Not every fish in Rust needs a rod. The Survival Fish Trap is a little wooden cage you drop at the water’s edge, fill with bait and walk away from. Come back later and there are fish waiting inside. It costs almost nothing, you know how to craft it from the first minute of a wipe, and it keeps working while you farm, build or sleep at base.
This Rust fish trap guide covers the crafting recipe, where to place a trap so it actually works, the best bait, every fish a trap can and cannot catch, how the catch rolls and the 50% failure chance work, what the fish are worth at the Fish Exchange, and how to keep other players from stealing your catch. For rod fishing, see our full Rust fishing guide, and check the Rust force wipe countdown to see how long your traps have before the next wipe.
What Is the Survival Fish Trap in Rust?
The Survival Fish Trap is a deployable wooden fish cage. In the game files it is fishtrap.small with item ID 559147458, and every player knows its blueprint from the start of a wipe. You place it in shallow water, put bait in its inventory, and it rolls for a fish on a timer without you being there.
It is the only way to fish AFK in vanilla Rust, and it is also the only source of minnows. A trap will never out-fish a player with a rod who knows what they are doing, but it costs about the same as a wooden door, so a few of them along a river next to your base add up to free food, animal fat, bone fragments and scrap over a wipe.
| Stat | Survival Fish Trap |
|---|---|
| Recipe | 200 Wood + 5 Cloth |
| Workbench | None |
| Craft time | 15 seconds |
| Blueprint | Default (known from the start) |
| Health | 100, loses 10 per catch |
| Fishing depth | Always 5 m, wherever it is placed |
| Fail chance | 50% per roll, bait used either way |
| Recycles into | 120 Wood + 3 Cloth |
| Stack size | 5 |
| Shortname / Item ID | fishtrap.small / 559147458 |
Fish Trap Crafting Recipe
The recipe is 200 wood and 5 cloth, it takes 15 seconds, and you can craft it straight from your inventory with no workbench. Since the blueprint is a default one, there is nothing to research or unlock on the tech tree.
Wood comes from any tree, and cloth from hemp plants or skinning animals. If you are short on cloth, our Rust cloth guide lists the fastest sources. A trap you no longer need recycles back into 120 wood and 3 cloth in a monument recycler.
Where to Place a Fish Trap
A fish trap must be placed in water, partly under the surface. The placement ghost turns red on dry land or in water that is too deep for it, so walk along a riverbank, lake shore or beach until it turns green. Knee-deep water at the edge is the sweet spot. You can also set it on a foundation built out into the water.
Two things about the spot matter:
- Depth does not matter. Since the June 2024 fishing changes, every trap fishes as if it were in 5 m of water, wherever it sits. A trap in a shallow creek can catch salmon, and a trap far out at sea still cannot catch a shark.
- The type of water does. Traps use the same fish list as a rod. Rivers, lakes and swamps give yellow perch and catfish. The ocean gives small trout. Small fish and salmon show up in both.
The best spot is a river or lake inside your base’s building privilege, where only your group can reach the trap. Our Rust water guide covers fresh and salt water in more detail.
Best Bait for a Fish Trap
Since the 2024 fishing rework, a fish trap reads bait the same way a fishing rod does. Each bait item has a bait value, and a higher total unlocks bigger fish. Items with no bait value are not accepted at all, and raw meat no longer works as bait.
| Bait | Value each | Stack | Best total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berries | 1 | 5 | 5 |
| Anchovy, herring, sardine | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Worm | 2.5 | 3 | 7.5 |
| Grub | 3.5 | 3 | 10.5 |
| Small trout, yellow perch | High | 1 | Enough for tier 3 |
Tier 1 fish take any bait. Tier 2 fish need a total of about 3, and tier 3 fish (catfish and salmon for a trap) need about 5 or more. That makes grubs and worms the best simple trap bait: a stack of three of either is enough for tier 3. Worms and grubs come from harvesting wild hemp, berry bushes and other plants, and from food crates.
What Can a Fish Trap Catch in Rust?
| Fish | Tier | Water | From a trap? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minnows | 1 | Any | Yes, traps only |
| Anchovy, Herring, Sardine | 1 | Any | Yes |
| Small Trout | 2 | Ocean | Yes |
| Yellow Perch | 2 | Rivers, lakes, swamps | Yes |
| Catfish | 3 | Fresh water | Yes |
| Salmon | 3 | Water 4.5 m or deeper | Yes (traps count as 5 m) |
| Small Shark | 3 | Ocean 5.5 m or deeper | No |
| Orange Roughy | 3 | Underwater Lab moonpool | No |
Because a trap always counts as 5 m deep, it clears the 4.5 m salmon line but stays under the 5.5 m a small shark needs. Orange roughy only bite inside an Underwater Lab moonpool, so no trap can reach them. For those two, take a rod and a boat.
How the Fish Trap Works
- It rolls on a timer. Roughly once a minute, a baited trap tries for a fish and uses up bait.
- Half the rolls fail. Each roll has a 50% chance to fail. The bait is gone, but no fish lands, and the trap stays active for the next roll. In practice, expect a fish every 2 to 3 minutes per trap.
- The fish depends on the bait. The trap picks a fish the same way a rod does, from the water type, a fixed 5 m depth and the bait value it has to work with.
- Every catch wears it down. The trap has 100 HP and loses 10 HP per catch, minnows included, so a trap left alone breaks after about 10 catches. Hit it with a building hammer to repair it for a little wood.
When the bait runs out the trap simply stops. It does not catch anything with an empty bait slot, so the amount of bait you load is the real limit on how many fish you get.
Turning Trap Fish Into Scrap
Every Fishing Village has a Fish Exchange that buys fish for scrap. These are the trades for the fish a trap can catch:
| Fish | Trade | Scrap per fish |
|---|---|---|
| Catfish | 2 for 65 scrap | 32.5 |
| Salmon | 2 for 55 scrap | 27.5 |
| Yellow Perch | 5 for 50 scrap | 10 |
| Small Trout | 5 for 30 scrap | 6 |
Small fish and minnows are not worth hauling to the exchange. Gut them with a knife or use them as bait. Catfish gut into 18 raw fish, 18 animal fat and 18 bone fragments, and salmon into 18 raw fish, 16 fat and 16 bone fragments, which is handy early for food and low grade fuel. Cook raw fish on a campfire before you eat it.
Protecting Your Fish Trap
A fish trap is a container, and anyone can open it. It has no lock and no code, so a trap on an open beach is free fish for whoever walks past. Keep yours safe:
- Put it inside your walls. A river or lake inside your compound, behind high external walls, keeps passers-by out.
- Keep it in building privilege. A deployable outside a Tool Cupboard‘s range decays and disappears in about two days. Inside it, it is covered by your upkeep. See our Rust decay guide for how it works.
- Empty it often. Whatever sits in the trap is loot for the next player who finds it.
Rust Fish Trap Tips
- Run several traps. One trap is slow. Five or six along the same river give a steady flow of fish and cost only 1,000 to 1,200 wood.
- Stack grubs or worms. Three grubs make 10.5 bait, enough for catfish and salmon.
- Use fresh water for catfish. Catfish are the best trap fish for scrap and only live in rivers, lakes and swamps.
- Feed the fish ladder. Trap perch and trout make strong bait for your rod when you go out for sharks.
- Repair before it breaks. A broken trap loses whatever was inside it.
- Use the rod for the big money. Small sharks pay 45 scrap each and orange roughy 37.5, and neither comes from a trap.
Traps, fish and everything else are wiped on force wipe. Check when the next Rust force wipe is before you build a fishing setup late in a wipe.
Rust Fish Trap FAQ
How do you make a fish trap in Rust?
Craft a Survival Fish Trap from 200 wood and 5 cloth. It takes 15 seconds, needs no workbench, and every player knows the blueprint from the start of a wipe.
How does the fish trap work in Rust?
Place the trap partly under water and load it with bait. About once a minute it rolls for a fish and uses bait. Half of the rolls fail, and the other half put a fish in the trap. Each catch costs the trap 10 of its 100 HP.
What is the best bait for a fish trap in Rust?
Grubs are the best simple bait at 3.5 bait each, and three of them make 10.5, enough for catfish and salmon. Worms are next at 2.5 each. Small trout and yellow perch also work as strong bait. Raw meat is not bait.
Can a fish trap catch sharks in Rust?
No. Fish traps always fish as if the water were 5 metres deep, and small sharks need 5.5 metres. Orange roughy cannot be caught in a trap either, because they only bite in an Underwater Lab moonpool.
What fish can you catch with a fish trap?
Minnows, anchovy, herring, sardine, small trout, yellow perch, catfish and salmon. Small trout come from the ocean, while yellow perch and catfish come from rivers, lakes and swamps.
Where should you put a fish trap in Rust?
At the edge of a river, lake or ocean, partly under the water, ideally inside your base’s walls and building privilege. Fresh water is best because it gives catfish, the trap fish worth the most scrap.
Can other players loot your fish trap?
Yes. A fish trap has no lock, so anyone who reaches it can take the fish and bait. Build walls around your traps and keep them inside your Tool Cupboard’s range.
Why is my fish trap not catching anything?
It is out of bait, the bait has no bait value, or it is just unlucky, since half of all rolls fail. Load grubs or worms, make sure the trap sits partly under water, and give it a few minutes.
Sources
- Recipe, craft time, stack size and item ID: Rust game item data (items.craft.json, October 2026)
- Rustafied: Quality of life, fixes, and more (May 2024), fish trap depth and shark depth changes
- Rustafied: A Seismic Update (June 2024), fish trap fail chance and bait rules
- RustHelp: Survival Fish Trap
- RustClash Wiki: Survival Fish Trap