Fishing has too much RNG

[Orophin]

After all of the fishing I have done, I have come to the conclusion that if you use a bait that is near or above the level of a fish you're trying to catch, said fish has the capability of biting on all of those baits. Certain fish react better to certain bait and will narrow down what you catch, so finding the optimal bait based on the fish located in a particular area is the challenge.

An example would be taking a Crow Fly to the Yugr'am River in Eastern Thanalan will yield a high percentage of Warmwater Trout. Even though you can find Warmwater Trout in other places, the biterate here is better due to the grouping of fish that don't react well to the Crow Fly.

[Reika]

I'm not denying there are lure/bait specific fish at all, however it is still merely a level game even with this one. Crow fly is lvl20, warmwater trout is lvl23, the next highest fish is level 25 and one of them also bites on fly lures, dark bass. Because of the level disparity between crow fly and the level 25 fish (the fish is higher level), you wont catch them as often as you would warm water trout. You can also catch warm water trout with chocobo fly, wildfowl fly and streamer, tho with those you will catch everything else that happens to be programmed to bite on fly lures that are below the level of the lure and no more than 5 levels above.

When it comes to aiming at a high level fish in a pool with fish lower level than it that have no specific bait, there is too much RNG, and there are a lot more of those than there are bait specific fish.

[WildOglop]

My biggest gripe with fishing at the moment is as the title says, too much RNG.
Let's look at how mooching works:
A.) Catch a HQ fish
B.) Catch a HQ fish that can actually be mooched
C.) Catch intended fish from mooching as opposed to every other fish that eats said HQ fish

[PaPaRoach76]

As an avid fisherman in RL, I can tell certain baits are used to target certain fish. Like when I am crappie fishing & I use a crappie jig, minnow, or cricket I know I am after crappie. Will I catch a sun perch or small mouth bass on occasion, sure, but the majority of the fish I will catch are crappie. Same when I am using just plain ol' worms or chicken/turkey livers. I am targeting catfish. Will I catch something else, sure, but the majority will be catfish. So yes there should be a more refined list for certain bait.

[Zandramas]

Wow, a bunch of complainers here. I've been fishing for 10ish hours a day since beta and I can say the randomness isnt the problem. It isnt that hard to get the fish you want if you know what bait/lure to use. Also complaining that you're not able to catch Mahi-Mahi every third catch is dumb. Thats a level 50 legendary fish.

What you should be complaining about is not how random the fish seem but is how underdeveloped the fishing profession as a whole is. If you play the other professions you notice a ton more class skills and interactivity. Plus most of the stuff you can gather with the other classes are usable in recipes. Fisher's items about 170 of the 200 fish are nothing but trash that sells for less than the cost of bait / repairs.

We have no fish that get us any money either due to undercutting and the fact that there are so few valuable items to be had via seafood stuff.

[Zandramas]

Fishing feels like an unfinished class that, unfortunately will be put aside I am sure for a while before improved as there are a ton of other more important things for them to worry about.

Fishing is only good for one thing, getting the achievements and thats it. Possibly by the time those are finished fishing will have a few improvements. But as of now, the randomness of the fish isnt the problem. Quit complaining about stupid shit.

[Zareth]

With that much perception and gathering, what are your chances of catching a HQ Goby? I'm not high enough in fishing yet (mostly due to time constraints) to test what the rate is to catch a HQ fish. Is it higher than 15-25%?

[whycantiusebetaforumname]

Honestly I think it adds a kind of real life element to it. I have fished in real life and had some real nice bait expecting to get a big bass only to have a sunfish little fish bite and feel like a fighter coming in, it is pretty funny.

[FantasyForever]

Then stop fishing? It seems like a simple solution to me.

[Mordermi]

As an avid fisherman in RL, I can tell certain baits are used to target certain fish. Like when I am crappie fishing & I use a crappie jig, minnow, or cricket I know I am after crappie. Will I catch a sun perch or small mouth bass on occasion, sure, but the majority of the fish I will catch are crappie. Same when I am using just plain ol' worms or chicken/turkey livers. I am targeting catfish. Will I catch something else, sure, but the majority will be catfish. So yes there should be a more refined list for certain bait.

This is actually how it works in the game as far as I have seen. One bait/lure will catch 1-2 fish most often, but there is still the chance to catch other fish.