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. The exact amounts needed are unknown.

Higher levels of fishing skill are required to catch 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. For most lures, you will catch some of these types fish throughout the day.

Uncommon fish require Speed, Fishing Skill, and possibly Perception.

Speed fish are the second most common fish you will catch. If you do not have sufficient speed, you will see the message "You almost caught a unusual fish, but were not quick enough." The requirement is not sharp: if you have almost enough speed, you will have some chance of catching this type of fish.

Skill fish are the next in rarity. If you have insufficient fishing skill, you see "You almost caught an odd fish, but you were too late recognizing the bite." You may also need speed to catch some of these fish. This type of fish is impossible to catch with fly fishing 1.

The third fish requirement yields the message "You almost caught a strange fish, but this rod was just too clumsy." This is currently believed to indicate that higher perception is required.

Last thing to note is the difficulty of catching vary among fish. Observations against two speed fish showed at 25 speed: 16 deben pancake loach 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). The cycle for a given fish species peaks at the same time of game day for all lures, with the fish size reduced on either side of this time. Fish and lures that give very large peak sizes are therefore available for much longer periods of time than those peaking at small sizes.

For example, in Year 3 Akhet II, River Crab peaked at 40+ deben sizes in a certain location, and so were available for 16 game hours per day. Sea Urchin peaking at 9 debens was only available for 2 game hours on a single lure in Akhet II, but much longer and on more lures in Akhet I with higher peak.

Lures

Each fish has a "best lure" that gives the largest size of that type of fish when used. Lures other than the best give reduced fish sizes.

Uncommon fish have peak sizes that change each game month, and may be zero indicating that the species cannot be caught that month. These peaks can be up to about 40 debens in that fish's best month, while common fish peak at about 9 debens (16 with pyramid bonus).

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. However Rainbow Cod also give this message, and the same chance of catching (~30%) was observed for both perception 7 and perception 28.

Fly Fishing skill enables you to catch "odd fish", with many types of fish impossible to catch with skill 1.

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.

1) There is a chance of making a successful cast based on your Fly Fishing skill. This is roughly 40% at skill 1, 90% at skill 6, and 100% at skill 9. Failure of this check leads to the message "You didn't catch anything."

2) A species of fish is determined from those available to be caught with that lure at that time of day. This is usually (but not always) the species that has the largest sizes available. If there are no fish available you will see the message "No fish bit."

3) The species may have requirements such as skill, speed, or perception. These are checked against your current stats and skill and an appropriate message given if the check fails.

4) If all of the above checks pass, you will see "Caught X Deben Fish."

Size of Fish

Each time an uncommon fish is selected in step 2, the size of future catches of that species drops by 1 for that avatar. For common fish, the size appears to drop by 7 but is recovered 7 times faster.

This loss is recovered at a rate of 0.10 debens per successful cast (i.e. any result but "You didn't catch anything"). If the size drops below 1 deben then that species is removed from the pool of available fish until its adjusted size recovers to 1 or more. Common fish recover up to their maximum size at a faster rate after reaching 1 deben, further research is needed.

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 golden asp, wooly aphid
• Medusafish, ,with grass slug, leafhopper, needleworm, snowberry butterfly, spittlebug,
• Queen Lionfish, 10:00(?)-12:00(?) ,with leafhopper, feather midge, spittlebug

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

Season/Month	Speed Fish	Percp Fish
Shemu IV	Medusafish, Moonfish, Queen Lionfish, Rivercrab, Sea Urchin, Pancake Loach, Tigerfish	Ivory Knifefish, Spoonfish
Akhet I	Ayu, Medusafish, Moonfish, Nile Mackerel, Pancake Loach, Queen Lionfish, River Crab, Sea Urchin, Tigerfish	(None)
Akhet II	Ayu, Bay Lobster, Medusafish, River Crab, Nile Mackerel, Tigerfish, Queen Lionfish, Pancake Loach, Sea Urchin

Rare Fish Info

This data was plotted from on the cooking graph. This is just a few of the possible combinations, as it seems most fish have more then one combo. If you wish to check these or for others just open the cooking graph. What you are looking at is if the three fish would intersect with a parallel line.

To spawn a rare fish the two combo fish must be active at the same time. This will spawn the rare fish as long as they are both active. Once one of the fish finishes its cycle, the rare fish goes too.

Sea Urchin and Ayu are both active this month (Year 3 Akhet II). Has anyone caught an Oxyrynchus? Also, what exactly is a "rare fish"? The previous description on this page was not at all useful as some fish would be considered rare in some months and not in others. For example any of Rainbow Cod, Sea Urchin, or White Oniontail could be considered "rare fish" this month. - Tamutnefret

Rare Fish	Active Combo Fish
Yellowfin Snapper	Bay Lobster + Queenlion Fish
Spiny Dogfish	Rainbow Cod + White Oniontail
Horned Pigfish	Rainbow Cod + Nile Mackerile
Spotted Sea Cucumber	Spoonfish + Rivercrab
Cherry Bonefish	Lima Chub + Malapertus
Orange Sponge Fish	Singing Lampery + Sea Urchin
Oxyrynchus	Sea Urchin + Ayu