Starting Fishing

[Darkani]

Im currenty lvl 3 fishing, 51 cooking.
Since this two crafts go hand in hand I was thinking I should start some serious fishing.

Can someone give any tips for a newbie fisher? What rod to use, what bait is best and where and when to fish.

I use a Glass Fiber Fishing rod right now and can make my own bait.



and when will fishing start giving a good profit? like 10k/hour at least.

[ghog]

Great job on the cooking skill! Yes, fishing does compliment cooking, as well as woodworking, alchemy, smithing, and clothcrafting.

I'll take a leap here and try to provide you some insight on what little I know about fishing.

Given that you're level 3 in fishing, you should start by getting a carbon rod and a sabiki rig and target bastore sardines until level 8. I assume that you do have money to spend given that your cooking is at level 51, so you should invest in a four-piece fishing suit made from clothcrafting - nothing fancy as in the Angler's set - just your run-of-the-mill fisherman's _________.

Now assuming that you have a suit, spending a few gil on advanced fishing imagery cannot hurt. You can get this from a taru fisherman in Port Windurst, in front of the fishing guild on the docks. While you're there, you'll also want to join the fishing guild.

Then, onto fishing for moat carps for levels 8-11. Now, the general rule of thumb is that live bait is better than lures. Little worms will suffice, but if you don't want to pull up the rest of the rabble (crayfish namely), use balls of insect paste to target the carp family. I'm sure that you're familiar with the recipe.

Then there's still a whole lot to talk about. Try to fish the most on favorable moons, and at good in-game times (I forget the exact time frames, but there are two - morning and evening - for optimal results). For freshwater, it will be on full moons. For salt water, it will be on new moons. But overall, full moons and new moons are just the best times to fish.

There are a bunch of Vana'diel timers that you can choose from so that you can plan your fishing excursions.

Also learn your fishing rods. Every rod type has its limitations and purpose. While these attributes overlap, I think it's good to get the best early on and learn the individual limitations (e.g. composites are good because they don't snap on rusties, but are inefficient at catching small fish, whereas glass fiber rods are great at catching small fish, but can snap on rusties). A great site for this is Osakana's Database (Japanese for "fish"), found at http://www.fishermanrods.net/database_e.cfm.

You'll find an interactive fishing map there also, which shows you what types of fish/items are in the zone/area. It will also show you where your rods can snap, and what baits to use, in addition to fishing guild point allowances and soft caps for each fish.

Of course, you'll want to create your fishing macros to make it easy on yourself. A great one to use when you're starting out is:

Name: Fish
/clock
/wait 14
/fish

Name: Ammo
/equip "Ammo" [exact name here]

From here, there is an abundance of fishing guides. Most of them encompass fishing from levels 0-40. I'll paste Wolfsable's of Allakhazam.com for you:

[ghog]

Hello everyone, it's me Wolfsfable chiming in on the subect of fish. Seems to be the hot topic as of late and being LVL 80 in cooking UG I need Emperor fish (skill LVL 90 req to catch) to further my cooking skill so I decided to give fishing a go.

I have been fishing a lot the past couple of weeks and have found the guides on this board (no offense fellas) but although they work, they are about as exciting as clipping my nose hairs.

Folks fishing is a great habbit to pick up. It is by far one of the most resilant tradeskills of them all. You fish its kinda like pulling FREE money outta the water. Before we get started lets clear up something, YOU ARE GONNA BREAK FISHING RODS. If you wanna skill up at an decent rate you hafta take chances, risk vs reward.

First things first, JOIN THE FISHING GUILD. You can't skill up if you are not part of the guild, so head over to Port Windurst and join up. Most guides on this board say grab a Composite or Mythian and head for the moat carps. Bad idea.

Skill 0-5
First thing ya should do is grab a couple bamboo rods and some handfuls of little worms and high tail it over to Bastok Mines area. Use your bamboo rod and your little worms to fish up some crayfish outta the sewers. These little suckers may not look like much (DONT SELL UM) but they along with your trusty bamboo rod will LVL your fishing skill up rather quickly. Here are a few reasons to use the bamboo. It's the single best rod for beginner fisherman to use and skill up on and it is designed for smaller fish,so none of those pesky "too small" messages. Not to mention it's cheap as hell. Bastok Mines area, well little worms in that area will pretty much single out only crayfish. Taget fish for good skil gains early on.

Skill 5-8
After getting a 5 in fishing you can off your bamboo rod/rods you won't be needing them anymore. Grab yourself a Carbon fishing rod and a Sabaki Rig and head over to the fishing guild in Port Windurst. Fish off the pier there and yank up Bastore Sardines 1-3 at a time YEEE HAW. These suckers will take you to a skill LVL of 9 you can chop them up to start your cooking career or hang onto them for later use. the choice is yours. AT skill LVL 8 make sure to hit the guild for your first promotion.

Skill 8-11
Moat carp's galore. If you have a LVL 29+ in cooking now would be a perfect time to use it. Earth Crystal Millionear Corn, Little Worm, Distilled Water. Insect paste, I suggest using Carbon or Glass Fiber rods. You can sell off the moat carps or turn them in for Lu Shangs. You should make a pretty good profit during this time. Use the money made during this stage and invest in fishing clothes, they make a difference.

Skill 11-20
Copper frogs my ass. Head down into Para mines and half the time you will catch monsters for no gains and the other half the time you will find yourself with nothing on the end of your pole. Fishing for Copper Frogs just plain put my ass to sleep. I swear folks it will knock and insomnic out. Instead grab yourself a Glass Fiber rod head to East Ronfare and use a fly lure. Pulling in Salmon/Shining trout you will be LVL 20 in no time flat. The fish East Ronfare river can snap your Glass pole and on occasion your line will snap. This is one of the fastest LVLin in fishing I have done to date, didn't wanna sleep it was that fun AT LVL 18 you are do another promotion take one of your salmon to windurst with ya when ya head back to promote. You can stick around till ya hit 20 you will cap at 20 without your LVL 18 promotion so it's all good.

Skill 20-30
Ok if you wanna catch Catfish. Well damn I will ask those that skilled on catfish. Was I doing something wrong here? I catch at MOST 4 Giant Catfish a day trying the West Saruta Moat Composite/Sinking Minnow. I was seriously dying there, fell outta my computer chair twice because of shear bordem. Let the money FLOW. INSECT PASTE/Carbon Rods (take 2 one for a back up) Head to Jugar Forest head to the lake use nothing but insect paste. OMG this lake is OFF THE HOOK. Even with a crappy moon you are going to get a bite almost every toss. I can't brag enough about this lake so lemme give some pointers. Don't forget your promotion at LVL 28 Giant Catfish is needed.

The lake in Jugar Forest is a gold mine for fishing skill LVLing. THe entire carp family lives in the lake (don't fish the river BTW) Tricolor Carp will take your fishing skill to 27 (these guys have a chance to snap your rod) The sell for 103 gil per fish in Jeuno to the NPC's didn't bother collecting and giving them in to the guild in windurst. Dark Bass will skill you up to LVL 33 (these have a chance to snap your rod). Dark bass sold for 40 gil a pop in Jeuno to the NPC's. Moat Carp bite here also, no skill gain great to sell or turn in for Lu Shangs these fellas will not break your rod. Gold Carp also bite here, they are rare, will skill to LVL 56 so dont expect gains (these have a chance to snap your rod) they are worth 600 gil to the NPC's in Jeuno. And last but not least by any means the ol Rusty Cap (these have a chance to snap your rod). Folks first time to the Lake O Gil I caught 5 of them and threw them away... caught a 6th and headed to Jeuno with it and hit the sell button and saw the man offer 2,596 gil I was kicking myself for bout 10 minutes straight and a steady flow of profanity flowed from my lips. DO NOT THROW THEM AWAY! LOL No skill gains but they will pay for your broken rods in a hurry. WHEN you break rods in this lake, shake it off folks, sell broken rods back on the AH and pick up some more. It shouldn't happen that often but it will happen, expect it. Because of monsters caught on this lake I suggest being LVL 45+ to fish in the area. If not be prepare to die some. You will pull up Pugils/Crabs and Leeches but not very often.

Skill 20-30 Alternate
There is an alternate route to 30 using those Crayfish you caught at the early LVL's. If you have a umm..46+ in cooking you can make Crayfish Paste best way to skill your cooking from 46-51 BTW Earth, 3 Crayfish, San Doria Flour, Distilled Water. Used on the Selbina-Muhara Ferry you can catch Nebomnites which sell REALLY well. They are used to make Black ink used in many of the Ninjitsu tools. They are also used in Fish Kabobs as well and a few other things. These will net you some nice cash, you wanna burn off some Crayfish paste this is a good way to do it.

Skill 30-40
Sliced Sardines on the coastline in Eastern Sarutabaruta is the place to be. This is the point at which you are gonna want to use those Composite/Mythian Rods. The bling bling at this stage will start to flow really well. If ya need bait fish up some Bastore Sardines! Chop um up! You will Catch Gold Lobster / Bluetail/ Bream in this area. The Bream like to snap rods. You can keep the Bluetail if you want for bait at later LVL's.

My skill is currently LVL 32 and rising fairly quickly and the money is good. Welp time for me to hit the sack. Good luck fellas. Hope to see ya on the ferry sometime soon!

Events for Skill Gains...the working Hypothesis

For now I won't call it so much of a law, but more of a working progress. Although I do not like to get technical because things like this tend to give people headaches, so I will try to keep it simple. Again for the record this is my thoughts, I didn't read this off any message board or buy it off ebay. This is data collected from what I have experianced thus far.

For starters for these "rules" to be in effect you must be fishing for fish appropriate to your LVL. 5 LVLs to 10 LVLs from your current skill. This is the prime target which you should attempt to stay in. Anything more/less skill gains come slower and if you try to fish too high above your skill you will get no gains just like fishing for fish below your lvl. The approximations are based on a single point of fishing skill between LVLs 1-50. I haven't had the chance to test fishing gains above LVL 50 but due to the fact that other trade skills slow down after LVL 50 I am lead to believe Fishing will follow the same basic set of rules. OK on to the meat of it!

Fishing skill 0.0 - 0.8
During this time is when it is most possible to make successful skill gains if you get a "Something caught the hook!" during this time. "Something caught the hook!" rate for this time to gain skill is approximately 5% + any additional "Bonus events that raise"

Fishing skill 0.8 - 1.0
During this time "Something caught the hook!" are reduced dramatically. By dramatically I mean by as much as 80% of normal skill gain rates. "Something caught the hook!" rate for this time to gain skill is approximately 1% + any additional "Bonus events that raise"

Bonus events that raise:

The following is a list of events in fishing that I believe give bonuses to raise your skill and the approximate % chance to raise skill.

Your line broke! + 10% chance to raise skill
Your rod broke! + 10% chance to raise skill
You caught <name of fish> + 5% chance to raise skill

Events that do not raise fishing skill:

Rusty Items
Gil
Rings
Monsters
Fish to far above or below current fishing skill.
"You did not catch anything."

That being said, dont be foolish enough to break rods on purpose, it won't work. For instance using bamboo rods to fish out Giant Catfish. The fishing tackle/rod used during skill gains must have a chance to catch the target fish. A small rod designed for small fish will always break (with the exception of Lu Shangs of course ^^ )if you attempt to catch a fish designated "BIG"

I furthermore believe that "organic baits" have a better chance to attract bites versus lures of the appropriate type. For instance Sliced Sardines have a better strike rate for Bluefin as opposed to a Sinking Minnow Lure.

[ghog]

I hope that helps. And in terms of making money, it is hard to say. Moat carps can sell for 3-4k a dozen at the auction house, and I've sold Crystal Bass for 24k a dozen. Bastore Breams sell for over 1k to NPCs, and Gold Lobsters can fetch 2k at the auction house. So it is really hard to say how much you can make per hour.

Some days you'll be reeling them in like crazy. Other days will be dead quiet.

However, I will say that you're cooking skill of 51 is way overkill. As you will notice, balls of insect paste for carps is very easy for you. Sliced sardines are even easier. But the good thing about fishing is that it is a skill that will not consume your master crafting skill points, so that you can theoretically level fishing up to 100 without compromising the distribution of crafting skill points for the other guilds.

[Darkani]

Thanks for all the anwers, that will help alot ^^
Im using Glass Fiber now but ill just switch over to Carbon for now I guess.

And thanks for the tips of macro.
*goes fishing*