Originally Posted by
Seyrr
Yeah, don't go for Carpenter's Landing if you aren't patient/good at telling what fish is on your line. I tried for a lot of Shining Trout, and got a lot of Muddy Siredon. Trout were also hard for me to pull up, even with an inherited Lu Shang's... maybe I just suck, but they definitely seemed pretty ornery.
At that level, I remember I did Crystal Bass for a bit just to get the skill. Then I went ferry fishing on the advice of some friends - Noble Lady is surprisingly easy to pull up, as are Cone Calamary (and as a chef, I can make good use of both! Cone Calamary also can make cheap ink if you use shihei at all and have your alchemy at 60.) Bluetail and Tuna are a bit more difficult (again, I had a Lu Shang's, so your mileage may vary.)
At this point, I'm level 41 and have discovered the joy of shall shells. They're about as difficult to pull up as an item (read: not at all) and are also useful for cooking. I've pretty much adopted the idea I saw in a number of guides - fish for profit, and let the skillups come as they may.
One thing that I'm not entirely clear on is why the difficulty of pulling up a fish seems to have almost nothing to do with its skill cap. Noble Lady was nearly 30 levels above my skill, but I had less trouble with it than I ever did with Shining Trout. I'm not complaining, but it does seem somewhat odd.