Ambling Caltrop...

[Cheezeman3000]

I wouldn't expect them to 'fix' any older fish. AFAIK, they have never nerfed a fish via code adjustments.

This is a unique situation according to OP, which would require a unique solution. If they've never broken a fish like this before then of course they've never had to fix it before.

I have not fished at this hole in a long time so I very well could just be misinformed, but the data for mooching at this spot indicates that you cannot catch the quest fish via mooch and that the !! fish off of San Gecko is the Nabaath Manta, so the quest fish really isn't getting in your way once you have a mooch. At the most, you are experiencing more potential !! bites when trying to catch your Gecko, but that's just delaying targeting down your !s. That could be seen as a boon for GP regeneration depending on your method.

I was going off OP that said it diluted the pool for the mooch as well. But you're right, Teamcraft shows it not available via mooch. Still, getting only 4-5 Geckos for real attempts per 11 minute window leads to lower per-minute catch chances than most other fish in the game, and this isn't supposed to be one of the ultimate rare fish so it was clearly an oversight IMO (it's a 5.2 fish).

Since you admit it's been a while, if you've already done the quests, I welcome you to go back and give it a shot and see if you can come up with a scenario in which the fish may have been improved as you suggested.