Fishing

Common Fish

Common Fish are the following 8 fish: Abdju, Carp, Catfish, Chromis, Perch, Phagrus, Tilapia, and Oxyrynchus.

For more information, see Fish
For types of lures needed to catch, see Fish.
Classic or Common fish comes in bands running NE to SW, so going across makes you find different kinds. This is the order of the (overlapping) bands from NW to SE: catfish-tilapia-chromis-phagrus-carp-oxyrynchus-perch-abdju-catfish-... (wrap around). A set of bands is 100-150 coords wide.

Log Fishing tests here: Trials

This is to log raw data for uncommon fish catches.

alternatively you can check out Larame's fishing log data here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PGwljeYYiCnZYH6gq6aAElxJV9Q03k09nt1NPFVAsLY/edit#gid=583729269

How to fish

T10 Equipment System

NOTE: In T10, the Fly Rod must be equipped in order to get the fish action icon (located alongside the other action icons at the bottom of the screen).

Equipment and skills

To catch fish, you need three things:

Fly Fishing skill;
A Fly Rod in your inventory and selected as your preferred rod;
One or more Fishing Lures in inventory, with one selected as your preferred fishing lure.

Off shore fishing

After the introduction of sailboats, it is possible to fish offshore, in any body of water, at any debth (the Nile, Red Sea, the Mediterranean Sea etc.).

You may fish while sailing, which enables trawling as you sail to your destination. It is also possible to change lures and fillet (via the Filleting skill) while at sea.

Preparation

Before you can catch any fish, you must first select a lure from those that you are carrying. To do this, bring up your own menu, select "Skills...", "Use Lure...", the type of insect, and then the level of lure.

This type of lure will be used for all subsequent fishing attempts. If you no longer carry any lures of that type, a popup will tell you that you need to use a lure.

You may also want to increase your speed statistic while fishing, as some fish can only be reliably caught with up to 28 speed. File:T7N.png Max speed needed is not yet known.

Making the casts

You can then fish by standing near water and clicking on the fish action icon in the top-left of your window. Fishing takes about 14 seconds, and the results will be shown in your Main channel. If you caught a fish, you will also see a flyaway message. You can fish again immediately after getting the results of the previous cast.

The results

Whether you catch a fish or not, there is a chance of losing your lure. Fresh lures (made with Fly Tying 1) have a very high chance of loss, while Hardened lures (requiring Fly Tying 4) may last for hundreds of casts.

These are the possible results from each cast:

You didn't catch anything. The water looks pretty still. This means that your cast was unsuccessful, and ??? (new T10 message)

You didn't catch anything. Try different lures and locations. This means that your cast was unsuccessful, and you should try again.
No fish bit. Try different lures and locations. There are no fish of sufficient size to be caught by you, due to fishing out the types that are available at this time. This applies per-avatar, not by location.
You almost caught an unusual fish, but you were not quick enough. Your speed was not high enough to catch this type of fish. If it is almost enough, you may catch them on future casts.
You almost caught an odd fish, but you were too late recognizing the bite. Your Fly Fishing skill was not high enough. You can only catch that type of fish by increasing your skill, through enormous amounts of fishing.
The water is dead, and smells like rotten eggs. You are trying to fish in Sulphurous Water.
You almost caught a strange fish, but this rod was just too clumsy. You may need a better fishing rod. You may succeed on future attempts. Otherwise, keep an eye out for Events offering better Rods as prizes
Caught a <size> deben <fish type>. You caught a fish! Note that fish have a bulk of 20 debens each, so it is easy to become overloaded.
Caught a <size> deben <fish type>. The fish seems a bit listless. Listlessness is an indication of pollution from buildings like compression furnaces and can happen with any rod. a listless fish when filleted seems to give very little fish meat. (cate> T10, post Malard's July 2021 changes).
Your Fly Fishing skill went up! Your skill went up. Takes a hecka lotta casts. This varies greatly by avatar and increases significantly for higher levels of flyfishing. Reports of between 700ish to 1500ish for the first increase. (T7: I got my first skill up after 693 fish caught. - Matk, T11: I got my first skill up at exactly 1600 fish caught. Perhaps the number of different species caught is also a factor. - Aton)
You didn't catch anything because your hook got stuck in some <item> You caught a non-fish, a precursor to the Test of Isis' Bounty
You didn't catch anything but you found a <item> - it is fairly worn... You caught a non-fish, related to the Test of Isis' Bounty
You found part of a sunken ship! You caught Ship Debris for Test of Isis' Bounty

Non-Fish items

How to fish for loot

Not confirmed, but highly likely:

Negative speed stat will increase the chance of catching loot (and decrease the chance of catching fish).

Things found during fishing include:

Useful Items

Boards
Gold Foil
Linen
Mirror
Rope
Rotten Flax
Sail
Silk Cloth
Frayed Rope - 5 Frayed will make 1 Rope in a distaff
Ship Debris - may be handed into a University of the Human Body as part of the Test of Isis Bounty
Rotten Leather
Rotten Wood - may be recycled to search for insects with sufficient Salvage Techniques skill
Tattered Sail - may be recycled into thread with sufficient Salvage Techniques skill
Torn Bandages -
Damaged Crowbar - opens cases of cheese from events

Items with no known purpose

Broken Chariot Wheels
Broken Mirror
Decayed Cadavers

Low Quality Items

A low-quality item, of between 1000 and 2500

Barometric Sphere
Distillation Coil
Florence Flask
Hookah Bowl
Jagged Blade
Resin Wedge
Sharp Edged Blade
Test Tube
Thistle Tube
Twice Folded Blade
Wine Glass
Beaker