Soulframe Fishing: Lures, Fish and Tips Since Preludes 16

Soulframe fishing has been playable since Preludes 16 “Of Hook & Hound”, live since September 18, 2026. You start with the Votive “Minnow's Hook” at one of three Finner Shrines, land fish in four steps and decide whether to release or keep your catch.

Both choices come with their own rewards, and fish you keep turn into treats for your pup. Digital Extremes first showed the activity at TennoCon 2026 in Devstream 16. This guide is based on the official Preludes 16 patch notes and Hotfixes 1 to 4. Anything that only comes from Soulframe Devstream 17 is marked as such.

🗺️ Getting Started: Minnow's Hook and the Three Finner Shrines

You unlock fishing through the Votive “Minnow's Hook”. It starts at one of the three Finner Shrines. Turn on Spectral Sight and the shrine becomes visible.

Finner Shrine	Habitat
Lakeside south of Sidae's Stake	lake
Birdie's Bog	swamp
Shoreline near Heedoway	coast

The Votive leads you to Grandfa's Hut and on to Doyen's Spool. As a reward you get your first lure, the Feathered Flier. It is indestructible and has unlimited uses, so you can never lose it.

According to Hotfix 1, the Fishing Shrine in the Kearnhold Lowlands didn't start the Votive “Minnow's Hook”; Hotfix 2 fixed that. If your Doyen's Spool is missing, check the Gear Wheel: according to Hotfix 2, it was redistributed to players who had lost it.

🎣 How Soulframe Fishing Works Since Preludes 16

You equip the rod at the water through the Gear Wheel. According to Devstream 17, that works at any body of water that is deep enough, not just at fixed spots. Every catch takes four steps:

1. Cast: an indicator shows you the perfect cast.
2. Lure: you also time the bite with an indicator.
3. Reel: pull against the direction the fish is swimming. If it jumps, stun it with the primary button. If the line flashes red, ease off.
4. Catch: then you decide whether to release the fish or keep it.

According to Devstream 17, reeling gets harder the farther you cast, and a catch log keeps track of what you've landed. There's also new music when it rains.

The hotfixes have made the rod more responsive. Per Hotfix 3, the bite prompt now appears when the fish actually bites, not a second early. Per Hotfix 4, fish lose interest if your lure moves too far from their position, and the journal now shows your best catch rarity correctly. Floating fish (Hotfix 3) and a lure wheel bug on controller (Hotfix 1) are fixed as well.

🐟 Where Each Fish Bites: Habitat, Nature, Time of Day, Weather

According to the patch notes, four factors decide which fish bites. If you're hunting for something specific, switch waters, change the time of day and wait for the right weather.

Factor	Options
Habitat	swamp, lake, coast
Nature	Surface Dwellers, Bottom Feeders, Ambush Feeders
Time of day	morning, midday, evening, night
Weather	overcast, rain, thunderstorm, wind

Heavily corrupted fish only live in deeper water. You can only see them at higher angler ranks. According to Devstream 17, there are six fish species with four corruption variants each; the patch notes give no number. Digital Extremes hasn't published a complete list with names, locations and times.

🪝 All Lures and Where to Find Them

You carry at most 10 of each lure. If your line snaps, lures can break; the Feathered Flier is the exception. Avakot's Gots also sells random lures, and according to Hotfix 4, Enclave vendors sell lures too. Since Hotfix 4, the three rare lures drop from Common Chests instead of Rare Chests.

Lure	Rarity	Source
Feathered Flier	common	reward from “Minnow's Hook”, indestructible
Snelled Swimmer	uncommon	Common Chests in Dermak Undercity
Pluckfin Skimmer	uncommon	Common Chests in Glades of Andurin
Sirin's Hopper	uncommon	Sap Crates in Neath'uns
Locustax Streamer	rare	Common Chests in Dermak Undercity (per Hotfix 4)
Scuter	rare	Common Chests in Glades of Andurin (per Hotfix 4)
Spindled Bugger	rare	Common Chests in Neath'uns (per Hotfix 4)

🎁 Release or Keep: The Rewards

Both choices pay off, just for different goals. Releasing gives you materials for Virtue elixirs, keeping gives you the ingredients for pup treats.

Fish	Release	Keep
every catch	Harmony and Swell O' Tides	Clappie Pail and Plaited Freshfish
uncommon	chance of Whisprigs	chance of Ichor
rare	Dust Lampyrite and River Pearls	Petrified Ichor

📈 Ten Angler Ranks

As you fish, you climb up to ten angler ranks. Higher ranks make fish tire more easily, improve perfect casts and bites, and let you see deeper into the water. You need that for the heavily corrupted fish that only live at greater depth.

🐺 Treats for Your Pup: Why Keeping Pays Off

Preludes 16 also brought Wolfpup training, and fishing ties into it twice. Fishing trains the pup's Heart stat. According to Hotfix 4, the Heart aura grants Spirit and extra health healing. On top of that, Verminia turns kept fish into two treats:

• Canid Kibble: 5 Plaited Freshfish, 2 Toe of Ode, 1 Clappie Pail. Lowers energy use during training; too much makes your pup sluggish.
• Canid Biscuits: 5 Clappie Pail, 2 Jaden Drops, 1 Plaited Freshfish. Your pup learns better for a short time; too many cause a sugar crash, and it tires faster.

You carry at most 5 Kibble and 5 Biscuits and feed through the Gear Wheel. According to the patch notes, Ode'n hunters also drop food. How the pup and the grown wolf connect is covered in our Soulframe wolf companion guide.

📜 How Fishing Was Announced at TennoCon

The first reveal in July 2026 was brief but clear. In the official TennoCon announcement, Digital Extremes described it as a “new fishing gathering activity” and tied it directly to a character: you're meant to recall “forgotten childhood pastimes of lakeside fishing with Grandfather Doyen”. That places it under gathering, in the same family as collecting materials in the open world, not as a combat system.

The second official piece is in the TennoCon recap on the Soulframe site. It mentions Spirithooks you use in the waters of Midrath, and a clear purpose: “the rivers and streams of Midrath need your aid to heal the helpless from spirit to scale.” The wording is flowery, but the direction is obvious: this is about healing, not killing.

These are the key points from the TennoCon announcement:

• Fishing comes to Soulframe as a new gathering activity.
• You fish with Spirithooks in the rivers and lakes of Midrath.
• The activity is tied to the story of Grandfather Doyen.
• The goal is to help the waters and their inhabitants, not to exploit them.
• The announcement gave no date; it went live with Preludes 16 on September 18, 2026.

🌊 Corrupted Fish: Release or Keep

Right after Devstream 16 it was clear that the fish in Midrath are tainted. ArzyeLBuilds summed up what was shown as “catch polluted fish to clear their corruption and let them free”, and OrbisNull put it more briefly: “Capture the sad fish. Cleanse the corruption. Release a happy fish.”

In the live game the decision is more open: according to the patch notes, you release or keep your catch, and both bring their own rewards. The patch notes don't mention a separate cleansing step.

That's more than a nice detail, because it fits the core of the game exactly. Ichor and corruption aren't background noise in Soulframe, they are the central theme: the same force that feeds the new Vadagar Pact and keeps you busy in boss fights against the Ode. When you drive out corruption by force against world bosses, you do the same thing at the water with a rod. That anchors the activity in the setting instead of bolting it on.

Then there's the story hook. The outlet aGamingNetwork writes that the activity is “directly tied to the worldbuilding, with Grandfather Doyen woven into the activity's narrative”, meant to deepen the world rather than stretch it.

Doyen isn't a side character either: Digital Extremes ties him directly to your Envoy's childhood. If you know the character, you'll likely get more out of the activity than a progress bar. If you're still unsure about names and factions, our beginner's guide helps you get your bearings.

⚠️ Confirmed or Still Open? Where Things Stand After Preludes 16

A lot gets said about Soulframe fishing, so here is a clean split between what the Preludes 16 patch notes and hotfixes confirm and what remains open:

Topic	Confirmed (as of Hotfix 4)	Still open
Core idea	catch, then release or keep	whether there is a separate cleansing step
Lures	seven lures with sources, at most 10 per lure	–
Location	swamp, lake and coast habitats; per Devstream 17, any water that is deep enough	which species lives in which water
Weather	overcast, rain, thunderstorm and wind affect what spawns	which species shows up in which weather
Story	Votive “Minnow's Hook” at three Finner Shrines, on to Grandfa's Hut and Doyen's Spool	whether more angling quests will follow
Rewards	release: Harmony and Swell O' Tides; keep: Clappie Pail and Plaited Freshfish; plus ten angler ranks	further uses for your catch
Release	live with Preludes 16 since September 18, 2026	–

The weather row matters most. Even the TennoCon demo showed “weather changes”, according to Lords of Gaming. With Preludes 16, dynamic weather is live, and per the patch notes, which fish appear depends on weather as well as habitat, nature and time of day. The developers haven't broken down which species bites in rain or thunderstorms.

🍂 Fishing, Preludes 16 and Warsongs

Devstream 16 wasn't a fishing stream, it was the outlook for the fall. Digital Extremes announced the Fable “Warsongs” for “later this Fall”, with Ben Starr as Tempest Bayor, per the official description an Envoy like you, but aligned with the invading Ode forces. Here's what else was shown:

• Mounts: the first mount system is meant to be testable this year, starting with the full-grown wolf. Details are in our wolf companion guide.
• Vadagar Pact: a corrupted path that draws power from Vespers instead of Virtues: Wrath, Doom and Death. How that relates to the existing Virtues and attributes and to Pact selection is the most interesting system change of the update.
• Temper rework: didn't come with Warsongs but already with Preludes 16. Salvaged weapons teach Tuvalkane their Tempers, which she then transfers to level 30 weapons within the Temper limit of their Craftwork. That takes a lot of randomness out of the Temper loot system.
• Mendicant Reinbreaker: the Agari boss isn't part of Warsongs. According to the Preludes 16 patch notes, it's already playable, and beating it unlocks the Epithet “Destrier”.

By now it's clear: fishing didn't come with Warsongs but with Preludes 16 “Of Hook & Hound”. Warsongs follows as a separate, later update in fall 2026, with no date yet. Everything about Preludes 16 is in our update overview.

🧭 Tips for Your First Fishing Trips

Start with the Feathered Flier: it's indestructible and lasts forever. Save lures from chests and Sap Crates until your perfect cast is reliable, because they can break if the line snaps. Ease off as soon as the line flashes red. According to Devstream 17, every bit of extra casting distance also makes reeling harder.

Switch between swamp, lake and coast and fish at different times of day to see more species. The three Finner Shrines cover exactly these habitats. If you've unlocked your world trees as fast-travel points, you get there faster. Be careful with guides that claim full fish lists and catch times: Digital Extremes hasn't published tables like that.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions about Soulframe Fishing

Can you fish in Soulframe yet?
Yes. Since Preludes 16 “Of Hook & Hound” on September 18, 2026, it's live in the pre-alpha on PC. You start with the Votive “Minnow's Hook” at one of the three Finner Shrines, which you find with Spectral Sight.

What happens to the fish you catch?
You release them or keep them. Releasing gives Harmony and Swell O' Tides, and for rarer fish also Whisprigs, Dust Lampyrite or River Pearls. Keeping gives Clappie Pail and Plaited Freshfish for the pup treats at Verminia, and for rarer fish also Ichor or Petrified Ichor.

Which lures are there?
Seven: Feathered Flier, Snelled Swimmer, Pluckfin Skimmer, Sirin's Hopper, Locustax Streamer, Scuter and Spindled Bugger. Apart from the Feathered Flier, they come from chests and Sap Crates in Dermak Undercity, Glades of Andurin and Neath'uns, with the rare ones in Common Chests since Hotfix 4. According to Hotfix 4, Enclave vendors also sell lures. You carry at most 10 of each.

Where can you fish?
The patch notes name three habitats: swamp, lake and coast. According to Devstream 17, you can cast at any body of water on Midrath that is deep enough, not just at fixed spots.

How many fish species are in Soulframe?
According to Devstream 17, six species with four corruption variants each. The patch notes give no number. They sort fish by habitat and nature, and heavily corrupted fish only live at greater depth.

Does fishing come with the Warsongs update?
No. It arrived with Preludes 16 on September 18, 2026. “Warsongs” is a separate, later update for fall 2026 with no date yet.

As of: October 8, 2026, Preludes 16 with Hotfix 4. Based on the official Preludes 16 “Of Hook & Hound” patch notes and Hotfixes 1 to 4 (September 19, 21, 24 and 29, 2026) on the Soulframe forums. Details that only come from Soulframe Devstream 17 on September 18, 2026 are marked as such. Details on the first reveal come from Devstream 16 at TennoCon 2026, the TennoCon recap on soulframe.com and coverage by Lords of Gaming, ArzyeLBuilds, OrbisNull and aGamingNetwork; read them as third-party observations.