Leeches in How to Fish: Where to Find Them on Island 2

Updated 2026-09-02 · Steam How to Fish

Leeches in How to Fish are ground pickups on island 2, not something you buy from a shop. Three of them lie in the tall grass, and handing all three to the lady in the forest gets you the boss bait for the Giant Piranha. That hand-in also starts the Dinnertime achievement, which is why almost every route through island 2 begins with a lap of the grass. Players call island 2 "leech island" for exactly this reason. Everything below comes from player-written Steam guides and one mod database, since the developer patch notes never mention leeches by name.

Where to find leeches on island 2

Leeches sit loose on the ground in the forested, grassy part of island 2. Both big achievement guides describe the same thing: three leeches lying in the grass, and a villager (the lady on the rock, in the forest) who wants them.

The awkward part is visibility. One guide notes that no other island has ground cover this deep, so a leech model can sit completely buried in it. Its advice is to walk the area slowly and wait for the pickup prompt to appear instead of hunting for the leech by eye. Player-tested, not official.

Detail	What players report
Island	Island 2, the grassy forest island ("leech island")
How many you need	3
Where they are	Loose on the ground in the tall grass
Who wants them	The lady in the forest, standing on a rock
What she gives back	The boss bait for the island 2 boss
Can you buy them	No source lists a shop that sells leeches

No source says whether leeches respawn, or how many spawn per run beyond the three the quest needs, so treat "three, on the ground, once" as the safe assumption.

What leeches catch

A raw leech is not a fishing bait. The bait is what the lady gives you in exchange, and every bait list agrees on what it hooks: the Giant Piranha, the island 2 boss.

The name is not consistent. The Complete Fish and Bait List and the Lure Guide call it the Modified Leech; the Bait and Fish Guide calls the same entry Leech Bait; the BaitIndex mod uses "Modified Leech" and adds that it comes from the island 2 female NPC. Same item, three labels. Here is how it sits next to the other special baits players have documented:

Bait or lure	Creature it summons	Where the bait comes from
Empty Beer Can	Spider Crab	A beer bought on island 1 (players list it at $12), used as rod bait
Modified Leech (also listed as Leech Bait)	Giant Piranha	Island 2 lady, in exchange for 3 leeches
Carrot	Pufferfish	Given by the tourist NPC in exchange for an endangered fish
Professional Boss Lure	Tuna	Bought in a shop
Tuna	Albatross	Dropped by the Tuna boss
Fish Bucket	Bowhead Whale	Quest item

One rule from the 28-achievement guide explains why leeches matter at all: no shop stocks the summon for an island's main boss. Each island hides that lure behind a quest instead, and the only boss-type lures on shop shelves are the mini-boss ones. Island 2 does sell the Beginner Boss Lure for $40, but that is a separate mini-boss summon. Shop baits are covered on the bait guide.

Dinnertime: the leech quest step by step

Dinnertime is the achievement for feeding the woman who lives in the island 2 woods. Players rate it easy, but the last step catches people out: the achievement does not fire when you hand over the leeches.

Collect 3 leeches from the grass on island 2.
Give all three to the lady in the forest. She hands over the boss bait.
Use the bait to fish up the Giant Piranha and kill it. It leaves behind a trophy item.
Bring that trophy back to the lady. It is the dinner, and this is the step that pops the achievement.

The 28-achievement guide pulls a general rule out of this: each boss leaves behind a one-off keepsake as well as whatever is edible, and a quest NPC only ever wants the keepsake. When an NPC will not move the conversation along, players suggest checking which item is actually in your hands. The two guides do not agree on what the piranha trophy is called: one names it a tail, the other says the boss drops a skeleton and meat and that the skeleton is what she wants. They also differ on the reward, one ending the quest there and the other saying she hands back a tracker for the next island. Both describe the same shape of quest, so this page keeps the neutral wording: leeches in, boss bait out, boss trophy back to her. See achievements for the full list.

Fighting the Giant Piranha once you have the bait

Players describe the same mechanic every time: the boss spawns swarms of smaller piranhas as the fight goes on, and it does not stun the way the island 1 Spider Crab does. The common advice is a shotgun on the boss (the 28-achievement guide tells you to skip the pistol on island 2 and buy the shotgun instead, while the Ultimate Guide speedrun and RubenS's weapon guide are the two that put a $150 tag on it), brass knuckles on the small piranhas since they are fiddly to hit with a gun, and cooked fish in your pockets to heal. Guides split on using explosives against the swarm, and patch 1.0.11 on 1 September 2026 made your own explosives kill you even with friendly fire disabled, so treat dynamite as a risk. Full detail is on the Giant Piranha page and the boss order page.

Leeches as early money in a speedrun

Speedrunners use leeches a second way. The Under One Hour Tips guide for 1.0.10 says you need about $30 on the piranha island for one stick of dynamite plus the inventory upgrade, and if you are short you can sell leeches there. That competes with the quest, so it only applies to leeches beyond the three the lady needs.

The other trick, from the Ultimate achievements guide: turn the 3 leeches in early but do not take the boss bait yet. Set up money and weapons first, then pick up the bait and fight.

Player-reported island 2 cost	Price	Guide that lists it
Dynamite	$25	28-achievement guide, and RubenS's weapon guide
Shotgun	$150	Ultimate Guide speedrun, and RubenS's weapon guide
Boat engine upgrade	$230	28-achievement guide
Beginner Boss Lure (mini-boss, optional)	$40	28-achievement guide

The 28-achievement guide priced everything during a multiplayer run and warns that weapon upgrades appear to run cheaper solo, so read all four numbers as approximate. The 28-achievement guide names the shotgun as the island 2 buy but never prices it, so the $150 figure here is taken from the other two guides.

Patch notes that affect the leech run

The developers have never patched leeches directly, but three official changes affect the run.

Patch	Date	What changed	Why it matters here
1.0.10	27 August 2026	Dropped items are saved between sessions, up to 64, prioritising weapons, tools, quest items and creatures	A leech you drop and log out on is likelier to still be there
1.0.11	1 September 2026	Item dots recoloured, weapons orange and dead players turquoise	Dropped items are easier to tell apart while sweeping the grass
1.0.11	1 September 2026	Items must have been held once before selling	Spare leeches have to be picked up before you can sell them

Full patch history is on the patch notes page.

Mods that show bait requirements

Two Thunderstore mods put bait data in the game instead of on a wiki tab. BaitIndex by Ponchik (v1.0.50, 28 August 2026, about 2,618 downloads) injects the required bait for every creature into the native Tab journal, including the Modified Leech entry for the Giant Piranha. Fishydex by AtomicStudio (v0.1.1, 24 August 2026, about 6,839 downloads) is a lighter version showing which lure catches a fish. Both need the BepInEx Mono pack. Cheat mods that hand you every bait or every boss also exist on Thunderstore; this site does not cover them.

Common questions

Can you buy leeches? No source lists a shop that sells them; every guide describes finding them on the ground on island 2.

Do leeches catch ordinary fish? No. Every bait list maps the leech bait to one creature, the Giant Piranha. Ordinary fish use the French Fry, Hot Dog, Beginner, Standard, Professional and Scientific lures.

How many do you need? Three, in every guide that describes the quest.

Do leeches appear on other islands? Not confirmed. Only island 2 is ever named. See islands for the island order.

Sources and last check

Checked 2 September 2026. The leech location, the three-leech count, the lady in the forest and the four-step Dinnertime sequence come from two player-written Steam achievement guides, "How to Fish - All 28 Achievements + Post-Game Route" and "How to achieve / The Ultimate Guide to Unlocking All Achievements". The bait-to-boss mapping is cross-checked against Steam's "Bait and Fish Guide" and "Lure Guide", which differ only on the name Modified Leech versus Leech Bait. The two achievement guides disagree on what the Giant Piranha drops and what the lady returns, so that item is left unnamed here. The mapping is also checked against the BaitIndex mod page on Thunderstore. Selling spare leeches comes from "Under One Hour Tips/Guide 1.0.10". The $150 shotgun price and the weapon advice for the piranha fight come from the Ultimate Guide's speedrun section and from RubenS's "How to Fish: Complete Boss and Weapon Strategy Guide", not from the 28-achievement guide's multiplayer price list. Every price, tactic and location claim here is player-reported and was not re-tested. Only the patch table is official, from the Dazed Games announcements for 1.0.10 (27 August 2026) and 1.0.11 (1 September 2026).