Consumes Activity Point?: No
You can do fishing in the monastery’s Fishing Pond, right beside the Greenhouse. This activity doesn’t consume Activity Points and earns you Professor EXP. This is one of the activities you should patiently and regularly do, especially on weekends when there are fishing-related events. The Professor EXP you’ll get per fish caught will depend on its size and rarity.
To fish, you’ll need Baits. You can find them lying around, get them as quest rewards, and later on, buy them from the Eastern Merchant in the Marketplace. The baits sold by this Merchant is limited but they do restock each month so always purchase all the baits as soon as a new month starts. Different types of baits increases the chance of encountering larger and rarer fish. The baits’ prices are relatively cheap as well so always empty their stock whenever you have the chance.
To fish, talk to the keeper. Byleth will take position with the line already casted. Select the bait you want to use and wait for a bite, represented by a fish shadow in the lower-left corner of the screen. Press A to reel in the fish and start the next phase of actually overpowering and catching it. You have three attempts to reel in a bite before the bait is lost. Sometimes, it’s best to wait for the third bite especially if the first two are small fish shadows only.
The color of the fish icon represents the size and rarity of the fish. You should always aim for the larger fish shadow (large blue) at least. You’ll also encounter Giant Fish Shadows (pink icon), golden, and even rainbow-colored shadows. These fish will be somewhat harder to catch but will award more EXP.
Once the fish bites the lure, you’ll have to deplete its stamina. This is done by pressing A once the outer circle hits the purple inner circle, also known as the “sweet spot”. Doing so will result in an “Excellent” hit, which will reduce the fish’s stamina by a huge amount. Consecutive “Excellent” hits will count to Combos, resulting to even more stamina to drain from the fish.
The speed on how the outer circle retracts will depend on the fish’s rarity. This somehow makes the capture process challenging for rarer fish. Even if you don’t hit the sweet spot, as long as the outer circle lands anywhere near it, you’ll still get a “Good” hit. The fish will still lose stamina but not as much as an Excellent hit. Your stamina also drains for every hit so getting consecutive “Excellent” is pretty much required for capturing high-rarity fishes, especially the mysterious Rainbow one.
After capturing the fish, you’ll be able to see its name, rarity, selling cost, the number you have in your inventory, and the description if it’s meant to be used as a Cooking ingredient or you can sell it outright. Your fishing session automatically ends if you don’t have any more baits.