Fishing - How do you know what bait/lure to use?

Of course, I've been searching and using guides, but I'm sort of confused as to how people find the really good combinations (e.g. rat tail for razor clam at Crescent Cove, chocobo fly for grip killifish at Moondrip, etc.). Is it trial and error where you use every single bait at every single location?

It pretty much is like real life fishing. You test out the lures and see what works and what doesn't.

I was hoping there would be a more systematic approach. Guess I have a lot of fishing to do then. :x

Yeah, it's just mostly observation and experimenting with different fishing holes. Keeping tedious notes helps as well. :P

Disciples of the Land have most of the fishing holes charted in their maps, but you'll have to figure out which bait combinations work the best. If you're after a specific fish you want to narrow down which fish can bite on the bait that's capable of landing the fish you're after.

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Originally Posted by Lyrinn

.... Is it trial and error where you use every single bait at every single location?

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Not really. Some is plainly marked lakes, rivers, coastline, etc. Some even are marked for stuff like bottom or insect feeders. Beyond that its what do you want to catch? Mooching you use the lowest level bait your target fish will bite on. Isolating a particular fish is the T&E part.

Also I find the notes on the fish entries in http://xivdb.com/ QUITE helpful.

You also need to consider that some fish results are only available at certain (Eorzean) times of day, or under certain conditions (ie rain).

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Originally Posted by Shadygrove

Mooching you use the lowest level bait your target fish will bite on.

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That's the best method for any type of fishing. Find the level of your target fish, pick the type of bait that is 5 levels or less below it, and pick the location that has the fewest types of fish lower than it.

I find http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Category:Seafood to be very useful.

For example, the razor clams mentioned above.
-Level 20 saltwater fish, rat's tail is level 15 saltwater, there's your bait.
-Crescent Cove has only one other fish that bait can catch, Skull Valley has 3 others but 1 is Rothyl Oyster, The Salt Strand has 3 others all junk. So Crescent Cove if you just want razor clams, Skull Valley if you are fishing up mats for Bouillabaisse or want to diversify on the MB.
-Final step is to go out and fish. Give it at least half an hour before you give the spot a thumbs up or thumbs down.