Mariner or luremaster in Stardew Valley

You need to choose either mariner or luremaster when you reach level 10 on your fishing (trapper) skill. Which profession is better?

Mariner vs luremaster

Your level 5 choice, trapper :

• Resources required to craft crab pots reduced

Level 10 choices :

• Mariner - crab pots no longer produce junk items
• Luremaster - crab pots no longer require bait

Which is better?

The mariner profession makes it so that crab pots never make trash items (like driftwood). I personally hate getting those, so a bonus that makes it so you only trap fish is great.

A small detail that you also need to consider is that some of the trash items (broken CD and broken glasses) can be turned into refined quartz with the refining machine, and refined quartz is used to create lightning rods and quality sprinklers. Lightning rods are super useful in the late game.

So maybe you DO want to find trash items after all…

On the other side, luremaster makes it so you never have to use bait. This will save you a click on each crab pot and will make things slightly faster, which is always welcome but I don't find it to be a big deal changer in this case. The reason is that you need to be right by the crab pot and to click on it to get the fish or the trash items anyway. An additional click on a 999 bait stack in the inventory isn't the end of the world.

Better choice: both are ok.

Level 10 choices

• Angler or pirate
• Artisan or agriculturist
• Coopmaster or shepherd
• Excavator or gemologist
• Lumberjack or tapper