below shows the player catching a sturgeon with level 3 fishing skill and a fiberglass fishing rod.

Furthermore, the example above is one of the easiest ones I could get. Below, you will find one more example GIFs that show how difficult catching the sturgeon really can be.

We recommend you increase the size of the green bar as much as possible. Also, you will have to be pretty quick with your reflexes. Though, if you want to get super ready for the sturgeon’s mini game, you can try it out on the Pufferdle website.

Access the Fish Tank, choose your fishing level and buffs and try to catch the sturgeon. We have a guide on how you can play this Stardew Valley Wordle game, so check it out for more details.

Why is a Sturgeon Useful in Stardew Valley

Sturgeon is useful for several different reasons. First of all, it is necessary for completing the lake fish bundle in the community center inside the fish tank. Moreover, you can simply sell it, even though there are better ways to make money with sturgeon that we’ll cover a bit later.

For now, here are the prices of the Sturgeon fish with different qualities and also fisher and angler skill professions.

Furthermore, sturgeon is a great choice for the fish pond, which is a long-term money-making option. Purchase one with simple resources from Robin’s shop. Then, put the sturgeon you caught in it. The initial capacity will be 1/1. After a few days, a yellow exclamation point will appear above the pond indicating the fish are ready to reproduce with the help of an item.

This item varies from fish to fish and is always fixed for one fish type. Once you bring that item, the capacity will increase, and you will need to wait for another few days for them to reproduce to 3 fish. Then, you will get a new quest after a couple of days until the pond reaches its capacity, which is 10 fish. The items sturgeon will ask for are:

• 1 Diamond
• 1 Jelly, 2 Maple Syrup or 1 Pickles
• 3 Omni Geodes
• 1 Nautilus Shell

After the fish reproduce, they will also produce some roe for you. They will even have a chance to produce roe if you don’t fill the capacity fully, but if the capacity reaches maximum of 10 fish, they’ll have a chance to produce two roe instead of one.

The sturgeon roe is special, as it will turn into caviar when you age it in the preserves jar. Caviar is more valuable than roe, so it’ll make you more money.

Sturgeon is not used in any quest throughout Stardew Valley, but it is a part of cooking recipes that require any fish. Also, when it comes to giving a sturgeon to NPCs as a gift, only Willy loves this item and all other villagers are neutral with it, dislike it or hate it. In addition, sturgeon is used to create a fishing vest in the sewing machine.

And just like that, you now know everything about the sturgeon in Stardew Valley. From where and when to fish for it, to what it’s most useful for in-game. So, if you’re in summer or winter and have gotten familiar with the fishing minigame enough, then waste no more time and go and catch that fish!