How to Fish Island Progression: Unlock Every Island

The first island unlock has three separate actions that many guides collapse into one: return the Spider Crab proof, pick up the boat key, then buy the handheld Radar for $10. Equip the Radar and follow its green marker toward the northwest; owning the boat alone does not reveal the route.

The route has five prerequisite story islands, then the mainland/endgame destination. Patch 1.0.11 calls that final area island 6. This is a naming clarification, not evidence of an extra quest beyond the established mainland route.

Island unlock chain

The trigger items and hand-ins are multi-source walkthrough facts. Patch 1.0.5 officially fixed the bug that once allowed travel to locked islands, so pre-1.0.5 skip routes are obsolete.

Island-by-island steps and prices

On every new island, buy the Extra Inventory Slot first so you have room for fish. Prices are what current guides measured; patches can change them, so trust the in-game shop price.

Island 2 · Forest

1. Pick up 3 leeches on the grass by the lake. They sit on the ground and the grass hides them, so look down for the E prompt.
2. Buy the Pistol and Shotgun from the island shop and upgrade them as far as the island allows. The Shotgun costs about $150.
3. Hand the 3 leeches to the woman by the lake for Modified Leech, then hook Giant Piranha. Bring the skeleton back after the kill.
4. The hand-in puts the next marker on your Radar. Buy the Big Motor while you are there — the boat gets much faster.

Island 3 · Desert

1. Catch an endangered fish with a Standard Lure (Needlefish, Bowlfish and Seahorse all count) and hand it to the tourist on the beach for the Carrot.
2. Use the Carrot to summon Pufferfish. Run around trees and the merchant hut: it charges fast but turns badly, and every wide turn is your shooting window. Return the Fin after the kill.
3. This island sells the SMG (about $650), the Boat Radar upgrade and a dead grill. Relight the grill — golden-brown fish sell for more, and it is worth the detour before the boss.

Island 4 · Rocks

1. Buy and upgrade the Sniper Rifle at the Gun Merchant, and keep upgrading the SMG.
2. Use the Professional Lure ($50) to farm cash, save up about $1,200 and buy the Professional Boss Lure. That lure hooks the Tuna mini-boss; after the kill, drop the whole Tuna body in the middle of the island to bring in Albatross.
3. Albatross circles overhead, dives at you and fires downward. Tuck behind the merchant hut for cover and snipe it when it pulls away.
4. Return its head and the Island 5 route appears.

Island 5 · Volcano

1. Talk to the head scientist and hand over any 5 fish for the Fish Bucket bait. The military shop next door sells every lure type and the Assault Rifle.
2. Use the Fish Bucket to hook Bowhead Whale. It slams down on the island after splashing, so watch the landing spot. After the kill, throw the whole body into the volcano to trigger Mutated Bowhead Whale.
3. Return the final fin, take the last set of keys and ride the military boat back to the mainland.

Radar marker colours

Green (Island 2) → orange/yellow (Island 3) → red (Island 4) → pink (Island 5). Guides split between orange and yellow for Island 3, so go by the actual colour on your Radar.

When Island 2 does not appear

When a later island does not appear

Work backward from the missing marker: active NPC request → exact bait → intended boss → named trophy → correct NPC hand-in. Ordinary meat cannot replace a skeleton, fin, head or whole body. In co-op, the host’s quest state and the player carrying the trophy must both be checked before anyone leaves.

Sources: How to Fish on Steam, Dazed Games Patch 1.0.5 and Patch 1.0.11, current walkthrough sources and Steam Community reports, checked 2026-09-04. The $10 Radar and northwest marker are repeated player/guide observations rather than patch-note claims.