Checked on 21 October 2026 against GONE Fishing 1.0 (20 October 2026, with the 20 October hotfix). Steam app 3645890 by GONE Studios. Forum dates are UTC.

Short answer. GONE Fishing gives a caught fish three separate treatments. The store page lists them in one line: "Grill it, smoke it, turn it into a pearl" [S23]. Cooking happens on the stove or grill, smoking happens in the smoker and slows rot, and a clam turns a fish into a pearl that GONE Studios describes as rot proof [S3]. The Update 1.0 release post adds one new link to this chain, the Devil's Ember trinket [S1]. Most details below come from Early Access patch notes, so each one carries its date.

What changed in the full release

The release post of 20 October 2026 touches cooking in three places, checked by searching its text on 21 October 2026. It lists a trinket line, "Chance to instantly smoke a caught fish", for Devil's Ember [S1]. It lists a fix for fish that "would roll away and vanish" when placed on the stove [S1]. It lists a fix for the sizzling sound of the stove playing in the wrong place [S1].

The trinket system itself is covered on the trinkets page. The wider list of changes is on the page about the full release.

Step one: choose a cooking station

Stations have changed several times during Early Access.

  • On 20 October 2025 (Early Access), GONE Studios wrote "Removed the cooking stove in the cabin. Players must buy the grill in order to cook fish" [S3]. The next day it wrote "Added cabin cooking stove due to popular demand" [S4].
  • On 24 February 2026 (Early Access), the studio reworked the grill: "The grill will now cook multiple fish simultaneously rather than one at a time." [S7]
  • On 24 April 2026 (Early Access), the small stove got the same behaviour: "The small stove now cooks fish simultaneously like the grill" [S9]. The same post says "players will still need to purchase the grill to cook massive fish" [S9].
  • On 13 July 2026 (Early Access), GONE Studios wrote that "The frying pan now has functionality similar to the grill and will eject fish from the pan once they are cooked" [S13].

Put together, the 24 April 2026 notes describe a small stove for ordinary fish and a purchased grill for "massive fish" [S9].

Step two: place the fish and wait

Placing a fish uses a key. The 13 July 2026 patch (Early Access) "Changed the default key for placing fish on the stove, grill, and butcher table to" F [S13]. The 24 April 2026 notes had said "You can now simply press" E to place a fish on the small stove [S9].

Cooked fish do not stay on the grill. The 1 July 2026 notes say "Once a fish is fully cooked, it will be ejected off of the grill and land just in front of it." [S11]

The game also blocks double processing. In the 3 September 2026 notes, GONE Studios added text prompts so players know they "can't cook or smoke an already cooked or smoked fish" [S15].

How long cooking takes

The 24 February 2026 notes give a formula in words: "the fish value is multiplied by 1.5 and then clamped between values of 10 and 100" seconds, then scaled by the grill upgrade [S7]. The same post says an upgraded grill can finish a fish faster than 10 seconds [S7].

That formula is a dated snapshot. On 7 July 2026, GONE Studios wrote "Returned fish cooking speed to be half of the original values" and explained that "all fish were cooking in 7 seconds with the previous patch" [S12]. No later post in the sources read publishes a new formula.

What cooking gives

On 24 August 2025 (Early Access), the studio wrote "Buffed cooking from 1.25x point value to 1.33x point value" [S5]. The Update 1.0 release post does not restate a cooking multiplier [S1]. In a video dated 21 April 2026, SirCarrot says "when they cook, they become worth more" and recommends cooking a fish before it goes into a clam [S19].

Cooking and rot are linked in the notes, with a change over time. On 13 November 2025, GONE Studios wrote that a cooked fish "will reduce the point loss from rot by half" [S6]. On 26 March 2026 it wrote "Cooking a fish no longer reduced rot damage by half like it used to" [S8].

Step three: smoke the fish you want to keep

The Fish Smoker arrived in the 26 March 2026 notes (Early Access) as a cheaper way to fight rot [S8]. Its main points from that post:

  • It "does not give your fish any extra point value" [S8].
  • It is bought from the balloon trader, and each map has 2-3 spawn locations for smokers [S8].
  • It needs time rather than a night: the clam needs "the fish to be left over night", the smoker does not [S8].
  • Smoking can be partial: "rot will be reduced by the given percentage smoked" [S8].
  • The post describes it this way: "Unlike pearls, smoking a fish is not a permanent buff." [S8]

Several of those numbers moved later:

  • On 11 May 2026, GONE Studios wrote "once a fish is smoked its smoked status will not decline each day" [S10]. That replaces the March description of smoke wearing off [S8].
  • On 1 September 2026, the post titled "BIG FIXES, Smoking Changes, QOL, additional text" says "Reduced time to smoke a fish by 75% and reduced the max time (360 seconds) down to 120 seconds" and "Added a free smoker next to the cabin on all maps" [S14].
  • On 27 September 2026, the notes say "Reduced the cost of the Smoker item to 50->25 gold" [S18].

In Update 1.0, Devil's Ember is listed with "Chance to instantly smoke a caught fish" [S1].

Step four: turn a fish into a pearl

The clam came with the "Legendary Hunt + Clams & Pearls Update" of 20 October 2025 (Early Access). GONE Studios wrote "Once bought you place it down with left click, then when you drop fish on it it will eat the fish." [S3] The next day the fish has become a pearl "with 20% increased value, which will be rot proof" [S3].

Details from later notes:

  • A pearl is made from one fish. On 9 November 2025, the studio fixed a bug where "pearls would produce everyday after feeding just 1 fish to the clam" [S22].
  • On 13 November 2025, the studio wrote "Turning a Fish into a Pearl with the clam will prevent Rot entirely!" [S6].
  • On 13 December 2025, the notes say "Both the clam and tnt items have been moved to this trader", the late-game trader [S20].
  • On 26 March 2026, "Clams now cost 125->200", and players can pick up clams and smokers to place them elsewhere [S8].
  • On 19 September 2026 the studio "Added fish rot that applies to fish in the players inventory." [S16] On 22 September 2026 it listed "Fixed a bug where pearls would rot in your inventory" [S17].

Moving a loaded clam has been risky. The notes of 9 September 2026 list "Fixed a bug where picking up a clam that had a fish in it would delete the fish" [S21].

SirCarrot suggests the order cook first, clam second, because the cooked fish "will become worth even more points" in the clam [S19]. That is one creator's advice, not a studio statement [S19].

Sources and version

Checked on 2026-10-21 against GONE Fishing 1.0 (20 October 2026, with the 20 October hotfix).