Fishing Theory

Introduction

This page is dedicated to theories about fishing. This includes Fishing Skill, Fish, Lures, Player Skills, and Catching.

This page was created out of reason for better understand of fishing. The wiki pages on fishing were full of scattered information and lacking in mechanics of fishing. This page is to help clear up things and help people understand fishing better. Although this is not full proof information, it is a beginning for a greater understanding.

To avoid misconceptions and false information, please add the facts only. The bottom of this page contains a data section which the categorizing of fish cycles should go. Data that also proves or disproves information should be posted in the data section below the fish tables.

Fishing Skill

Fishing skill is learned from the school of body and is level 1 at the time. Overtime a player's fishing skill increases. This increase may take weeks/months of fishing before it will increase, but when this occurs it's usually in multiple increases at a time.

Fishing skill is increased through variety and rarity of catches. The varieties include 21 speed fish, 14 perception fish, and 7 rare fish.

This increase was further proved after catching a rare fish. The increase came after not fishing a hour, then catching regular fish.

The exact amounts needed for variety and rarity are unknown.

It also appears fishing skill has a direct effect on the success of catching rare fish.

Fish

Grouping and Rarity

Teppy announced there is 49 different species of fish. Seven of these are the common fish. Which leaves 42 fish that are not.

The common group includes: Abdju, Carp, Catfish, Chromis, Perch, Phagrus, Tilapia. These are the fish that fill the slots most often. These fish can be found whenever a lure is active.

When thinking of rarity of the remaining fish, a few factors are: How many lures that fish can show up on and the length of time a cycle is active during the day.

Fish are also split into groups based upon being Speedy or Perception.

Speed fish are the second most common fish you will catch. This group may include up to 21 fish, but only 7 are active during a season. Speed fish have long cycles and many lures capable of catching them (Tigerfish having at least 12 lures capable). Also I've seen up to 40 debens on a single catch.

Perception fish are the next in rarity. They contain 14 different types. They seem to have only 2 active fish during a cycle. They are also not capable of 100% success rate of catching, but with higher perception this chance increases, at 34 perception I still had a coinflip it seemed. They also appear on fewer lures during the cycle. These fish also are smaller in deben compared to speed fish.

The remaining fish are the rarest fish to catch. This group contains 7 different fish. It appears they may only have one lure capable of catching, and cycles are short, possibly less then one hour. They also have low debens when caught. Another theory is they may appear in all waters, but are different for each. Currently, a rare spawn has been seen 4 days in a row, so it may be monthly cycles.

Last thing to note is the difficulty of catching vary among fish and fish size has a direct impact on difficulty. Observations against two speed fish showed at 25 speed: 16 deben pancake loche and 22 deben tigerfish both were unsuccessful. 1/3 Rate on tigerfish and 0% on pancake. Observation against the same two with 28 speed showed 100% success.

Cycles

All fish except the common 7 have a daily cycle(when in season). When a fish starts a cycle the lures inwhich it uses begin to become active and the fish will start spawning into the lures groups. This spawning appears to have a set number on size in the beginning for each lure, for example a fish who just began its cycle may be a size 12 deben on one lure and a size 16 on another. As each minute passes the size grows for the fish until a mid point is reached. Then each minute after the midpoint brings a drop in size until it reaches the original start size.

Lures

Lures are another variable in the fishing game. Using certain lures will allow for certain fish and increases of size.

Lures hold 7 fish at a time. These slots are filled when the lure becomes active. When uncommon fish begins its cycle, every lure that the fish uses becomes active. When there is no other uncommon fish that use the lure, it turns inactive. When this happens all uncommon fish are removed. Common fish will remain until caught, then the lure is empty and you'll receive the message: "No Fish Bit."

Uncommon fish vary with how many lures it uses. The more common the fish, the higher it will be. Some fish may use over 12 lures others may be 4 and rare fish may only use 1 lure.

Lures effects on success and sizes is not fully understood, but it's been observed that they vary and may have an impact on success.

Player Skills

Speed is a confirmed variable in catching fish. Certain uncommon fish have a high speed that is required. Common fish require at least zero or greater, if negative, you will always receive quickness messages. Tests against (Tigerfish) resulted in 25% chance with 4 speed, and 100% at 27 speed.

Perception increases the chance of success against fish who cause the clumbsy message. Tests against (Ivory Knifefish & Spoonfish) resulted in a 1/6th chance with 18 perception, and 50% at 34 perception.

Catching The Fish

Fishing has different variables that are used throughout a cast of a lure. These include Fishing Skill, Speed, and Perception, but may include others.

Think of fishing as a rolling of dice. Your dice roll is increased with higher attributes. The fish will roll a dice against yours, which is based upon the rarity of that fish how high it will be.

When you cast a lure, a few things may occur:
"No Fish Bit." - This means that there is no fish in the groups lure. If you received this on the first try, then likely the lures cycle has not begun.
"You didn't catch anything." - This means you failed against a check before you were able to hook a fish. This does not mean no fish are in the group.
"You almost caught a unusual fish, but were not quick enough." - This means the fish has a high Speed Check and your speed didn't beat the requirement.
"You almost caught an odd fish, but you were too late recognizing the bite." - This message is directly related to the rare fish. It is currently believed that fishing skill is the variable.
"You almost caught a strange fish, but this rod was just too clumsy." - Another check against a perception, higher perception increases success.
"Caught X Deben Fish." - Successfully hooked and caught a fish.

Fish can have different requirements to be met. This includes speed and perception. Having a high amount of both will enable the catching of both types.

As time changes, so does the active lures. Once a lure goes inactive, the common fish remain, but all uncommon fish do not. You will notice a few catches from an inactive lure but will get the message "No Fish Bit." after they are gone.

A note on the clumsy message, when you have caught the last one you will receive this message the next try for that fish. But it seems there is no more fish, and after this message you get the "No fish bit" message.

Size of Fish

Each uncommon fish appears to have a peak time of day giving the largest fish. Different lures give different peak sizes of that fish, and if the size at any given time is less than 1 deben (before the +7 pyramid bonus is added), then that fish is inactive for that lure.

Each time you catch an uncommon fish, the size of future catches of that species drops by 1 for that avatar. This loss is recovered only very slowly, perhaps 1 deben per 10 minutes. Changing lures does not help, though you may find a lure that gives larger fish of that type than your current lure.

With this in mind, the most debens of fish are caught by waiting until the size is peaking and then staying with the best lure for that fish.

Data

This section is dedicated to both mapping the fish groups and cycles, and data that proves or disproves information about fishing.

Is it possible that some fish require both speed and fishing skill? - Tamutnefret

Confirmed. Some fish do require both speed and fishing skill. E.g. Sea Urchin cannot be caught with Fly Fishing 1, and those with higher fly fishing also require decent levels of Speed to avoid the "not quick enough" message. - Tamutnefret

Fish caught with Fly Fishing 1 (around Y3 Akhet I 1-9):

• Moonfish, 03:00-09:00 (peak ~06:00) with golden asp, mud asp.
• Pancake Loach, 02:00-14:00 (peak ~08:00) with bristleworm, desert millipede, glass worm, honey fly, rose mite, rose swallowtail, white sawfly, woolly aphid.
• Nile Mackerel, 10:00-14:00 (peak ~12:00) with camel weevel, nippleworm.
• Tigerfish, 05:00-19:00 (peak ~12:00) with ash centipede, bristleworm, footworm, glass worm, golden asp, grass slug, honey fly, oyster mite, queen maggot, sand mite, stone fly.
• Ayu, 19:00-23:00 (peak ~21:00) with camel weevel, golden asp, honey fly, leafhopper, snowberry butterfly.
• River Crab, 20:00-04:00, (peak ~23:00) with bloodworm, grass slug, hairy slug, honey fly, horned hookworm, orchid hopper, salt mite, slime moth, stone fly, woolly aphid.

Not caught with Fly Fishing 1 ("odd fish") while people with higher skill were catching them:

• Sea Urchin
• Medusafish, ,with grass slug, needleworm, snowberry butterfly, spittlebug,
• Queen Lionfish, 10:00(?)-12:00(?) ,with leafhopper, feather midge

Fish size data: MidnightBlue caught 39, then 38 db tigerfish on sand mite. He switched to bristleworm, catching 40 db down to 31 db in fairly quick succession. Switching back to sand mite yielded 28 db fish, and then bristleworm caught sizes 29 db down to 20 db. Sand mite after that yielded 18 db. Golden asp (which usually caught tigerfish at this time of day) yielded only common fish and the "no fish bit" message. This data is consistent with the idea that each fish caught affects future catch sizes on all lures, not just the current one.

Then Tamutnefret logged in and used bristleworm to catch 35 db in the same location with same stats, skill, and rod. This indicates that the base fish size was still quite high and that only MidnightBlue was affected. He also caught tigerfish on golden asp, showing that the lure was still basically active but that MidnightBlue's catch size had become too small to see any on that lure. Sand mite caught a 31 db fish, suggesting the same size difference between the bristleworm and sand mite lures as for MidnightBlue.

MidnightBlue started fishing again with bristleworm half an hour later, yielding a 12 db tigerfish. This was 6 debens smaller than the expected size from losses due to catching, and suggests that fish size had reduced by about 0.2 db/min at this time after the peak had passed. Another half an hour later, MidnightBlue was unable to catch tigerfish at all.

Fish may overlap/favor the same lure at times, so having a speed fish and rare is possible. As for other factors on rare fish, it may be possible yes. But from tests previously, it would seem your fishing skill is the main variable that it rolls against. (p.s. questions can be directed towards me, ill try to awnser what I can. This data is just a small part of fishing, so there is still lots to learn!) -- TutMault --

Fish Cycles

Moonfish appear to be on the way out. Golden Asp were catching up to 18 db fish at 06:00 a few days ago, but today (Akhet I-12) only caught 12 db. Mud Asp which were catching smaller moonfish now do not appear to catch them at all. I suspect the peak sizes for fish change slowly over time. Ayu and Nile Mackerel may be increasing.

Season/Month	Speed Fish	Percp Fish
Shemu IV	Medusafish, Moonfish, Queen Lionfish, Rivercrab, Sea Urchin, Pancake Loach, Tigerfish, Razorfin	Ivory Knifefish, Spoonfish
Akhet I	Ayu, Medusafish, Moonfish, Nile Mackerel, Queen Lionfish, River Crab, Sea Urchin, Tigerfish, Pancake Loach, Moonfish

Rare Fish Info

Knowing when to test for rare fish will enable us to know what is in our lakes.

If you have a rare fish and know the lure and time of catching, please add it to the table.

Rare Fish	Lure	Time
Giant Crayfish	Red Cricket	2:00am to 3:25am
Yellowfin Snapper	Corkscrew Asp	10:00am to 11:00am