Fishing Guide
Falkyrk - Midgardsormr Server
http://www.blackenedforge.com/fishing/
version 1.00

Table of Contents
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I.  Preface
II.  References
III.  Fishing Poles
IV.  Baits and Lures
V.  Fish
VI.  +1 Clothes
VII.  Moon Phases
VIII.  Leveling
IX.  Fishing 101
X.  Fishing 201
XI.  Fishing 301
XII.  Fishing 401
XIII.  Quests
XIV.  Macros
XV.  Fishing Timers
XVI.  Tricks and Tips

I. Preface
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***Before we get started, please download this Adobe document of the database I put together.  It'll help you see the fish and levels and bait as I talk about them.  http://www.blackenedforge.com/fishing/files/database.pdf

Fishing is a craft that is the slowest to level up, but the quickest job to achieve results. It isn't any more lively or boring than other crafting, but it's the sort of job you can do anywhere there is water. No need to pack tons of crafting components around. No need to glue yourself to the auction house. This is the craft for adventurers and explorers. And of course, this is the craft that makes all the money.

It can still be quite boring in itself, but what crafting job isn't? You must put the time and effort into it. This is the kind of crafting where you click a button and then wait 10-20 seconds for something to happen. So it's a good idea to learn how to fish without watching the screen too much.  Do other things while you fish like read a book or watch TV.  Remember, when you hook a fish, your rod creaks, so play with your sound settings until you can hear it well.

In FFXI, fish is an important commodity. First off, Mithran can eat fish raw and gain small bonuses to their stats. Second, culinary players can cook it up for even more potent boosts. Thirdly, fish can be reprocessed into bait.  Lastly, fish is the single biggest action in the game that brings money into the world (killing mobs is a distant #2).

The following chapters will delve into the tips and tricks of fishing and how best to get started and where, and then how to get through the progressively harder levels.
 

II. References
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These are references I used to gather much of the information I know and some tools that I use.  You can find all of these links on my fishing web page (located at the top of this doc).

Trent's Soft Cap Guide - http://www.brianbunge.com/files/fishingguild.txt
Moon Timer - http://www.pyogenes.com/v2.html
Osakana Database - http://www.fishermanrods.net/database_e.cfm
VN Crafting Boards - http://vnboards.ign.com/board.asp?brd=22595


III. Fishing Poles
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Fishing poles make a huge difference in terms of what you can catch. They don't help you catch more fish, they just open the doors to different types and sizes (one exception is LuShang's which I'll discuss later). Rods are specific to the size of fish, and all rods come with varying degrees of strength. Here are the following rods from weak to strong (which, coincidentally, goes from cheapest to most expensive).

Basically, the stronger the rod, the less it will break and more types of rusty gear or heavy fish it can withstand. Any good fisherman will have a couple different rods.  I prefer carrying around a Composite and a Carbon rod.  As a beginner, a Mithran works great, but you'll need to switch to a Composite later for the big ocean fish. The difference between the Composite and the Mithran is the size range of a fish it can catch.  A Mithran can catch a smaller fish, but not the smallest.  The composite will catch neither, but rather a medium to large.  If you are moat carping, you'll want to stick with a carbon rod.  Even though it has the potential to break, you will not lose any fish "due to small size."

One last thing to know is that broken rods can be repaired. In order to repair them, you'll need to seek out a Carpenter or an Alchemist, or be one yourself. Each guild repairs different rods. The skill level for starter rods are 20-40 and 60-80 for the best ones, so your crafter must be good. If you can't find one, then put your rod up on the auction block. Don't bother with the willow, yew, and bamboo rods. They don't sell.


IV. Bait & Lures
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One thing you must note is that bait and lures are completely separate. Lures aren't "fake bait." For example, the Small Worm (bait) will not catch the same fish as the Worm Lure. They just are different. For the most part, there isn't a bait or lure that is better than another, because for the simple fact that they all catch different things. Now, there are a few exceptions that make better choices. For example the highly popular Sabiki lure is capable of catching up to 3 fish at once. Bait is lost when you hook something and lures are lost when your line or pole breaks.  Watch out while using lures.  If you snag a fish that is fairly higher than your skill level, it'll snap your line and you'll lose your lure.

Here is a list of the good lures and baits that a beginner (levels 1-20) should use:

Here is a list of the good lures and baits that a amateur (levels 21-40) should use:

**The Minnow Lure is a dangerous lure, so use it wisely. Since it attracts small fish (crawfish), and large fish (giant catfish), you might break your pole if not careful. What I mean by this is let's say you are fishing a port somewhere with your Minnow and a composite rod. You cast it and get the "fish too small" message. So you switch to a carbon rod. Oops, next cast hooks the giant catfish and you can kiss your rod good-bye. A good rule of thumb here is to not use a lure unless you are using a composite rod or a Mithran rod.

The Rogue Rig needs to be addressed here.  This lure, as cited in Oskana's database, is capable of catching damn near every fish there is.  Unfortunately, it is a very poor attractant and you need a high fishing skill to get it to even catch anything.  Don't bother getting his lure until you are ready to catch Shall Shells (lvl53). 

V. Fish
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There are 52 known species of fish to catch, which you can see in Trent's guide listed above.  Fish come in all sizes and even the same type of fish come in different sizes.  Basically, there is a range of fish sizes within each type.  For example, there are small, medium, and large moat carps.  You need to understand this for the simple fact that rods work throughout these ranges.  Let's take crawfish and moat carps for example.  They are both considered "small" fish, thus you might use a rod from the small rods list above.  Technically, this is correct when selecting rods, but not all the time true.  A carbon rod is a good choice to fish with for these 2 types of fish.  It's able to catch all sizes of both.  The Mithran, on the other hand, is a stronger and slightly larger pole.  With that rod, you'll catch all but the smaller moat carp and crayfish.  The composite rod will not catch the smaller or medium crayfish or moat carps.  If you catch a fish that is too small, the game will tell you so. Don't get me wrong about the composite though.  It will catch most moats.  I'd say the composite will cost you 5% of the moats you catch and 10% of the crayfish you catch.

Some fish come with sizes when examined.  This applies to the larger ocean fish and you get a weight and length number when caught.  I'm not sure of the importance of this, but there is a quest in Mhaura that will tell you the biggest fish you ever caught, as well as a tally of how many times you cast and how many times you caught fish.

Fish locations are probably the hardest things to know and I think it's something that will never be completed.  Use Osakana's Database (linked above) to figure out which fish are where for the most part, although it seems to lack the expansion stuff in detail..  It's a great tool to use when you are out adventuring and want to know what you can catch at a particular area. 

VI. +1 Clothes
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You can purchase 8 items of clothing that will raise your skill +1 for each article. There is a piece for legs, feet, hands, and torso, and there are 2 versions of each.  (you can only wear 4 items total)  These are player-made and can be purchased on the AH or a Bazaar under Armor.  The higher version just adds more armor, not more skill.  Fishing gear really just raises your skill level, which in turn will let you catch more fish.  You won't see anything under your crafting skills because it all happens in the background.  Basically works the same as a crafting imagery.

It's a good idea to grab a piece or 2 as early as possible. The cheapest article is the Fisherman's Gloves at about $1500. The leggings and boots are about $4,000-6,000 each, and the torso is around $8,000-10,000.  These are just general prices I've seen posted and obviously it depends on the server.  The Angler's gear is much more expensive, about double the price.  See section XV for how fishing gear can help lower your recast times.


VII. Moon Phases
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The phase of the moon has a huge impact on fishing....when it's working. I must say there are plenty of false moons out there.  Basically, the fish don't bite at all during this time.  But during a real Full Moon, you can expect to hook something every single cast. You'll find your skill raising the fastest during this time. The New Moon is also good for catching fish, just not as good as a Full Moon.  Here are the following moon phases in the game.

New Moon - (zero moon, not lit)
Waxing Crescent - (quarter moon)
First Quarter - (half moon)
Waxing Gibbous - (3-quarter moon)
Full Moon - (full moon, 100% lit)
Waning Gibbous - (3-quarter moon)
Last Quarter - (half moon)
Waning Crescent - (quarter moon)

A Full Moon in game happens every 3 Earth days. This phase lasts approximately 6 Earth hours. The Moon Timer in the reference section keeps track of the moon phases for Full and New so you know when the best times to fish are. A New Moon also occurs every 3 days, but starts its cycle the day before the Full Moon. So in effect, out of every 3 Earth days, 1 day does not have optimal fishing times.  The key word there is optimal.  Like I said, there are false moons, and then there are moons where half the time is good.  If you are a beginning fisherman, I really suggest you just fish during these times if you can.  It will really help you get through the growing pains and not give you a bad impression about fishing.


VIII. Leveling
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Just a quick note since this is one of the most popular questions. Fishing is tedious and there will be times when you fish for a few hours and get no skillups.  Just keep at it.  You get skill points like the other guilds; in chunks of 0.1, 0.2, or rarely, 0.3/0.4/0.5. You will get more skillups during a Full or New Moon and sometimes very rapidly. It all seems random to me, though. But follow the soft cap guide above in my database to figure out when to move on to the next fish. You get level points for HOOKING fish. The only time you don't is when you don't hook a fish. (You don't get skillups for catching non-fish items either like rusty leggings, cobalt jellyfish, etc)  So if the fish gets away or your pole/line breaks, you will still get points. That's why it's good to fish for fish with soft caps 5-10 levels above you. You might not have the skill to land them at a frequent pace, but you learned something about them when hooking 'em.

When you hit level 8, you'll want to head to the fishing guild in Windurst so you can take the test. Taking the test gives you another rank and lets you get past fishing level 10. You can take tests at levels 8, 18, 28, 38, 48, 58, 68, 78, and 88. Fishing caps at 96 and with 4 points from fishing gear, you get a total of 100. There are 10 ranks for fishing and you start at rank 1. Ranks don't seem to be important, although some websites say you need ranks to catch certain fish reliably.   Levels cap at every 10 levels, so 10, 20, 30, etc, just like normal crafting. You cannot get past these caps until you take the test.

Last thing to know is that guilds provide fishing bonuses for a short period of time called The Fishing Imagery. The main guild in Windurst will provide this. There are 3 types. There is one for a saltwater improvement (guy slicing the marlin).  There is one for freshwater improvement (guy on the boat).  And finally, there is one for both, called the Advanced Imagery.  The guy on the dock gives this one and charges you money depending on your level. I suggest only getting the advanced one.  The cost is very small.


IX. Fishing 101
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***I'll talk about this later, but one thing to know, and really know it well, is that the game has built-in anti-bot code that discourages people from being in a zone too long.  After about an hour of fishing, the code steps in and you start catching rusty items and you get lots of misses.  So ZONE every hour.

The first thing you want to do when starting is to buy a rod of course. You get rods from vendors, bazaars, the AH, and killing/stealing Goblin Fishers. The Guild Hall in Windurst sells rods for the cheapest amongst npc vendors. Might be a good idea to have a 2nd character there to buy you fishing tackle.

I suggest you start with about 5 Bamboo rods and then pick up some worms. You can buy worms in Sandy from Lusainne outside the grocery store. In Windy, the Catalyst shop sells them 24hr a day and cheaper than the Guild Hall. In Bastok, you can get worms in the Knick-knack shop ONLY when Bastok is in 1st or 2nd place in the Conquest.  Also, think about buying those fishing gloves. It'll help early on. One thing to note is that if your inventory is full, you automatically release the fish, so if you are in town, it's a good idea to just leave your armor at home.

Next, you'll want to pick a location to fish. Your target fish are crawfish, moat carps, and bastore sardines. Since you find crawfish and moat carps together, I suggest fishing for them. Just stick around the starter areas or in town.  You won't catch mobs by fishing in those locations.

In Sandy, fish the port. It's a quiet place that is very close to your house and the AH.  Use little worms and target crayfish and moat carps. Or, if you are more adventurous, find the Knightwell in W. Rounfare.  You can find Goblin Fishers here for more rods.

If you are in Windurst, then you have more water than you can shake a stick at. Just pick anywhere.  If you want to fish by the guild for sardines, you'll need to purchase lugworms (don't use the sabiki rig when starting out).  If you want crayfish and moats, then head to Windurst Woods.

In Bastok, you can fish in the market, the port, or even the in-town mine.  Same fish as Windurst are available to you.

To actually fish, you'll need to be standing close to water and facing it. Then use the /fish command or click on the screen and choose Fish from the menu in the bottom left hand corner or use a macro (section XIII). While in the animation of fishing, you cannot do anything except talk. Any mouse clicks will put your pole away and stop you from fishing. There is no trick to when to click the button to reel in your fish. Any period while you hook something will work. I believe you have about 8 seconds to hit a button to see if you caught something or not.

When I first started fishing, I had a guild to back me up with free poles. I used about 20 rods up to about level 5, so you can see how fast you burn through these. Also, one of my favorite tactics was to fish in areas where there were Goblin Fishers. I would fish, and then when they spawned, I'd attack them for rods. It helped to clear the monotony of fishing. Fishers, for me, have dropped yew, willow, bamboo, fastwater, and clothespole rods.  Also a good tactic is to be a thief and steal rods from them.


X. Fishing 201
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Time for more extreme fishing pointers. After a few levels of fishing and many broken rods later, you'll want to choose a path. Do you want to fish for profit, or do you want to fish for skill points?  Fishing for profit will get you money today, but at a slow rate.  Fishing for skillups will speed you to the higher gil fish (60+).

Moat carps are, by far, the most traded fish in the game. The reason is because they satisfy the quest for the vaunted Lu Shang's rod. For this quest, you must catch 10,000 moat carps and turn them in to the rivaling brothers in San d'Oria. Since that is a huge number, most amateur fishermen just sell their stacks for money in order to pay for gear and tackle. They sell them to higher level characters with more money, so they can satisfy the quest the lazy way. Works out well for everybody.  I caught about half my moats and bought the rest.

If you want to go the profit way, then you'll want to focus on moat carps for the first 20 levels. You will soft cap on moat carps at level 11, but the infrequent tricolored or gold carp will boost your skill, albeit, slowly. (no tricoloreds in Windy or Bastok)  Hit up some fresh water in any town and grab some Insect Balls. If you are low level, then it's best to use worms until at least level 5. The insect balls will attract only carps for the majority of your catches.  Stick with either a carbon rod or a Mithran rod since they catch most all sizes of moat carps. To maximize your time, you'll want to fish during a Full or New Moon. Moat carps will sell for $3000-4000 per stack, depending on the server. If you are fishing off-peak (moon) hours, then you might want to stick with little worms. That will allow you to catch crawfish, which sell for $1000 a stack on my server. That will cover your bait costs.

If you want to take the road of leveling, then you'll want to focus on fish that are 5-10 levels above you on the soft-cap chart. See my database again for this one. The logical starting progression  is to work crawfish and moat carp to about level 11. Then switch to cheval salmon and shining trout to about level 19...or copper frogs if you are in Bastok.

One thing to note is that some fish share the same lures, but you won't get the fish in the same quantities. For example, in that pond you are staring at, there are 65% moat carps and 25% crawfish and 10% others.  Let's say, you are level 20, and up ahead on the softcap chart are Tricolored Carps. Since insect balls catch them, you might think to use that bait. But wrong! Since there are tons more moat carp in the water, they will eat up all your bait. Basically, you'll want to target fish that have their own unique water or lure. In this example using a Shrimp lure which will target the Tricoloreds and Golds, but not the Moats.  Also, to maximize your talents, you should get the +1 gear.

XI. Fishing 301
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At this point, you are a semi-pro. You know the general locations and you barely break rods and never snap lines...because you zone and because yoru skill helps you keep your lures. Still, there are more points for you to consider. First off, play the weather. Spread around the world are Meteorologists that will tell you the weather conditions for the next few days. As in real life, fish will bite more often at dawn and dusk, and will be more aggressive when lighting in the water is obscured. What I mean by that is that during overcast skies or rain, the surface of the water becomes dark or obscured by waves, thus letting in less light. Less light means the fish feel more protected or hidden. If they can't see out, predators can't see in.  One good example of this is fishing in Rabao. During a firestorm, fishing goes to hell.

Fishing waters where you can see fish gives you a small advantage, so they say. I've only seen this happen one time. For an example of this, try fishing the Cheval River. You'll see trout and salmon all through there. Now fish the head of the river by town where you don't see the fish. Your catch success will go down. Streams and some ponds are the only places you'll actually see fish.

Element days? There are reports that people catch better on Waterday and worst on Lightningday. This applies to crafting, not fishing.

XI. Fishing 401
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At this point, the rest of this guide should be second nature.  You should really consider getting your LuShang's rod.  It will open the door to more fish, better catch rates, and a rod that catches all ranges of fish (except the biggest, which no rod can survive).  You should also try and complete the quests that lead to Zaldon's bounty.

Fishing the Ferry almost becomes a must here.  This takes patience and a high enough crafting skill to repair all the rods you will break.  I have some tips for this which I'll illustrate below.

XIII. Fishing Quests
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There are a few fishing quests that I know of. The major one is the quest for Lu Shang's rod. It's the best rod in the game, and if you want to buy it from a player, get ready to dish out $1-4 million gil. This quest is started in the port of San d'Oria. To complete it, you'll need to give 10,000 moat carps to one of the brothers. This rod is breakable, especially on the boat.  In order to repair it, you'll need carpentering skills over 75.  It's also the only rod that can catch some of the legendary fish. 

There are also a few quests in the game that ask you to fish up things. One is started in Selbina. You need to fish up a Fat Greedie and you'll earn an earring. You don't need a fishing skill per se, just the right equipment. The other quest runs out of Windurst and asks you to hit up a couple of sea crabs that you catch on the boat from Selbina to Mhuara. In Mhaura, an NPC will take a Gugru Tuna and will tell you the biggest fish you ever caught and your success to miss ratio.  Me?  I recently broke 40,000 casts with about 25% catch rate.  I expect this to go down heavily while I start targeting the higher level fish.

The last quest isn't a quest, but more like a bounty. You'll need to be rank 3 and complete Oswald's (Selbina) three quests to get Zaldon  in the fishing guild there to buy specific fish from you.  This bounty is very hard to unlock.  There is no consensus on how you get it, but we know that fame helps. Some people say you have to do the Sand Charm quest in Mhaura.  Others say you have to do Rycharde's cooking quests there.  I did both, and it wasn't until I completed the Sand Charm quest did Oswald give me his 2nd.


XIV. Macros
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Okay, since scripters (aka, bots) are grounds for character deletion, you only get a few options to work with. The macro I use is listed below. The first line is useless and just tells you that you that the macro is working.  The second line shows the clock information telling you time of day and the moon percentage.  The third line is variable depending on your skill since the higher you are, the faster you can fish. Refer to section IX for the exact times for your level.  To initiate this macro, hit your key combination after you see your radar pop up after catching/losing a fish.

So, fish using the /fish command and then when you are done and see the radar appear, fire off this macro. Repeat this macro every time the radar appears. Basically, this macro will wait the required amount of time and then automatically fish for you.  When fishing listen for sounds like the rod creaking when you hook something and the splash when you land something.  Once you get good and fishing and macroing, you hardly ever need to look at the screen.

/echo Fishing....
/clock on
/wait 14
/fish

There is no macro to automate catching the fish. You'll have to use a 3rd party program and risk getting perma-banned. As usual, macros are case-sensitive.

XV.  Fishing Timers
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The fishing timer is the time between when you are done fishing and when you can fish again.  This time is recorded at the point when the radar spins on the screen.  You lose a second off your recast time every 10 fishing levels.  The neat part of this is that fishing gear adds to your total so if you had all 4 pieces of gear for +4 to fishing, you would shave a second of time off at level 6.  The following table illustrates it all:

XVI.  Tricks of The Trade
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1.  This trick is called the "sweat animation" trick.  It really just applies to fishing on the Ferry since that is where rods are snapped by fish.  When you hook a fish, you see sweat flying off your characters face.  If you watch this carefully, you'll notice that the animation comes in difference sizes.  Basically, small, medium, and large.  Large is where you'll snap your rod.  When you see a large animation, don't hit enter.  Just let your character go.  After 8 seconds, the fish gets away and your rod is safe.  Only downside to this is that you have to stare at your screen until it hurts.  So that leads me to tip #2.

2.  I call this one the "willow rod" trick.  Again, this applies to the Ferry and it's only for skilling up. The willow rod sells for $44 at the guild in Windurst.  So dirt cheap.  Actually, it's less than many baits.  This trip is more for 50+ fishermen.  What you do is buy up about 20-30 of these rods and then get some good bait like sliced bluetail.  Then cast away on the boat.  8 times out of 10, you'll snap your rod, and you'll never catch a fish (on that bait).  But you'll get skillups.  This trick really helps because the sweat trick causes you to let a lot of casts go.  Remember, you get skillups for HOOKING fishes that you hit the enter key for.  Just toss the rods when you're done.

3.  I call this one "rock at your back" trick.  Basically, if you have an object at your back, like a rock or a cliff, you won't fish up mobs.  I guess maybe it can't spawn, so it doesn't.  There are a few areas where this is found.  Try the NW corner of Lake Mechiume, Jugnar for a good example.  Oh, and this same trick works when you fish from the stairs on the Ferry.  You won't catch a mob there.

4.  This is the "zone" trick.  Not really a trick, but a necessity.  The game has anti-bot code implemented so that after a certain period of time, your hook rate goes way down and your rusty item count goes way up.  That time period seems to be about 1 hour.  One way to prolong this is to relog every hour.  This doesn't solve the problem, but just prolongs the code a bit.  Usually after 2-3 hours you'll have to zone.  Also, if you've been in the zone for 4 hours, and your fishing is crap, logging for 8 hours won't help.  You have to zone.