Fishing: Time to Get Serious

Grym and I made a big mistake last year after we got our Waders from the Fishing Guild. We figured we'd get to level 68 sooner rather than later, and built up another 100,000 Guild Points each so that we'd have enough to get our Fishing Aprons when we hit 68. This has kept us from getting contracts with our other guilds (Alchemy for Grym and Woodworking for Kiki), and in retrospect, was quite dumb. Especially when we take into consideration how easy it is to accumulate GP for fishing. We should have waited until we were in the mid-60s.

I've decided we really have to make a concerted effort to level our fishing. I want to get to 68 and get our stupid apron. None of this "let's catch some squid" once every two months when Grym needs sushi, or "I've got 15 minutes, I can catch a couple Bream/Sazanbaligi" when in Windurst or Al Zahbi. Instead, we need to fish for a few hours a day, targetting fish that will skill us up.

Saturday morning, we logged in to Al Zahbi, and saw the Trolls were amassing their forces, but it would be awhile before they arrived. I got dressed for Besieged, grabbed my fishing rod and shrimp lure, and headed to the Auction House and started fishing. Before the Trolls arrived, I had got .7 in skillups! This really shocked me, but I've decided that the closer you are to the level cap on a particular fish, the better skillups will be. Sazanbaligi, like Gold Carp, cap at level 56, and I started out the day at 54.4. My skillup streak continued later in the day, and I finished up at 55.5. Grym wasn't yet 54, and wasn't seeing the skillups I was.

Sunday evening, we were in Tavnazia, having done the cookbook quest that morning (my NIN is now 27 - only 10 levels to go!), so we headed out to Lufaise Meadows and fished for Gold Carp from the bridge over the river just outside the Safehold. This has to be the best spot in the game for gold carp. There are no items in this spot, and using a shrimp lure, the only thing that gives you a single "!" is the gold carp. Any "!!!" will be a monster, and it's easy to avoid reeling those in. As soon as Grym hit 54, she started getting skillups quickly, and before we knew it, she hit 55. This just reinforced my "close to skillcap" theory.

When I hit 56, I had to find a new place to fish. Since I want to target fish that will only give skillups, heading to the ferry for Noble Ladies wouldn't work, since we'd waste too much time with Cone Calamary and Gugru Tuna, though Qiara could use the tuna for cooking skillups. Crescent Fish (67 cap) can be targetted at the Lake in East Sarutabaruta using a Fly Lure, but I was worried about the bite rate, as it had been bad when we'd been fishing there earlier this year. It would be a convenient spot, since town was close by, so I tried it out. The bite rate was bad, so I decided to head to the waterfall near the Temple of Ugallepih in Yhoator Jungle. Here I could target Elshimo Newts (cap 59) using a Frog Lure.

I didn't stay too long last night, since it was getting late, but I logged Kiki out at the waterfall. I think this will work well, though the fact that the Newts are not stackable is a bit of a pain. There are no items here at least, so I don't have to worry about filling up my gobbie bag with rusty junk. We want to have Qiara use the newts to make Goblin Drinks, since those are still selling pretty well, and she can skillup on them as well. When my pockets get full, I can warp to town to send the newts to Qiara and use the OP teleport to get back to the Jungle. I think Grym will stick to Gold Carp until she hits 56, but at the rate she was going, that will be pretty quick. I ended up getting 1.7 levels over the two days. If we can keep up the pace, 68 may not be as unattainable as it has seemed at times.