Fishing has too much RNG

[Shadygrove]

You can get 100% catch rate on Red Corals, which is probably the most valuable fish (taking catch rate into consideration). I dunno what fish you're talking about, but you can 100% red corals (though at nighttime a second fish is added). Not that it matters since the market is undercut to hell.

Bait or lure used please?

[Bardo]

Given that you have godly gear, how often do you get HQ fish? For miners and botanist, max base chance is 15%. Is it something similar for fishers?

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.

[DragonHunterG]

...just wanted to say i like the RNG in fishing, makes the rare catches much more special. you can still manipulate what you get slightly, so it's not completely random either.

[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.

[aray0002]

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.

[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.

[Celestia]

The annoying thing is people who do the other disciples of land have a choice in what they get to choose so why is fishing the only one that is chance based?

You should have played 1.0 where all the DoL jobs received random items. Each node had a 1-2 common items, an uncommon and a rare. While now, the luxury of choosing what item while mining or harvesting, fishing is still traditional. Sometimes I think mining and harvesting should go back to being random.

[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.

[Espritduo]

South Umbra Isles. Fish with proper low level bait/lure, and the only thing you pull up are Fullmoon Sardines or Red Coral. During the day, of course, this means no Fullmoon Sardines and 100% Red Coral. Of course, at the moment the market on my server for Blacklip Oysters (the next fish up on the spot's pecking order) is actually much, much higher than Red Coral, so I plan on using slightly higher level bait to also catch Blacklips while I reel in Red Coral on my next trip down there. And heck, even Fullmoons sell pretty well, so you're never fishing up anything that can't be turned over for a tidy profit in that spot. And on top of that, it's a great place to fish for your A grade coastlines record since the Fullmoon Sardines occasionally mooch to Coelacanths, which are one of, if not the largest coastline fish you can catch.

[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).