Val's Fishing Guide (Version 2.0)

1.4 Fishing for Items
Since the most recent update, fishing for items has stopped being profitable for the most part. It used to be that Rusty Caps would be worth over 2000 gil to NPCs, and you could also synth them into padded caps and sell those to NPCs for around 2600. Well, like so many other things, people cheated and exploited it (namely botting), and Squenix stepped in and nerfed it.

As far as I can tell, the price of Rusty Picks has not been nerfed like caps. Rusty Caps are used by many blacksmiths to skill up to level 28. These sell on the AH for a steady 2800-3000 gil. People synth them into War Picks and sell them to NPCs when they are leveling their smithing skill. Fishing for Rusty Picks could possibly be a worthwhile endeavor.

Personally, I do not fish for items, so I cannot cover it in detail. I do know that you are supposed to use the Rogue Rig or the Robber Rig if you want to catch a lot of items. These lures run somewhere between 15000-25000 on the AH as far as I know, though since the nerf, they may have dropped. Again, this topic is covered in other guides, some of which are exclusively about rusty fishing. If you wish to pursue this route, there is bound to be a guide out that that fits your fancy.


1.5 Areas
The main purpose of this section is not to go through each area that has a fishing hole in it. Rather, it is mainly to compare the pros and cons of fishing in town over fishing outside. Also, you can fish on the ferry between Mhaura and Selbina.

Fishing in town, you will not have to worry about fishing up monsters. However, from what I understand, they nerfed in-town fishing pretty badly in an attempt to stop the bots. The reason they did this is to try to force people to fish in outside areas, where you can fish up monsters.

Fishing outside, you will likely catch more fish (and hence make more money and skill up more quickly) than you would in town. However, since the last update, you can catch monsters is pretty much every outdoor area. I haven’t checked them all yet, but I know the Knightwell and East Ronfaure used to be mob-free, but have since had catchable monsters added. They have added these monsters in an effort to prevent people from botting. If they catch a monster and aren’t there to attack it, they will be killed. Most of the monsters you will catch will match pretty well with the level of the area you are in. A good rule is that if you can beat a mob and retain about 75% of your hp in an area (Too Weak to Be Worthwhile), then you are high enough level to fish there.

If you are level 30 or higher, you will be able to fish in most, if not all, of the zones I mention in this guide with little problem. As a level 40 Samurai, I have never caught a mob that took me more than 3 swings to kill, with the exception of mobs on the Ferry.

Fishing on the Ferry can be a very dangerous venture. I would recommend not undertaking this unless you are level 40 or higher. Maybe 45 or so for non-melee characters. I say this because on occasion, you may catch a Sea Monk. These are not nice, to say the least. However, mobs can be avoid on the Ferry if you fish while standing on the stairs up to the top deck on the outside edge of the ferry. Doing this will prevent you from catching any mobs. However, even using this trick, you must still be aware of the Sea Horror, a Notorious Monster version of the Sea Monk, who is level 60 to 62. He killed my level 40 Samurai in 3 hits.

One way to avoid catching monsters is to fish with your back against a rock or tree. For some reason, this stops you from catching monsters. I haven't tried this very much, but I did fish monster free in Jugner for an hour or so with my back against a tree, and from my experience, in an hour you would typically have caught at least one mob, so it seems to work. But basically, take a weapon with you when you go fishing. Plain and simple.


1.6 Cooking
Many fisherman are also cooks. The simple reason for this is so that they can make their own bait. Cooking is pretty quick and cheap to level, and will usually let you get your bait at ½ the price of the AH when you make it yourself. I am a level 49 cook, which enables me to make pretty much all the bait I will ever need. Whether or not you choose to cook is entirely up to you.



1.7 Leveling Guide, 1-30
Ok, this is the real meat of this guide. Right now, I am only including a guide to go from levels 1-30, because I am at level 31 right now and I don’t want to venture outside the realm where I have personal experience on this. I will include links to other fishing guides, some that I have followed, some that I have not, in order to give you an alternate route to skilling should you choose not to tread the same path as me. Do not forget, tests must be taken at the guild every 10 levels in order to raise the cap on your skill, just like all the other guilds.

Levels 1-11
West Ronfaure/Carbon or Glass Fiber/Insect Ball
I used this method to skill up to level 11, which is the level cap for Moat Carp, which will be your target fish for these levels. This method was not very fast, but at the time, I only planned on fishing for a little while to make some gil. Sell your moat carp for 4k a stack in Sandy. Or, if you are really ambitious, give them to one of the brothers in Port San d’Oria to start working toward that Lu Shang’s rod. It should be noted that using Little Worms will also target crayfish, which cap at 7, and will be easier to catch than Moat Carp (which will strike Little Worms as well).

Level 11-20
East Ronfaure/Glass Fiber/Fly Lure
If you want to use a Composite rod here, it will also work. Some fish will be too small to catch with it, but it will never break. The Glass Fiber rod will catch the most fish, and consequently level you up the fastest. However, it will sometimes break if you snag a log or something of that nature, and it is also possible for your line to break, costing you your lure. Personally, I opted for the Glass Fiber, and took a Composite along with me, because even though it was a short run back to Sandy, I didn’t want to spend any more gil. So once my Glass Fiber eventually broke (I shouldn’t have reeled it in based on the vibration, but I did anyways >< ), I used my Composite. Leveling will go quickly here, and you can probably fish here at level 10-15 or so.

Level 20-30
La Theine Plateau Pond in L-10/Composite Rod/Frog Lure
Only fish in the pond in L-10. It is a little pond, furthest East on the map. In this pond you will catch Giant Catfish, Dark Bass, and the occasional Red Terrapin. You can make an occasional run to Selbina to sell these fish. It should also be noted that during rain, Water Elementals spawn right by the pond. This means if you are a mage type and cannot kill elementals yet, don’t cast. However, this also means that if you’d like, you can kill them when they spawn and take their clusters to sell on the AH. I killed as many as I could when I fished here. I would recommend being level 25 or so to fish here.


1.8 What To Do With All These Fish
In general, the best thing to do with the fish you catch is to sell them to the fishing guild, either in Selbina, Mhaura, or Windurst. The guild will ALWAYS pay more than an NPC will. There are several exceptions to the ‘sell to guild’ rule. The first is the Moat Carp. These you will either be turning in for the Lu Shang’s quest, or selling on the AH for around 4000 per stack. Another exception is Nebomonites, should you be fishing on the Ferry. These will sell for around 12000-13000 a stack. However, this isn’t as great a money maker as it would seem (at least not through level 30 anyways) because these suckers are very hard to catch, despite a somewhat low cap at 27.

Well, that is all I have for now. In Section 1.9 I will add a links section that has other guides, as well as some other generally helpful fishing places to visit on the net.

wow val, nicely composed. I didn't read it all, but it what i did read, this could be the most thurough guide out there. and it's all ours!!!! hahahahaha! i'm def gonna use it when i get back to fishing.

Not a lot. I'm lvl 16 fishing and the fish i catch sell for a couple hundred each at the AH but i usually just sell to the fishing guild.

Just on the subject of money and fishing. At this point in time, I have a lvl 23 Fishing skill and it is one of my major sources of income. I average about 2k an hour
(RLT). Its not much, but its a start. That is in Selbina with a Sabiki Rig. Reel them in in multiples and run around the corner to the guild and sell them. Ive been
experimenting with something else and this brought in
about 17k in three days of fishing, about two hours a day. That was the first go around and Im still working on it. If I find out a faster way to bring in the gil with fishing I'll let you know, but then again, there is not much that is fast about fishing except for your temper when your rod breaks and you loose 20k in fishing gear your first five casts.

Im kinda in the same boat as you Val. I've actually gotten about 2.5 in an hour at one point in time, and I've also gotten .2 in an hour. I truely believe its broken down finitely like all the other crafts are. Im still trying to figure it out.