Quote Originally Posted by Eye_Gore View Post
But I would have another slot basically to stick some high level matetia on it instead of trying to over meld the over meld.
You're still forgetting that catch requirements would adjust for that. You'd be paying more just to be at the same point you're at.

Either way, higher Gathering literally has 0 impact on whether a given fish can be attempted to be caught - only which of the three results you get: "Your gathering is insufficient to land this catch", "It got away", or "You caught an x!".

If the fish doesn't want to show you could have 999 Gathering and it would make 0 difference to your ability to actually catch it.