Feast of Famine

I started doing the quest line about a week ago but im having real trouble in catching most big fish. So far i only caught titanic sawfish and nepto dragon but every time i try to fish helicoprion or olgoi i always miss them in the 15+ windows i tried so far. I tried twice for Kuno but the windows i get are about 2 hours ET.

The problem starts with gathering rate. Although i have ~680 with food, it seems to be not enough at all. Most feedbacks from other catchers however mention that they got them with 348-352 gathering. I am thinking to start doing melds in order to increase my gathering but should i (seriously??) lower my gathering in order to catch them as it is suggested? :o

Catching big fish is pure RNG, expecting fully melded Ironworks gathering gear to increase your chances is folly tbh, you just need to keep going and hope for the best. :)

the chance to catch it is capped somewhere. regardless if you have 350 gathering or 700 - the chance will not further increase and you will never reach 100%.

it's all RNG, just keep trying.

it can be a pain but as other have said its pure rng. Patience and Patience II along with the respective hooksets seem to help at least when i finally completed it. anyways good luck.

Well you all are correct. Rngods smiled upon me and i got all fish except helicoprion.
Missed it 3 times already and windows are sooooooo rare... :(

Fish for the mooch fish before the window opens and hold it.

But you probably know that.

Locking big fish behind specific weather patterns, double mooches, and rng is a huge pain in the butt. I've been trying to catch the damn helicoprion for over 2 months now. I'm about to just give up. :/

Helicoprion was a pain for me as well only because the window it appears is rather short and rare. Hooking was not such a big problem although i missed it 3-4 times. I recommend you use this: http://www.garlandtools.org/ffxivfisher/

You can find helicoprion from the list (along with any other fish you want) and it will show you when its available so you can go and catch it.

Good luck!!! ;)

P.S: There is a window in half an hour from now 4:00 PM ET.

Yeah i was right there lol. Had a storm rider ready for mooch and nothing. Not a single hq storm rider for the whole duration of pacience either. Gave up right after, lol. I'll never get "Of Dragon's Deep" :(

My bane was Shonisaurus. I don't know how many Mahar I caught, usually nq, but the hq's always ended up snapping the line on the mooch. God it drove me crazy. This was pre-HW so it was a bit tougher. There was a small group of the same people going after it at the time, and one by one I'd see them succeed, but not me. Hey, what about me? Finally, finally, after my billionth time, I got it. I entered into FC chat, "Got you you son of a bitch" and everybody knew what I just got.

Perseverance. Stick with it. Of Dragons Deep is my go-to title after the latest new one wears off. Anyone with it knows what you went through and they have their own stories. Any serious fishers without it know what it entails and are envious of it, knowing one day, after much frustration, they too will wear the title with pride. :)