"The fish got away..."?

[Tierala]

so lately while fishing ive been getting this message alot and i cant seem to find an explaination for it.

basicly when i use "Hook" to try and catch a fish alot of times my character will start reeling in the fish but suddenly stop and i get that message. im level 42 usualy fishing at level 35 fishing holes and recently updated my gear.

please can anyone shed some light on this...its getting highly frustrateing as it causes me to loose the bait and can even happen on a mooch attempt causeing me to loose BOTH fish >,.,<

[Cadwgan]

Level/Gathering is too low for the fish you hooked, improve your gear or target lower level fish. The level of the fishing hole itself doesn't matter.

[niwaar]

All fishing holes have a large range of fish in them. There are level 40+ fish in most level 1-5 holes as well.

[Tierala]

so it checks your level as well? earlier in coerthas i was useing updated gear at a hole where the only fish that was a higher level than me was one that required a mooch but i was still getting it on non mooch attempts.
so im guessing this just means i can just expect random stupid failed attempts till i completely overgear?

[StouterTaru]

so it checks your level as well? earlier in coerthas i was useing updated gear at a hole where the only fish that was a higher level than me was one that required a mooch but i was still getting it on non mooch attempts.
so im guessing this just means i can just expect random stupid failed attempts till i completely overgear?

You shouldn't be getting mooch only fish on non-mooches. Your bait will snag anything up to about 5 levels above itself, and you need high enough gathering to actually pull it in.

[Tierala]

You shouldn't be getting mooch only fish on non-mooches. Your bait will snag anything up to about 5 levels above itself, and you need high enough gathering to actually pull it in.

thats my point...any non mooch attempt would have been fishat a lower level than me.

[StouterTaru]

thats my point...any non mooch attempt would have been fishat a lower level than me.

You can catch fish above your own level, but not by more than about 5 levels.

The difficulty slope in this game takes a sharp turn up when the thing you are after is above your level, for gathering, crafting, or enemies.

You can also see the fish getting away message when the time/weather changes from condition to catch the fish when you hit hook, to not that condition when you actually pull it in.