Quote Originally Posted by Dement View Post
Are you only using a small gig head for the whole thing? If so switch to a large one. I did this quest in literally 3 nodes. First node I caught 1 Ichthyosaur, Second Node had increases Yield +2 so I Veteran Traded Yanxian Prawns and used the extra gathering attempt skill. 3/4 of my remaining spears caught them giving me 9 and spawning the Swimming Shadows. I continued to use a large gig head and caught 100% HQ Dafangshi from the Swimming Shadows giving me 5 of them and finishing the quest.
You got lucky. It took me an hour to get all the Ichthyosaurs because of the same thing this poster described (yes I was using large gig) and then I just barely got the three HQ Dafangshi because that eel kept wanting to come up instead.