Stardew Valley Trout Derby: Rewards, Bait Strategy, and Festival Walkthrough

Summer in Pelican Town brings plenty of distractions, but few are as profitable as the Trout Derby. This short festival rewards skilled anglers with golden tags that translate directly into hats, sprinklers, totems, and other useful loot. Below is everything that makes the event tick, plus how to walk away with as many prizes as possible.

When the Trout Derby Happens

The Trout Derby runs across two days, the 20th and 21st of summer, from 6 AM to 2 AM. Every rainbow trout caught during that window carries a 33% chance to drop a golden tag, which acts as the festival currency. Tags can be saved for future years if a deadline gets missed, so nothing goes to waste.

Preparation Before Summer 20

A bit of prep work raises the haul significantly. The simplest tool is the bait maker, unlocked at fishing level 6. Crafting it requires three iron bars, three coral, and one sea urchin. Drop a rainbow trout inside and it produces targeted bait that attracts only that species, which is exactly what the derby asks for.

Rainbow trout themselves spawn on sunny summer days in three locations:

• The river running through Pelican Town
• The river in Cindersap Forest
• The mountain lake

Players who have already maxed every skill to level 10 and unlocked fishing mastery have a stronger option: challenger bait. A perfect catch with challenger bait yields three fish at once, which translates to near-guaranteed tag drops. A single catch still produces only one tag, but more attempts get packed into fewer casts.

If neither option is available, swing by Willy's fish shop each morning. He occasionally stocks trout bait directly, so grab it whenever it appears.

Fishing During the Festival

Image by Margotbean

The derby behaves like a mini-festival. Time keeps flowing normally, animals still want their feed, and shops keep their regular hours (Willy's being the exception). Race through morning chores, then head to the river in Cindersap Forest near Marnie's Ranch and start casting.

One welcome quirk: rainbow trout normally require sunny weather, but the festival disables that restriction. Rain, cloud, or shine, the fish keep biting. From there, the routine is straightforward. Cast, reel, trade tags, repeat.

Every Trout Derby Reward

Golden tags are exchanged at the event booth in Cindersap Forest. The first tag always hands over a tent kit, and the second rolls a random pick from the prize pool. After that, the rewards cycle through the list in order, starting from whichever item came up on the second turn-in.

The full reward pool:

• Bucket Hat x1
• Crab Pot x1
• Mystery Box x3
• Diamond x1
• Mounted Trout x1
• Deluxe Bait x20
• Triple Shot Espresso x2
• Quality Sprinkler x1
• Warp Totem: Farm x3
• Omni Geode x3

For example, if a second tag turns into a crab pot, the third tag rewards three mystery boxes, the fourth a diamond, and so on until the cycle loops back. Planning ahead means most of the list is reachable across both days, especially with a bait maker churning out targeted bait between casts.