Affinity Fishing is a system where your pole is aligned with a fish group. When you use bait that matches that group, you gain large bonuses toward:

• catching fish from that group
• rolling into rare fish within that group (at high skill)

• None
• RedScale
• BlueScale
• Deepwater
• ShallowWater
• Coral
• Stoneskin
• Exotic
• Shellfish

To benefit strongly from Affinity Fishing:

• Your pole must have GroupAffinity set (non-zero group).
• Your bait must match the pole’s affinity group.

Rare group fish have an additional requirement:

• Fishing skill 110.0+
• Matching bait + matching affinity

Each group has its own rare fish list (examples):

• Deepwater rares: Greyscale Whale, Greyscale Whale Shark, Razorbeak Squid
• RedScale rares: Bloodfang, Emberfin, Cinderbelly
• BlueScale rares: Stormscale, Azure Pike, Frostfin
• ShallowWater rares: Tideflounder, Sandsole
• Coral rares: Dragon Stingray, Pearlfin, Branchsnapper
• Exotic rares: Phoenixfin, Wyrmfish, Starfirefin
• Stoneskin rares: Rockjaw, Granitefin

• Enhanced bait (if your pole supports enhanced bait state)
• Hook synergy bonus (certain hook types match certain affinity groups)
• Expertise (pole attribute)

Affinity fishing becomes most meaningful in the late game:

• You start feeling it strongly at mid-high skill.
• Rare group fish are gated at 110+.