Crab Pots. Are they really worth it? And does "deep" water make for better results?

I'm finding myself underwhelmed by the money I'm making from crab pots. For the amount of effort, I find fishing and farming to well out earn the crab pots. In a way I feel like crab pots are like the tree taps, but more work (they make money more or less passively).

 

In all honesty, i just use crab pot to harvest trashes. Dem broken glasses and CDs for refined quartz tho.

I believe they are not suitable to make money, and rather for dish ingredients or for gifting purpose. In that regard, the beach does indeed better than land water, because you can get crab (for crab cakes) and lobster (Elliot loves it, or for lobster bisque).

 

I use to but I got tired of dealing with them and don't bother anymore.

 

I gave up too. You can complete the crab pot bundle without ever using them (you'll get a crab from the mines, and the rest can be foraged).

If I need quick trash for recycling I go and fish in the farm pond.

 

This, and because I stink at fishing (though I am getting just a bit better at it). It's much slower and more expensive to improve the skill through crab pots, but it works.

Plus, endless sets of broken eyeglasses. What's not to like? (And yes, I've got a recycler. But still. It's funny. I can't help wondering if everybody in the world has tossed their broken eyeglasses in the oceans to wash up on these shores.)

 

I LOVE crab pots... for leveling fishing and for farming fish for sashimi (cheapest gift!) and trash for useful things. For monetary income? No, not worthwhile. They require a trip somewhere that is not your farm and daily maintenance to earn somewhere around 20G per day on average, which means they take like a year to pay for themselves (I might be exaggerating, but I might not be).

 

Crab pots also give you free junk like Joja CDs and glasses, which you can recycle into Refined Quartz, so crab pots are definitely worth it. Especially if you take the trait where you don't have to bait them. And don't forget that you can get sashimi for days. Just place and check back every day and the only thing it costs you is the time to go check them.

 

Like others have said, the trash for refined quartz (and occasionally literal trash for iron ore/coal/stone) makes them worth it. Plus, the cheap fish is great for fertilizer (I have a thing where I try to avoid buying things from stores when I can make/harvest it myself) and sashimi, though I tend to find tortillas and bean hotpots to be a better gift choice. I generally fill up the big pond in my farm once I'm at the point where I don't immediately need iron for other things.

 

I would disagree with this. It stops me from holding bait to harvest the crabpot without picking them up. Both level 10s are the actual reason why I avoid that branch.

 

There's also the fact that, while you might not earn money as quickly as rod fishing, the crab pots seem to have a rather steady rate of pay out that is independent of weather and season. Not the fastest but it's there as an option.

 

Crayfish + Mussel + Periwinkle will make Fish Stew, one of the best fishing buff food items.

 

Since any crustacean and any clam-like seadweller counts as fish, they're very good to stockpile on because you can make quality fertilizer out of it, that way you won't have to waste as much money by buying that fertilizer.

 

I recommend putting 5 or 6 crab pots in the small pond on your farm. Just make sure you're holding on to some bait and just hold "A" (I play on Xbone controller) and walk around the edge of the pond. it'll take you 5 real-world seconds and you'll have some garbage for your recyclers (refined quartz is important), and lots of cheap fish to stockpile.

My reasoning for this is because Sashimi is the best source for cheap and free energy (better than the energy snacks). Make quick friends with Linus to acquire the recipe, you can likely accomplish that before Fall first year (he loves Yams) and once you have crab pots in that pond, you'll have an infinite supply of periwinkles, crayfish, and snails for Sashimi. It's a great default gift that's liked by almost all adults in the town except Emily, Evelyn, Krobus and Kent, oh god. Please don't give it to Kent, it's kind of depressing when you hear why he doesn't like it.

The Sashimi recipe is great for early game energy. Once you've maxed out the farming and mining stats, plus a few Stardrops under your belt, you don't need Sashimi anymore. Then you use your "fish" stockpile for fertilizer.

 

I used my Crab Pots to level up my fishing. I suck at fishing, so I just made a ton of Crab Pots and lined them up along the beach. Crab Pots are not good at making money at all, but you can craft recycling machines and turn the trash into something worthwhile, like Refined Quartz. And no, 'Deep' water does not make a difference. You always get trash or a crustacean or mollusk (Lobster, Crayfish, Crab, Clam, Snail, etc.)

 

WAIT REALLY

damn, I'm keeping metal trash from now on

 

The sashimi and periwinkles for quality fertilizer sound like they definitely make it worth it. Plus add that to the fact you can put them into the ponds at your farm? AWESOME. Didn't know that. I was NOT looking forward to making a trek somewhere else on a routine basis in order to make a few hundred gold a day.

Thanks for your replies guys. I'm glad there is some silver (or refined quartz) lining. Heh.