- Joined
- Oct 21, 2005
- Messages
- 489
- Age
- 43
- Location
- Michigan
- Nation Banner
- Main Job
- Secondary Job
- Linkshell
- Fury, loldynamis
- FFXI
- Takumifujiwara
- FFXIV
- Lion Azure
Hello folks!
In this thread I will cover what I know about FFXIV fishing thus far. This will be updated and consistently as this will be a job I pursue at retail. Also some of the things on this page I used from other fishermen in beta and I credit their pages and links at the bottom of this post.
Benefits of Fishing:
Fishers are the harvesters of the realm's marine and freshwater animal resources. The goods they obtain from their catch place them in direct dealing with both culinarians and goldsmiths.
Be it from the shore of a sea, the bank of a river, or the deck of a boat, Eorzea's anglers must constantly account for a wide range of factors to optimize their success, including season, time, place, tools, and bait. In addition, the sometimes perilous nature of desirable fishing holes, be they on or offshore, above or below ground, prompts many fishers to employ the protection of more combat-oriented professions. The primary tool of the fisher is the fishing rod.
Battle Actions
Stone Throw:
Level 1
Throw a rock at an enemy.
Wrist Flick:
Level 1
Throw with great velocity, causing your next attack to stun the target.
Gulleye:
Level 1
Survey the landscape to discern the location of grade 1 schools of fish.
Dowse:
Level 3
Survey the landscape to discern the number and direction of grade 1 schools of fish. Increases movement speed when deposits are far.
Gulleye II:
Level 8
Survey the landscape to discern the location of grade 2 schools of fish.
Dowse II:
Level 10
Survey the landscape to discern the number and direction of grade 2 schools of fish. Increases movement speed when deposits are far.
Are you guessing!?
Huzzah! The minigame:
First you select your depth, then you select wait to initiate the game. As far as depth is concerned, I typically go deeper on things like ships and high cliffs. In ponds, streams, and even fountains(Ul'dah) I go mid to shallow. As of now im still not certain of what effects it has on what you catch. With time I will have a better idea.
One of the following will happen:
1) Nothing bites:
You get this when there are no bites. This really has nothing to do with you really, although there is speculation that changing depth can help if you see it several times in a row. But again all speculation.
2) You will get a nibble:
I typically hit wait, nibble catching percentages seem lower than bites.
3) You will get a bite:
Time for your epic battle with the sea, jig time!
What do I do?!
At this point you either wait or jig. I NEVER jig on a nibble. I have caught fish on nibbles, but I find much higher success rates on waiting until I get a bite. After you get the nibble message, if you click wait, you will almost certainly get a bite message right after. Thats when you jig!
The sweet spot theory
Ok so your thinking, "jesus Tak thats a lot of pics of charts". Heres the breakdown on it. Sweet spots by most fishermen are considered the areas on the chart in red. They are zones. If you place your jig at either zone you increase your chances of getting an initial hook on the fish.
My personal theory is this:
If you see and hear the vibration glow animation on your pole when you jigged, your either dead on the money or need to hook the same exact spot again. If I see a small glow and vibration that means im on it and need to hit that spot until it gets caught. If I see a huge vibration and glow then I know im right where I need to be and will likely catch that fish right away. There is a degree of feel to this, use your best instincts.
Fishing Messages
You've hooked something but cannot reel it in:
This is the default message, and is what you will most often see once you hook a fish. There really isn't a lot you can do with this, other than to try one way or the other.
The fish is taking line:
This you will get after the initial hooking, when you are trying to figure out which way to go from your hook point to get the fish. This message means you picked the wrong way.
The fish is taking a great deal of line:
You guessed really, really wrong. This might happen if your initial guess is on the edge of the cone that you had to hit to hook the fish. At any rate, you need to move back to the other side of your hook point.
You take in some line:
You're getting warmer. You picked the right direction, now try to go further. I try to increment by the width of the dot each time unless I pick the wrong way to begin with. It usually isn't terribly far from the hook point, but that isn't always the case. You need to judge how much based upon how much stamina you have left on the guage.
You take in a great deal of line:
You're getting closer. Much better, but still a ways off, and I would recommend decreasing the distance between the next jig if you have the stamina for it.
The fish has tired, but you still cannot reel it in:
You're there. For some reason, you need one more jig to get the fish in. Hit the exact same spot you did the last time, otherwise you'll give up line to the fish and will probably lose it if you are out of stamina.
You lost what felt like a [insert name of fish here]:
You got really close but ran out of stamina at the end. Since you got this close, they let you know what you almost caught. This message makes me think certain fish have a pattern to catch them, or at least there is something in how you catch them that can give away what the fish is.
The fish got away:
This is when you don't get close enough to tell what kind of fish it is, and you lose your catch. You still get experience points for it though.
Battle Actions Huh!?
Battle Action Messages:
Grade x school of fish: x yalms to the north / x yalms to the east / x yalms to the south / x yalms to the west.
This is usually the standard message you get. The grade corresponds to the level of Dowse or Gulleye that you use.
You sense a grade x school of fish x yalms to the southwest at a higher elevation.
This message you get if you are lower or higher than the fish detected.
Your instinct tells you there is a school of fish here.
This message you get if you are pretty much on top of the school of fish and all you should have to do here is cast your line.
You prepare to cast into the fishable waters. (Grade x)
You get this message when trying to fish into a school of fish you have detected. Schools of fish are limited in resource. You don't have to fish at them, but usually you have good results when fishing there.
This location can be gathered from x more times.
This is the message you get when you are fishing in a school of fish. After each fish caught (or lost) it tells you how many times you can fish before the school disperses. You lose a chance even if you miss the fish.
Synthesis and Gathering actions
Veteran Trade:
Level 10
This is a randomly activated ability that increases your chances of hooking the fish. The ability appears to last about 3-4 minutes.
Spearfishing
If you equip a spear in your secondary slot you can spearfish at locations that have a glow in streams and ponds. Different commands are given on the menu one is the [Fish Command] and the other [Spearfish] Command. To successfully spearfish - you need a secondary weapon and locate a spearfishing spot.
Spearfishing spot is similar to other gathering spots such as botany and mining spots, in which there's a "wisps glow" around a location, where the interaction prompt will show up and you can choose spearfish as a command.
Spearfishing is different from traditional fishing interaction as there's no mini-game involved.
Lures, Bait, Freshwater and the Sea!
If you use freshwater bait such as pulpa. Be sure to only use it in freshwater areas, aka streams and ponds. I found that using actual freshwater bait instead of generic "everything" bait that I had more bites and nibbles. The same rule applies to using sea bait.
The lures are still under investigation in my book but Wint Aru found this to be her experience:
I hope this guide helped you starter fishermen out! This is definitely a work in progress so if you have anything to add, please let me know and I will update accordingly.
References:
http://ffxiv.zam.com/wiki/Wint's_Guide_to_Fishing
http://ffxiv.wikia.com/wiki/Fisherman
In this thread I will cover what I know about FFXIV fishing thus far. This will be updated and consistently as this will be a job I pursue at retail. Also some of the things on this page I used from other fishermen in beta and I credit their pages and links at the bottom of this post.
Benefits of Fishing:
Fishers are the harvesters of the realm's marine and freshwater animal resources. The goods they obtain from their catch place them in direct dealing with both culinarians and goldsmiths.
Be it from the shore of a sea, the bank of a river, or the deck of a boat, Eorzea's anglers must constantly account for a wide range of factors to optimize their success, including season, time, place, tools, and bait. In addition, the sometimes perilous nature of desirable fishing holes, be they on or offshore, above or below ground, prompts many fishers to employ the protection of more combat-oriented professions. The primary tool of the fisher is the fishing rod.
Battle Actions
Stone Throw:
Level 1
Throw a rock at an enemy.
Wrist Flick:
Level 1
Throw with great velocity, causing your next attack to stun the target.
Gulleye:
Level 1
Survey the landscape to discern the location of grade 1 schools of fish.
Dowse:
Level 3
Survey the landscape to discern the number and direction of grade 1 schools of fish. Increases movement speed when deposits are far.
Gulleye II:
Level 8
Survey the landscape to discern the location of grade 2 schools of fish.
Dowse II:
Level 10
Survey the landscape to discern the number and direction of grade 2 schools of fish. Increases movement speed when deposits are far.
Are you guessing!?
Huzzah! The minigame:
First you select your depth, then you select wait to initiate the game. As far as depth is concerned, I typically go deeper on things like ships and high cliffs. In ponds, streams, and even fountains(Ul'dah) I go mid to shallow. As of now im still not certain of what effects it has on what you catch. With time I will have a better idea.
One of the following will happen:
1) Nothing bites:
You get this when there are no bites. This really has nothing to do with you really, although there is speculation that changing depth can help if you see it several times in a row. But again all speculation.
2) You will get a nibble:
I typically hit wait, nibble catching percentages seem lower than bites.
3) You will get a bite:
Time for your epic battle with the sea, jig time!
What do I do?!
At this point you either wait or jig. I NEVER jig on a nibble. I have caught fish on nibbles, but I find much higher success rates on waiting until I get a bite. After you get the nibble message, if you click wait, you will almost certainly get a bite message right after. Thats when you jig!
The sweet spot theory
Ok so your thinking, "jesus Tak thats a lot of pics of charts". Heres the breakdown on it. Sweet spots by most fishermen are considered the areas on the chart in red. They are zones. If you place your jig at either zone you increase your chances of getting an initial hook on the fish.
My personal theory is this:
If you see and hear the vibration glow animation on your pole when you jigged, your either dead on the money or need to hook the same exact spot again. If I see a small glow and vibration that means im on it and need to hit that spot until it gets caught. If I see a huge vibration and glow then I know im right where I need to be and will likely catch that fish right away. There is a degree of feel to this, use your best instincts.
Fishing Messages
You've hooked something but cannot reel it in:
This is the default message, and is what you will most often see once you hook a fish. There really isn't a lot you can do with this, other than to try one way or the other.
The fish is taking line:
This you will get after the initial hooking, when you are trying to figure out which way to go from your hook point to get the fish. This message means you picked the wrong way.
The fish is taking a great deal of line:
You guessed really, really wrong. This might happen if your initial guess is on the edge of the cone that you had to hit to hook the fish. At any rate, you need to move back to the other side of your hook point.
You take in some line:
You're getting warmer. You picked the right direction, now try to go further. I try to increment by the width of the dot each time unless I pick the wrong way to begin with. It usually isn't terribly far from the hook point, but that isn't always the case. You need to judge how much based upon how much stamina you have left on the guage.
You take in a great deal of line:
You're getting closer. Much better, but still a ways off, and I would recommend decreasing the distance between the next jig if you have the stamina for it.
The fish has tired, but you still cannot reel it in:
You're there. For some reason, you need one more jig to get the fish in. Hit the exact same spot you did the last time, otherwise you'll give up line to the fish and will probably lose it if you are out of stamina.
You lost what felt like a [insert name of fish here]:
You got really close but ran out of stamina at the end. Since you got this close, they let you know what you almost caught. This message makes me think certain fish have a pattern to catch them, or at least there is something in how you catch them that can give away what the fish is.
The fish got away:
This is when you don't get close enough to tell what kind of fish it is, and you lose your catch. You still get experience points for it though.
Battle Actions Huh!?
Battle Action Messages:
Grade x school of fish: x yalms to the north / x yalms to the east / x yalms to the south / x yalms to the west.
This is usually the standard message you get. The grade corresponds to the level of Dowse or Gulleye that you use.
You sense a grade x school of fish x yalms to the southwest at a higher elevation.
This message you get if you are lower or higher than the fish detected.
Your instinct tells you there is a school of fish here.
This message you get if you are pretty much on top of the school of fish and all you should have to do here is cast your line.
You prepare to cast into the fishable waters. (Grade x)
You get this message when trying to fish into a school of fish you have detected. Schools of fish are limited in resource. You don't have to fish at them, but usually you have good results when fishing there.
This location can be gathered from x more times.
This is the message you get when you are fishing in a school of fish. After each fish caught (or lost) it tells you how many times you can fish before the school disperses. You lose a chance even if you miss the fish.
Synthesis and Gathering actions
Veteran Trade:
Level 10
This is a randomly activated ability that increases your chances of hooking the fish. The ability appears to last about 3-4 minutes.
Spearfishing
If you equip a spear in your secondary slot you can spearfish at locations that have a glow in streams and ponds. Different commands are given on the menu one is the [Fish Command] and the other [Spearfish] Command. To successfully spearfish - you need a secondary weapon and locate a spearfishing spot.
Spearfishing spot is similar to other gathering spots such as botany and mining spots, in which there's a "wisps glow" around a location, where the interaction prompt will show up and you can choose spearfish as a command.
Spearfishing is different from traditional fishing interaction as there's no mini-game involved.
Lures, Bait, Freshwater and the Sea!
If you use freshwater bait such as pulpa. Be sure to only use it in freshwater areas, aka streams and ponds. I found that using actual freshwater bait instead of generic "everything" bait that I had more bites and nibbles. The same rule applies to using sea bait.
The lures are still under investigation in my book but Wint Aru found this to be her experience:
I hope this guide helped you starter fishermen out! This is definitely a work in progress so if you have anything to add, please let me know and I will update accordingly.
References:
http://ffxiv.zam.com/wiki/Wint's_Guide_to_Fishing
http://ffxiv.wikia.com/wiki/Fisherman
Last edited:
