How to Find Leeches in How to Fish — Forest Island Quest Fix

Leeches are the bane of early How to Fish progression: the Lady by the Lake on Forest Island wants three leeches, and half the community swears they can’t find any. Here’s what we know.

Where leeches spawn

Leeches are ground pickups, not hooked catches. On Forest Island (Island 2), look around the lake area where the quest giver stands — they sit on the ground like clams do on Lighthouse Island.

Why you can’t find any

Two things are going on:

1. Slow spawn rate. Leeches spawn slowly compared to other pickups. Players report waiting near the lake and doing laps rather than finding them instantly.
2. Possible spawn bug at launch. Multiple players report zero visible spawns even after extended searching. If that’s you, try these:

Fixes to try

• Leave and re-enter the island — re-entering Forest Island appears to reroll ground spawns for some players.
• Search at a different time of day — some ground pickups respawn on the world clock.
• Check the waterline, not just dry land — leeches hug the shore more tightly than clam spawns do.
• Play solo once. Some launch-week spawn issues only appear in multiplayer lobbies; if you’re hunting leeches with friends, try a solo run.

What the three leeches get you

Hand all three to the Lady by the Lake and she converts them into a Modified Leech lure — which is exactly what you need to summon the Giant Piranha, the Forest Island boss. Its skeleton is required for the Desert Island chain, so this quest is mandatory progression, not optional content.

Still stuck?

If leeches genuinely never spawn for you, verify your game files via Steam (corrupt installs have caused pickup issues) and check the official Discord — the developer has been responsive during launch week and a spawn-rate patch may already be out.