Water Strainers are blocks that can be placed underwater. They’ll allow water to pass through while collecting any items that might be flowing inside of the water, netting you some resources with little work.
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Building the Water Strainer
The first item that’s required is the Strainer Base. It can be crafted from 2 Iron Bars, 4 Planks, 1 Chest, and 1 Hopper. This block is what your Strainer is placed on top of, and should be placed underground for it to be functional.

2 different Strainers can be crafted, with them having multiple tiers. The first is the Survivalist’s Strainer, which can catch common resources like Sand, Dirt, Clay Balls and Nuggets. Whereas the Fisherman’s Strainer can catch Fish, with Fishing Treasure items like Leather and Enchantments also available.
Strainers do have durability, which determines how many items they’ll catch before breaking. That’s where the different tiers come in. A standard Strainer has 120 uses before breaking. The Solid Strainer gives 720 uses, as well as 10% efficiency. Whereas the Reinforced Strainer has 8640 uses and 25% efficiency.
Reinforced Strainers also have Enchantability. Enchantments like Efficiency, Unbreaking, Fortune, and Luck of the Seas can be applied to them to increase the speed, durability, and rarity of loot received.
The image above shows recipes for the basic Survivalist and Fisherman’s Strainers. Use a mod like Just Enough Items to see all the recipes in-game. Once you’ve crafted a Strainer Block, place it on top of the Base, underwater.
Bait
Bait can be used to attract Fish to a Water Strainer, as it can be placed inside the Water Strainer Base. To collect Bait, you’ll need to craft a Garden Trowel from a Stick and a Brick.

When using the Garden Trowel on blocks like Grass, you have a chance of digging up Worms, which are your Bait. Alternatively, you can craft the Worm Bin, which will compost foods and attract Worms over time. You’ll also receive Fertilizer, which can be used like Bone Meal.
A Bait Pot can be crafted from a Flower Pot and Iron Bars. When placed inside a Water Strainer Base, the consumption of Bait will be reduced, and it has 128 uses.
Water Strainer Mod Download
The links above will take you to the CurseForge page for the Water Strainer Mod. Specifically, they direct you to the download for your chosen version of Minecraft. Learn more about why you should only download files from CurseForge.
How to Install
If you haven't already, make sure to install Forge for Minecraft. It's a simple process and takes just a few minutes. Once Forge is installed:- Download the mod for your Minecraft Version. It will be a .JAR file.
- Take this file, and place it in the 'mods' folder of your Minecraft directory. If this folder doesn't exist, create it. The easiest way to access your Minecraft directory is opening the game, going to Resource Packs and pressing the 'Open Resource Pack Folder' button.
- Once it's inside the mods folder, run Minecraft with the Forge preset selected. The mod will be installed and can be played with in-game.