Fishing gradesFollow

Really it depends on what you are going for, specifik fish, skill points and so fourth. If it's skill points I found that going a grade higher than you got a scan skill for works best for me until I hit grade 5 fishing, grade 6-10 fishing is a bit of a pain usually. But if you are going for specifik items, then you can easily fish several graders higher than your level, as long as the fish isn't on a fishing node. With fishing nodes you will want to be properly leveled and have updated tools to give you more attempts on a node before exhausting it.

But the safest is generally to go.

grade1 = rank 1-8
Grade2 = rank 8-18
grade3 = rank 18-28

and so fourth.

Personally, I wouldn't touch Grade 2 until about Rank 12.

I guess but it's so much easier to spam away at something slightly lower than fighting with fish that actually require attention.

A) You fight the fish less (I prefer leveling where I can just hit dead center and get it 90% of the time)
B) You get slightly less exp but you catch fish easier and at a greater pace (which IMO leads to more sp/hr)

I'm almost 39 FSH and I'm still grinding Grade 4. I just like watching movies/tv while I do this.

I did...

1-8 Grade 1 (Grid Lake)
8-15 Grade 2 (Tranquil Lake)
15-23 Grade 3 (Bloodshore Sea)
23-33 Grade 4 (Cassiopeia Hollow)
33-43 Grade 5 (Iron Lake)

Currently 10k to 44 and im on Grade 6's and im getting very fast bites.

Hope this helps

Edited, Dec 13th 2010 7:12pm by AphroditeAreia

Ditto. I'm taking the same path. Do make sure to have latest gears.

crab balls and spoon lures work well at bloodshore

and rat tails seem to work everywhere

Edited, Jan 4th 2011 11:11pm by Olorinus

Lugworms are for Ocean fishing. Pill Bugs are for coastline fishing. Although I've not had much luck with either of them.

I have to agree. Fishing is the only DoL you can rank up on higher grade nodes/places without limited gathering attempts.

I got my fishing up to ~R10 with some fishing in Limsa and leves in Skull Valley.
Then I got some gear to push my output and a R12 willow rod and went to the Isles of Umbra in western La Noscea.
The area is grade 10 fishing and although bite rates (with lugworms and blood worms) weren't that great, I had no problem getting my rank up to 16 in a few hours.
It's been some time but SP gain was around 600 per catch if I remember correctly.
The only problem can be the Snippers/Clippers there if you fish from the paths in the cliffs at 4,20/5,20.

In short.
Don't waste your time fishing low grade places for 100SP per catch if you just want to rank up.
With good gear and high output for faster bites you can gain at least 2-3 times more SP without seeing a big difference in bite rates.
Just make sure to use the right bait or lure and don't just stick with the R1 NPC bought worms and bugs.