Fishing has too much RNG

[Shadygrove]

With 251 perception, I have been HQing right at around a 24% rate.
My sample size is only about 300, so it's probably not 100% accurate; however I think it's enough to say definitively that Fisher doesn't cap at 15%.

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned, but is a VERY important thing for Fisherman to understand:
Live Bait almost doubles your "bite rate" compared to using lures.

So if you're looking to pull in a lot of a specific fish (let's call it fishX) and you find a lure that only pulls in FishX, but you have a live bait that pulls in 70% FishX and 30% FishY, using the live bait will almost certainly result in more FishX catches over a specified period of time.

BUT!! Some lures will exclude undesirable catches as in my example of sinking minnow / red coral above. Also, usually in my experience, live bait is best for isolating low level fish.

[Bardo]

BUT!! Some lures will exclude undesirable catches as in my example of sinking minnow / red coral above. Also, usually in my experience, live bait is best for isolating low level fish.

There are at least two locations that I know of where Herring Ball (live bait) can result in 100% red coral, so I don't think that's reason enough to choose lure over bait.

Really, the only reason I've found to use lure over live bait is if the fish only bites on lure, such as Mahi and Yumizuno, or Giantpole and Topwater Frog.
Otherwise it always seems like there's a live bait option that's better than lure.

[Aleczan]

Fishing Sux no matter what level you are. I took it to lvl 50 and i still cant catch Mahi Mahi during the hours they pop without 1/2 of the fish being crap im throwing away.

So yeah half my time spent trying to catch the damn fish was wasted time.

Where as if at lvl 50 they had given a Trait or Ability called FOCUS it would target specific fish on your Fishing Log. What the hell does the fishing log do other than show you what your possibly going to catch at that location. I rather be able to Target a certain fish on that log and have 100% chance at catching it. If mining or botany had 1/10 chance at harvesting target items.. People would quit this game.

Just wondering how many Mahi-mahi you caught when it's roughly 50% bite rate?

I've been trying to catch Mahi-mahi to stock up for my cooking project. The best catches I made in one day was 7 NQ Mahi-mahi and 1 HQ Mahi-mahi. So that's 8 in one session. Then the next game day I only got 3 NQ Mahi-mahi and 1 HQ. So that made 4 Mahi-mahi per day. I don't think I reeled in Mahi-mahi as often as 50% of the time. It seemed less often. I would be rolling in Mahi-mahi by now if I had caught it 1/2 of my catches.

I think it will be awesome to be able to have an ability to spend GP as a Fisher. Focus, like you suggested, or any Concentration skill which raise the chance of getting the desired fish would be extremely life-improving for Fishers.

There are at least two locations that I know of where Herring Ball (live bait) can result in 100% red coral, so I don't think that's reason enough to choose lure over bait.

Really, the only reason I've found to use lure over live bait is if the fish only bites on lure, such as Mahi and Yumizuno, or Giantpole and Topwater Frog.
Otherwise it always seems like there's a live bait option that's better than lure.

Balls are processed bait. But yeah it depends on where and what you target to choose whether to use Bait or Lure. And by 100% bite rate for Red Coral, did you mean somewhere in Isles of Umbra? Because at Sapsa, I never got 100% bite rate on Red Coral. Always got Whitelip Oyster at least 30% of the time.

[Bardo]

Balls are processed bait. But yeah it depends on where and what you target to choose whether to use Bait or Lure. And by 100% bite rate for Red Coral, did you mean somewhere in Isles of Umbra? Because at Sapsa, I never got 100% bite rate on Red Coral. Always got Whitelip Oyster at least 30% of the time.

Does processed bait affect bite rate?
I was under the impression it was the same as live bait (10-12 seconds).