Fishing

[Kyreth]

This really is the key, additionally, the profit margin based on what the bait costs you. If you are making your own minnows at 5k each and you break 33% of the time that takes a major chunk out of your profits.

Speaking of this, I used to make myself a nice pile of change just with a stack of fire + lightning crystals when I'd run around Starfall Hillock in Sarutabaruta.

The crawlers drop a rare/ex meteorite (plus silk threads, duh) for a quest that a 62 alchemist turns into 3x/6x/9x glass fiber, the Yagudo necklaces desynth into copper ingots w/lightning, and I'd randomly steal cotton off mandys/stab Tom Tit Tat in the face for Fruit Punches. Some of the laziest moneymaking I've ever done, but for someone who wants to farm their own minnows, it's actually rather nice (long as you can synth the meteorite on the spot). Sure, it's not "I caught a fish and made a fuckton of Gil", but if you're making your own, you can get all the materials in one place faster than randomly dropping bugbears/moblins or stacks of flint stones.

[dasva]

Yeah the time thing is why I record number of casts too. It isn't time percisely but it's close enough

[Corkadile]

This isn't a huge amount of data by any means, but this is my last couple days of Haks with Sardine Balls if anyone is interested. Didn't reel in items, 110 skill, stall, Smock, Puffin/Noddy, Waders, HQ +1 hands/legs (I like white boxes), stall, torque, no support.

Casts: 3886
Caught: 308
Breaks: 136
No bites: 335
Bait used: 3551

Bite rate on Haks: 11.5%
Break rate on Hak bites: 30.6%
Average bait used per hak caught: 11.5

I lost track of the exact amount of time I was doing this since it was decently on/off, but I'm not really sure that matters since fatigue should build at the same rate anyway so all that really matters is the bite+break rate, no?

If anyone actually cares any I can keep adding to this and/or start counting other numbers, I do math when I'm zoning out anyway.

Oh, and pro tip for anyone wanting to catch their own Bastore Sardines for making into Sardine Balls: Do it on a mule. Not to save yourself from hitting your fishing cap, I actually find the bite rate is significantly higher on them with lower skill, I get far more fish in far less time on a mule with 10 skill, a Hume Rod/Sabiki Rig than I do with capped skill, an Ebisu/Sabiki Rig in the same zone, and have been getting that same result consistently across multiple tests.

[fattrav]

Thanks for the data.

My numbers on sardine balls are similar:
Casts: 13712
Caught: 927
No Bite :1531

I have some data on minnows and sinking minnow but the data pool is very small. The bite rate on minnows is roughly 140% compared to sardine balls, and sinking minnows being 225%.

I recently started crafting minnows, they only cost about 1k to craft, and the cost per catch is surprisingly less than sardine balls. For a heavy fisher we are talking in the 800k-1mil range a week. Not to mention the time savings from 100-150 weekly synths to use sardine balls. Just need to be craftywith the glass fiber and copper ingots.

As I get a larger pool of data I will repost.


A little back story.

I started fishing about 6 months ago. About 2 months ago the minnow supply became heavily botted, to the point where you were lucky to get 2 minnows from the guild when it opened.

Originally I thought sardine balls were the savior, as materials were easily obtainable. Recently I realized I was crafting for hours a day. I work from my home office, so it was not much of a distraction, but I still felt I was spending way too much time crafting.

I made my fist batch of minnows/sinking minnows today. So far the cost per cast is about 75% less than that of sardine balls. The bite rate is not quite double, but significant nonetheless.

The BG community has helped me out in many aspects of this game, and this is my little bit of contribution back. Hope it enlightens some of you and does not enrage many.

[Corkadile]

I'd be curious how you're making minnows/sinkings that cheap when in all theory crystals alone should be costing you almost that much. I hate spending ~4 hours making sardine balls a week, but the price difference is huge from what I can tell and it actually ends up taking less inventory overall.

My cost/catch on sardine balls is, if I buy the fish (I don't) and the crystals (I don't, half an hour in sky gets me ~2 cluster stacks), aprox 1200 gil per Hak, and that's with a good bit of rounding up.

[fattrav]

Fire crystal 333
Glass Fiber ~333, or do it the expensive way for 1k
Copper Ingot 369

[Buffy]

Is there some trick to fishing up Bastore Sardine I'm unaware of? I tried to fish up some the other day, and got like 65 in 3 hours...seemed like a pretty horrible return.

I was using Ebisu + Sabiki Rig + Port Windy. Is there a better combination?

[cdgreg]

Fire crystal 333
Glass Fiber ~333, or do it the expensive way for 1k
Copper Ingot 369

Where are you getting copper ingots for 369g?

[dasva]

Where are you getting copper ingots for 369g?

Idk about over there but despite the fact that copper is expensive here I can often find ore for min price in guilds here

[fattrav]

npc sells ore for 8g, guild sells for 9g on the cheap side, 4 plus fire crystal

[cdgreg]

That's what I was afraid of, another step and dealing with guild hours. Thanks for the info though.

[detlef]

Is there some trick to fishing up Bastore Sardine I'm unaware of? I tried to fish up some the other day, and got like 65 in 3 hours...seemed like a pretty horrible return.

I was using Ebisu + Sabiki Rig + Port Windy. Is there a better combination?

I'm willing to bet you got an ass ton of quus. I would think that the best combination would be fishing skill closer to sardine cap with Lu/sabiki.

[Buffy]

That's what I was afraid of, another step and dealing with guild hours. Thanks for the info though.

Airship NPC. Unlimited quantities at 8-12 gil, no hours.

[cdgreg]

Airship NPC. Unlimited quantities at 8-12 gil, no hours.

Better...thanks

[Corkadile]

As I said earlier...

Oh, and pro tip for anyone wanting to catch their own Bastore Sardines for making into Sardine Balls: Do it on a mule. Not to save yourself from hitting your fishing cap, I actually find the bite rate is significantly higher on them with lower skill, I get far more fish in far less time on a mule with 10 skill, a Hume Rod/Sabiki Rig than I do with capped skill, an Ebisu/Sabiki Rig in the same zone, and have been getting that same result consistently across multiple tests.

[dasva]

This isn't a huge amount of data by any means, but this is my last couple days of Haks with Sardine Balls if anyone is interested. Didn't reel in items, 110 skill, stall, Smock, Puffin/Noddy, Waders, HQ +1 hands/legs (I like white boxes), stall, torque, no support.

Casts: 3886
Caught: 308
Breaks: 136
No bites: 335
Bait used: 3551

Bite rate on Haks: 11.5%
Break rate on Hak bites: 30.6%
Average bait used per hak caught: 11.5

Not a large sample size but yeah that's decently lower than my data on sinkers with a character that is similar buffed (no torque) and a little higher break rate though not sure it matters tp differentiate over just pure catch rate as much since you losing plenty of bait other ways as well

[dasva]

I looked through the thread and found no data on catch rate with sinking minnows or minnows. I found a post of ~9 per hour, but that is not catch rate.

It's in here. I know I put it here myself and have even quoted it once or twice

[Ricekid]

I was wondering for GP items what to get after serpent rumors, apron, and waders? Is any of the other stuff worth it? Thanks!

[Buffy]

Stall if 5 skill and super cheap. Mooching if you plan on fishing up Ebisu fish or Matsya legit.

[cdgreg]

On my fishing mules I got serp rumors, stall, called it quits.