How to catch the legendary "blue" big fish during spectral currents!
So it's finally been determined how exactly the "Big Blues" are caught during spectral currents. These are special big fish that are considered blue-item tier big fish, unlike any other big fish in the game, even the previous legendaries! Unlike the usual big fish they are untradeable and even now we don't know what some of them even look like due to their rarity and the fact they are not listed on the lodestone and their images are missing from the usual sites like garlandtools and cat became hungry.
Catching them is no small feat, but they do offer unbelievably huge point bonuses for people looking to maximize their point totals. Each one is worth 500 points base, 1000 points if you get it HQ. Just catching one at all gives you a whopping 20% bonus to your overall score, and if 3 are caught by the party during the trip, everyone gets an additional 50% bonus to their score!
The thing about these fish is that they are not caught with the usual Ragworm/Krill/Plump Worm bait you use for everything else in Ocean Fishing. Each one uses one of the old regular baits, so make sure you bring the appropriate bait along. The good news is that old bait also is ideal for catching the fish required to activate the Intuition buff for each Big Blue, so you might as well switch to the right bait as soon as the spectral current triggers and get fishing. The Intuition windows on these fish is incredibly short and you will have at most 2 tries to reel them in. It's tough, but with more people aware of how they are caught, hopefully more people can get the huge bonuses attached to them and fill out their fishing logs.
Here is the lowdown on how each one is caught:
Galadion Spectral Current: Sothis
Bait required: Glowworm
Intuition fish: Heavenskey x2, Navigator's Print x1
Southern Merlthor Spectral Current: Coral Manta
Bait required: Shrimp Cage Feeder
Intuition fish: Hi-aetherlouse, mooch to Great Grandmarlin x2 (use Double Hook)
Northern Merlthor Spectral Current: Elasmosaurus
Bait required: Heavy Steel Jig
Intuition fish: Gugrusaurus x3 (Use Double Hook when you get a !!! bite)
Rhotano Spectral Current: Stonescale
Bait required: Rat Tail
Intuition fish: Deep-sea Eel x1, Silencer x1
It is not known for sure yet whether they have time requirements, but so far it is confirmed that Sothis can be caught at night, Coral Manta at night, Elasmosaurus during the day, and Stonescale at sunset. Whether those are the only times or not is still unknown, so spread the word and help us catch these Big Blues!