FFXIV fishing guide

Fishing is its own little game. Pick a spot, choose bait (used up on a bite) or a lure, cast, and watch the tug on the line.

• A light bite (!) wants a Precision Hookset.
• Medium and heavy bites (!! and !!!) want a Powerful Hookset.

Hook at the right strength and you land more of what you want and fewer trash bites.

• Patience trades hooking efficiency for a much better shot at big fish.
• Mooch and Mooch II reuse a fish you just caught as live bait. A lot of rare fish sit at the end of a mooch chain.
• Fish Intuition unlocks a specific target once you catch a set of “predator” fish first.
• Snagging pulls non-fish loot like treasure maps and minerals. Turn it off when you're after a specific fish.

This is what makes fishing deep. A lot of rare fish need a specific Eorzea-time window and the right weather. Often they need a weather transition too, where the previous weather has to be one thing and the current one another (you only need to be there for the final state). Fish Eyes waives the time requirement on older fish, but never the weather, and never on Legendary fish. Fieldcraft's fishing directory lists every rod-catchable fish with its exact conditions and live windows.

Big fish are the trophies. You line up the time, weather, bait, and mooch, then fight a stubborn catch rate. Some fall on the first cast, some take weeks. Spearfishing (level 61) is a separate node-based minigame, and Truth of Oceans reveals its hidden “swimming shadows”. Ocean Fishing is a timed group voyage on a fixed real-time schedule, a new boat every two hours, with its own spectral-current scoring.

Big fish are the rarest catch in each zone, with Legendary fish the hardest of all. A hunt is really preparation: line up the Eorzea-time window, the weather (and any required transition), and the bait, often through a mooch chain, then grind the catch rate.

• Patience II trades most of your hook efficiency for a big boost to landing large-sized fish. Under Patience, answer a light bite (!) with Precision Hookset and heavier bites (!! / !!!) with Powerful Hookset — a few fish break that rule, so check the entry.
• Prize Catch guarantees your next fish is large-sized — clean fuel for a mooch without the Patience penalty. Identical Cast re-hooks the exact fish you just landed, perfect for repeating the base of a mooch chain.
• Surface Slap boots the fish you just caught back out of the pool so unwanted bites stop crowding your target. Fish Eyes waives a fish's time-of-day requirement — but never its weather, and it does nothing for Legendary fish or anything from Endwalker onward.
• Angler's Art stacks build as you land large fish, and Thaliak's Favor spends three stacks for 150 GP — that's what keeps your GP alive through a long camp.