Barren Flounder catch frequency

[ronc]

My fishing is currently 5 (I'm actually considering using training points to get it to 20 since it seems to take so long to raise).

I need Barren Flounder to make Erud's Essence and was thinking of going to Erud's to raise fishing and get some. Any idea how frequently Barren Flounder are caught? I guess what I am curious about is about how long it will take me to get about 20 of them starting at such a low skill level.

Thanks all.

[Obina]

I'm not sure of how it will work at low level, but this is a fairly common fish. Never keep track of it exactly, but I'd say one fish in 3 or better is Barren Flounder.

By the way, Fishing is a great thing to spend points on in my view. I think I only used mine for fishing and research. Anyway, with the TL gnome in place, and a fishing merchant next to the dock, Erud's crossing is a very nice fishing spot.

Do check the merchants right there too. Sometimes they have BF.

[ronc]

For those curious:

I went to the trainer and trained up to 53. Went to Erud's Crossing and fished for several hours resulting in a fishing skill of 117. In that time, I caught 92 Fresh Fish, 71 Fish Scales, 30 Barren Flounder and a bunch of junk. Curiously, it seemed as though the Flounder catch rate improved after I changed casting locations, although this was after I was at 100 skill also (and the sample certainly isn't large enough to draw any conclusions).

[Aalar]

I don't have any evidence to support my theory, other than fishing from 0 to 200 over time, but I firmly believe that one will catch more specials the higher skill one has in fishing.

At the very least, one will catch more something and one's pole will not break nearly as often. Though to counteract pole breakage get the quest pole from the PoK - well worth the time/play spent for the avid fisherman. And I always have it and at least 20 bait on me for some casual fishing.

Aalar

[ppatti]

I don't have any evidence to support my theory, other than fishing from 0 to 200 over time, but I firmly believe that one will catch more specials the higher skill one has in fishing.

At the very least, one will catch more something and one's pole will not break nearly as often. Though to counteract pole breakage get the quest pole from the PoK - well worth the time/play spent for the avid fisherman. And I always have it and at least 20 bait on me for some casual fishing.

Aalar

I always thought fishing was like foraging, that specials only came to those with a skill of 100 or higher.

I learned this lesson the hard way when Morden Rasp first came out and plat of any amount was in HUGE demand. So I thought I'd be clever and made a level 1 Erudite enchanter (with all points put into charisma) that tried fishing in Gunthak for a piece of the 100pp/hour you can earn fishing out "specials" with max fishing skill.

Well, many days later, after ten stacks of bait, lots of normal fish, shoes, and scales, I came to the conclusion that you had to have a fishing skill of 100 or higher to catch those valuable specials and that fishing skill is hard level capped at (5 X 5) + 5. Just adding my two coppers worth.

[Elyssanda]

Fishing's not level capped.. I have a level 3 erud chanter that has a skill of 110 atm...

[Aryse Andenter]

While I've never fished in Gunthak, I can say with certainty that you can catch the unusual ones at any level of fishing in the zones I have tried.