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:::UPDATE:::

As this guide has some sections that are outdated I would like to make you aware of our new guide. Please check it out here

Oh and when updating this thread the images went haywire... I may take a look at it once I get some time.

:::UPDATE:::

NOTICES!
Text areas in between two *NEW* tags are recently added information.

Text areas in between two *UPDATE* tags are recently updated information.

Text areas in between two *THEORY* tags are not proven to be correct or incorrect at this time.

I've received a couple of requests from other sites to use my guide on their sites. I do not mind if my guide is posted elsewhere under two conditions. I'm credited for the work and a link is provided back here as the source.

With phase 3 of beta coming to a close and open beta beginning shortly I have a few things that I will be looking into. A few examples will be a detailed list of what fishable item is caught on what bait, if stats really do or don't affect fishing, and start to collect information on fish caught during what time and moon phase.

*UPDATE*
Fisherman's Abilities
Throw Stone Rank 0
- Throw a rock at an enemy. (Does a maximum of 2 damage)

Wrist Flick Rank 0
- Throw with great velocity, causing your next attack to stun the target.

Gulleye Rank 1
- Survey the landscape to discern the location of Grade 1 schools of fish. (Within 400 yalms of your current location)

Dowse Rank 3
- Survey the landscape to discern the number and direction of grade 1 schools of fish. Increase movement speed when deposits are far. (Quicken is not granted if used within 200 yalms of a school of fish, Quicken effect lasts for an average of 30 seconds, Dowse cooldown 60 seconds)

Gulleye II Rank 8
- Survey the landscape to locate grade 2 and below schools of fish. (Within 400 yalms of your current location)

Dowse II Rank 10
- Survey the landscape to discern the number and direction of grade 2 schools of fish and below. Increase movement speed when deposits are far. (Quicken is not granted if used within 200 yalms of a school of fish, Quicken effect lasts for an average of 30 seconds, Dowse cooldown 60 seconds)

Veteran Trade Rank 10
- Increases the chance to hit items aimed for while gathering. (Used for primary fishing, not secondary fishing like I believed originally)

Way of plenty Rank 15
- Increases the remainder of gathering location.

Gulleye III Rank 18
- Survey the landscape to locate grade 3 and below schools of fish. (Within 400 yalms of your current location)

Dowse III Rank 20
- Survey the landscape to discern the number and direction of grade 3 schools of fish and below. Increase movement speed when deposits are far. (Quicken is not granted if used within 200 yalms of a school of fish, Quicken effect lasts for an average of 30 seconds, Dowse cooldown 60 seconds)

Gulleye IV Rank 28
- Survey the landscape to locate grade 4 and below schools of fish. (Within 400 yalms of your current location)

Dowse IV Rank 30
- Survey the landscape to discern the number and direction of grade 4 schools of fish and below. Increase movement speed when deposits are far. (Quicken is not granted if used within 200 yalms of a school of fish, Quicken effect lasts for an average of 30 seconds, Dowse cooldown 60 seconds)

Wavekin Alluder Rank 30
- Temporarily avoid enemy encounters. effective only against wavekin.

Gulleye IV Rank 38
- Survey the landscape to locate grade 5 and below schools of fish. (Within 400 yalms of your current location)

Dowse IV Rank 40
- Survey the landscape to discern the number and direction of grade 5 schools of fish and below. Increase movement speed when deposits are far. (Quicken is not granted if used within 200 yalms of a school of fish, Quicken effect lasts for an average of 30 seconds, Dowse cooldown 60 seconds)

Gulleye IV Rank 48
- Survey the landscape to locate grade 6 and below schools of fish. (Within 400 yalms of your current location)

Dowse IV Rank 50
- Survey the landscape to discern the number and direction of grade 6 schools of fish and below. Increase movement speed when deposits are far. (Quicken is not granted if used within 200 yalms of a school of fish, Quicken effect lasts for an average of 30 seconds, Dowse cooldown 60 seconds)

*UPDATE*

400 yalms, how far is that exactly? Appears to be roughly the length of four map squares. The picture below illustrates 200 yalms.
<img style="vertical-align: middle; border: 0px initial initial;" src="http://www.ffxivcore.com/gallery/1281464103/gallery_1692_393_94297.png" />


The Guide

So ye' fancy yourself a puller, ah? Sept ye be a small fry in a big ol' pond and be in need of a little assistance. Sit down for a flagon of ale and I be sharing me experiences of pulling with the blessing of Llymlaen.

*UPDATE*
To get started you need two very essential things, a device for catching fish and bait. These can found at the fisherman's guild in Limsa Lominsa or at merchants alleys in Ul'dah and Gridandia . The primary fishing tool is the fishing pole itself and the secondary is the fishing spear or gig. Bloodworms make the cheapest bait available at 3 gil each if you can find it at a merchant, 297 gil for a stack of 99. Bloodworms also happen to be a all around bait usable for fresh and saltwaters. Various other natural baits can be collected from monsters or the other gathering classes.

For the purpose of this guide any open area of water without a school of fish will do. Once you have your fishing pole and bait equipped it's time get started. Find yourself a nice peaceful spot were the water meets land, walk up to the edge, and face out to the source of fish to be. Once you do so the interaction icon will appear at the top middle of your screen. Open your main menu and select "Fish" from your intractable choices.


<img src="http://www.ffxivcore.com/gallery/1281635204/med_gallery_1692_393_528218.png"/>
Once you have done this the first portion of the fishing interface will show up. It shows several important things; Grade of the fishing area, bait in use and quantity of bait, Depth of the water column you wish to fish, and wait and cancel commands. The first thing you need to decide is what position of the water column you would like to fish, the default (middle) is fine for now. Select Wait and we are on our way.

<img src="http://www.ffxivcore.com/gallery/1283588577/med_gallery_1692_393_154349.png" />
Now the Cast area and Remainder bar will be shown after selecting the initial wait. Also two brief messages will appear below the bait area of the fishing UI. "Your line sinks to the desired depth." and "You wait for a fish to bite."

<img src="http://www.ffxivcore.com/gallery/1283588577/med_gallery_1692_393_111564.png" />
<img src="http://www.ffxivcore.com/gallery/1283588577/med_gallery_1692_393_14316.png" />

Shortly after the message of waiting for the fish one of three messages will appear. "You feel a nibble", "You feel a bite", or "Nothing bites" If nothing bites your character will pull the line in and recast out, from here you can change the depth if you do so decide to. Regardless choose wait again to start over.

<img src="http://www.ffxivcore.com/gallery/1283588577/med_gallery_1692_393_36124.png" />
<img src="http://www.ffxivcore.com/gallery/1283588577/med_gallery_1692_393_35287.png" />
<img src="http://www.ffxivcore.com/gallery/1283588577/med_gallery_1692_393_176940.png" />

My personal preference is that if I receive the nibble message to wait once more with the hope the next message will be a bite. Once I get the bite message or a second nibble message I then select the Jig command. Once the jig command is selected a yellow orb will begin to move left to right back to left from the center. What has worked well for me is stopping at roughly the 25% mark of the cast area. Majority of the time the message "You've hooked something but cannot reel it in" will appear. Selecting Jig again I aim for the 75% mark. One other thing to mention is that you can receive the message "The fish got away." This can happen for several different ways. I've seen it happen when waiting after a second nibble for the third time, jigging on a nibble, sometimes you just get unlucky, and finally if you run out of remainder (more on this below).

<img src="http://www.ffxivcore.com/gallery/1283588577/med_gallery_1692_393_25028.png" />
<img src="http://www.ffxivcore.com/gallery/1283588577/med_gallery_1692_393_105275.png" />

Now one of four new messages will appear. "You take in line", "The fish is taking line", "You take in a great deal of line", and "The fish has tired, but you still cannot reel it in." The message you get dictates your next jig. Generally the you take in line means you've jigged in a way that has moved you closer to landing the fish. The fish is taking line and you've done the opposite, I suggest trying to jig in between previous two jig positions. Taking in a great deal of line and you are almost on top of the place you need to jig in order to land the fish, jig once more but no more than have the orbs width on either side of the previous jig. Once the fish has tired out you want to jig again on the exact spot of the previous jig, resulting in landing the fish. Every time you jig the remainder bar will deplete, if you run out of remainder the fish will get away as mentioned above.

<img src="http://www.ffxivcore.com/gallery/1283588577/med_gallery_1692_393_38223.png" />
<img src="http://www.ffxivcore.com/gallery/1283588577/med_gallery_1692_393_204241.png" />
<img src="http://www.ffxivcore.com/gallery/1283588577/med_gallery_1692_393_39744.png" />

With a little practice and a bit of patience and observation you will land a large majority of the fish you hook.
<img src="http://www.ffxivcore.com/gallery/1283588577/med_gallery_1692_393_199824.png" />

*UPDATE*
*THEORY*
Stats for Fishing?

Currently people are looking for anything to make landing that lunker easier, but could stat allocation be the answer? Maybe. Down at the Fishing guild in Limsa Lominsa the Elezen behind the counter deals in Guild Marks. Guild Marks are currency rewarded for a particular guild by completing guildleves associate with them. Two items in the Fishing guilds Guild Marks shop stand out. Deft Hands and Tidal Faith, one granting DEX and the other Piety. Why are they there, maybe to make fishing easier. Testing is needed.
<img src="http://www.ffxivcore.com/gallery/1281831651/gallery_1692_393_59971.png" />
<img src="http://www.ffxivcore.com/gallery/1281831651/gallery_1692_393_12420.png" />

*THEORY*

*NEW*
*THEORY*
Elemental Resistance Affect Crystal Drops?
I haven't spent much time talking with other fisherman during the course of open beta to validate this with others, but in the process of writing down what I've caught and what has yielded what shards. By far the greatest amount of shards I've received have been Fire shards, which also happens to be my highest elemental resistance. The second highest shard I've received has been Wind shards, again is my second highest elemental resistance. I'd be curious to hear other fisherman's results about this, until then this is clearly only speculative.
*THEORY*
*NEW*
The Guide - Spearfishing
*UPDATE*
While the mechanics of spearfishing haven't changed in open beta the amount of fishing skill and how fast the tool wears has. Successfully spearfishing an item nets about 25 fishing skill where unsuccessful attempts net half of that. At the start of open beta I spent some time spearfishing and in about 9-12 spearfishing nodes my bronze gig had already dropped below 50% wear.
*UPDATE*
Spearfishing makes use of the fisherman's secondary fishing tool the spear/gig. Spearfishing differs from primary fishing in that there is no mini game involved and currently no ability to locate spearfishing areas. In order to locate spearfishing area you need to look for bushes that have light bluish white orbs coming from them, kind of like fireflies (always seems to be near a source of water). Once a possible spearfishing area has been located walk up to or on top of it to receive the intractable icon. Once again you are going to open your main menu and select "Spearfishing". The character will now pull out the spear/gig and either succeed or fail in spearfishing. If you have succeeded a message will show what was gathered and the spearfishing area will move to another location a few feet away. If you've failed the spearfishing area will stay in it's current location. Regardless of success or failure you will also get a message telling you how many more attempt you can gather this area. Eventually you will run out of attempts and this will be it for some time until this particular spearfishing area can be gathered again.

<img src="http://www.ffxivcore.com/gallery/1281635204/med_gallery_1692_393_2970899.png" />
<img src="http://www.ffxivcore.com/gallery/1281635204/med_gallery_1692_393_2565607.png" />

<img src="http://www.ffxivcore.com/gallery/1281635204/med_gallery_1692_393_1440103.png" />
Grade 1 Fishing-Caught Lower La Noscea and Limsa Lominsa
Coral Butterfly +1, +2, +3 (School only possible)
Finger Shrimp +1, +2, +3
Malm Kelp, +1, +2, +3
Merlthor Goby, +1, +2, +3
Ocean Cloud, +1, +2, +3
Tiger Cod, +1, +2, +3
Vongola Clam, +1, +2, +3

Grade 1 Spearfishing Lower La Noscea
Black Scorpion, +1, +2, +3
Bloodworm, +1, +2, +3
Lugworm, +1, +2, +3
Muddy Water +1, +2, +3
White Scorpion +1, +2, +3

Grade 1 Fishing-Caught Central Forest and Gridania
Brass Loach, +1, +2, +3
Crayfish, +1, +2, +3
Dart Frog, +1, +2, +3
Pipira, +1, +2, +3
Rainbow Trout, +1, +2, +3
Tree Toad, +1, +2, +3

Grade 1 Spearfishing Central Forest
Allagan Snail, +1, +2, +3
Dart Frog, +1, +2, +3
Pill Bug, +1, +2, +3
Vert Lac Bug, +1, +2, +3

Grade 1 Fishing-Caught Central Thanalan
Brass Loach, +1, +2, +3
Crayfish, +1, +2, +3
Maiden Carp, +1, +2, +3
Pipira, +1, +2, +3
Sandfish, +1, +2, +3
Striped Goby, +1, +2, +3

Grade 1 Fishing-Caught Limsa Lominsa to Ul'dah Ferry
Coral Butterfly, +1, +2, +3
Merlthor Goby, +1, +2, +3
Tiger Cod, +1, +2, +3

Grade 2 Fishing-Caught Western La Noscea
Ash Tuna, +1, +2, +3
Bianaq Bream, +1, +2, +3
Coral Butterfly, +1, +2, +3 (School only possible)
Hammerhead Shark, +1, +2, +3
Haraldr Haddock (School only)
Helmet Crab +1, +2, +3
Malm Kelp, +1, +2, +3
Nautilus
Razor Clam +1, +2, +3
Red Coral (School only)
Sea Pickle, +1, +2, +3(School only)
White Coral, +1, +2, +3

Grade 2 Fishing-Lost Western La Noscea
Blowfish (School only)
Indigo Herring (School only)
Silver Shark (School only)

Grade 2 Fishing-Line Breakers Western La Noscea
Ash Tuna (suspected)
Coral Butterfly
Hammerhead Shark (suspected)
Silver Shark

Lures are the currently the only baits that suffer the sad fate of being lost to a line break.
<img src="http://www.ffxivcore.com/gallery/1281831651/gallery_1692_393_277.png" />

Grade 2 Spearfishing Western La Noscea
Merlthor Goby, +1, +2, +3
Razor Clam
Sea Cucumber,+1, +2 +3
Vongola Clam, +1, +2, +3

Grade 2 Fishing-Caught North Forest
Ala Mhigan Fighting Fish
Crayfish, +1, +2, +3
Dart Frog

Grade 2 Fishing-Caught Eastern Thanalan
(Spent very little time here so far)
Striped Goby, +1, +2, +3
Pipira, +1, +2, +3

Grade 3 Fishing-Caught Eastern La Noscea
Malm Kelp, +1, +2, +3
Ocean Cloud, +1, +2, +3

Grade 3 Spearfishing Eastern La Noscea
Grass Viper
Gules Lac Bug
Or Lac Bug
Purpure Lac Bug
Sable Lac Bug
Tarantula

Grade 4 Fishing-Caught Cassiopeia Hollow
Cave Cherax
Crayfish
Nether Newt

Grade 4 Fishing-Lost Cassiopeia Hollow
Lamp Marimo

Grade 4 Fishing-Line Breakers Cassiopeia Hollow
Cave Cherax (suspected)

Grade 5 Fishing-Caught Upper La Noscea
(Spent very little time here so far)
Crayfish, +1, +2, +3
Lava Toad

Grade 8 Fishing-Caught Eastern La Noscea
(Spent very little time here so far)
Malm Kelp, +1, +2, +3
Merlthor Goby, +1, +2, +3

Grade 9 Fishing-Caught Coerthas Central Lowlands
(Spent very little time here so far)
Crayfish, +1, +2, +3
Pipira, +1, +2, +3

Grade 10 Fishing-Caught Mor Dhona
(Spent very little time here so far)
Brass Loach
Pipira, +1, +2, +3

Hopefully this helps you all to better understand fishing and I will continue to do updates to this.

Edited by user Monday, February 07, 2011 8:37:32 AM(UTC)  | Reason: New updates to the original guide

Yeah it's great. I was really happ that he let me use it. It's a great guide and he said he would keep it updated so I will have to check it now and again.

Now we just need some information on where the fish are so we can also get a leveling guide.

And by the way: Spearfishing is fishing on land?!? That is wierd but I would love to try it out.

Wow I just realized that I put your rank (Badass Freaking Overlord) instead of your name in the title. This is corrected :D

Hi Vid

Thanks for your reply. I have added you to moderator and hope that you will take a look at this. I have been working quite a lot in order to get items up and running and it is now possible to add a lot of information. The information is so far mostly generic (all items have these attributes) and what I am looking for is now the information that is missing and the information that is specific for fishing.

Press the little plus sign in order to edit an item (and see how it works). It may not look so pretty yet and there are some things that may not be needed depending on choices made (example: things that can't be crafted don't need recipes).

The things I can see that are obviously missing from the general information is Durability and items used to repair stuff... can there be more than one ingredient needed in order to repair something?

Also I need to show what recipes the items are used in (not only the recipes to make the items).

Also information on Areas (where things can be obtained) is missing but that is coming. Would like to know the difference between zone and area though.

Information on quality is also missing. Can it only be +1, +2, +3 or can it go higher? Can it be negative?

Then there is information on fishing:

Information on bait
Information on tool (rods and such). Do these break? Can I have line snaps (it sounds like it from your description). I guess you always loose bait if you have a bite and then you can loose a lure if the line snaps.
Quality of water. Are you thinking Saltwater versus Freshwater or is this something new I am not aware of?
Information on grade. Are all things divided into grades? I have stored rank but I guess these are different things.
Information on Gathering, Output and Scanning. Is this fishing specific or is this something that goes for all items? I guess pickaxes and scythes would have something similar. 

I know this was a lot of questions but I hope you don't think I am abusing your helpfulness 

Thanks for all the info. I have made huge changes to items and the way they are updated. Also recipes are up and running (at least better than before) and searching for them has become easier.

Next we will have to find the areas but that is for another thread I think.

Regarding the crystals obtained through fishing when compared to elemental resistance. This may be accurate information. I have obtained only water and wind crystal. I boosted the water elemental as I thought this would maybe somehow help me with fish (fish ~ water... )... and then I think wind is my second elemental... will have to check when I get home.

(oh and I updated the Guide according to the original).

 

(level 7-8)
Weathered rod + Moth Pupa bait
Gridania (Grade 1)(pond/river near conjurer guild)
rainbow trout
crayfish
pipira
tree toad
brass loach

Just noticed that this info is covered already
Also, I noticed in Gridania I was getting ONLY water shards. Perhaps shard type gained is by location?

Edited by user Tuesday, September 07, 2010 6:59:03 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Note: Level 15 is now Nature's Bounty, and the description is:
Increases your chance to locate rare items while gathering.

Both Nature's bounty and Veteran Trade go into the ability slot in the bottom of the Actions and Traits menu, and can be loaded with /eaction 1 "Veteran Trade", /eaction 2 "Nature's Bounty", etc. The game figures out which bar it belongs in.

These abilities trigger... randomly. I haven't found rhyme nor reason to it yet, but it's relatively often in a decent fishing session. They usually last 3-5 catch attempts.