With a new system implemented and from what I can gather quite a few more of my LS members actually starting (or restarting) to fish, and because I'm bored enough to do so, I'm typing another guide with.

I.- Notes on the new fishing system
- Basics
- fishing Instinct
- Misc

II.- Recommended Equipment
- Fishing Rods
- Bait/Lures
- Armor
- Guild Point Items

III.- Leveling Guide

So, here we go.

I.- Notes on the new Fishing system

As you all know now (because I won't shut the hell up about it) the FFXI fishing system was dramatically changed during this latest version update. The system is not really complicated but a quick explanation doesn't hurt anything.

-Basics
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Basically it works as such: when a fish bites the hook it will begin to move the rod to the left, right, or stay in the center. A stamina bar (where the enemy health bar would appear in a battle) will be displayed. The object here is to counter the movements of the fish with the direction keys (or analog stick, whatever you have). Now, from the viewpoint of direction behind your character, you need to move in the opposite direction of where the fishing rod tilts to. If it stays in the center don't do anything. By countering the movements of the fish you will drain its stamina bar making it easier to catch and reducing the chances that it will snap your fishing rod. This system relies on timing as making wrong movements will cause the fish to regain stamina. Take too long with this and you lose your catch.

Fishing Instinct
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I think this feature is more useful for those who are just starting to fish, as most veteran fishers already use the sweat fishing method to do this. Anyway when you hook a fish, item, monster, whatever, a message will appear that will gauge whether or not your character things he/she/galka will be able to catch whatever this is. It is my strong recommendation that you don't reel in when it says something terrible is going to happen if you value your fishing rod, and instead press the ESC/Cancel to cancel the cast.

-Misc
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Just a couple notes, I suggest that you NEVER reel in unless the fish's stamina is completely drained, otherwise there's a very high possibility that you will snap the line. While this is not a problem if you use live bait, when you lose 3 10k shrimp lures it becomes an important factor.

Keeping using the sweat fishing method, watch the sweat animation on your character and use some common sense. If what you're fishing for is a small fish and an animation the size of your character pops up chances are you're not catching a net full of those small fish at once. It's most likely either going to be a monster or something that will splinter your fishing rod (depending where you are). This
method doesn't really work for fishing for large fish, so THEN rely on the fishing instinct.

II.- Recommended Equipment

I am not going to list all the fishing rods here (Cause frankly, most of them suck, get more money if you cant afford the better ones lol) or all of the bait, because I am way to lazy for that, but I will list the most common types.

-Fishing Rods
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I'm only going to recommend 3 here and list the 4th one because everyone but me loves the darn thing.

Carbon Fishing Rod: Cheap, fairly durable for what its usually used for, and can be sold back if you happen to break it. This rod is good for starting out to catch things like crayfish, moat carp, and the like.

Mithran Fishing Rod: I gala like this thing, but it has its uses. Its great for big fish (low leveled ones anyway) and pretty much all types of freshwater fish. The problem is that if you're fishin' outside, you can break it easily on arrowwood logs.

Composite Fishing Rod: This is my personal favorite; it's all purpose. It can catch all the fish in the game and is very durable (you are not going to break it for quite some time unless your just fishing way out of your league.) And if you do manage to break the thing you can resell it for about the same price as a new one.

Lu-Shang's Fishing Rod: I'm obligated to list this I think. Anyway, this rod is gained in a San d'Oria quest that requires 10,000 moat carp (forest carp can now be turned in as well). This is an all purpose fishing rod, depletes fish stamina very fast, is very durable, and can catch all fish in the game. The downside? You break it, you need 80+ woodworking to repair it, cause I'm pretty darn sure you don't want to sell its broken pieces. You can do a quest in Rabao to repair it but as much as it breaks on legendary fish (which is what its best suited for) this would drive you completely insane. Also, this is 10,000 moat carp. That's 833 stacks, 4k per stack, add that up. Essentially this thing is a status symbol among fishers.

Bait/Lures
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These are what you'll be using if you follow this guide...if you don't, well why the hell have you read this far then?

Little Worms: Good for all members of the carp family, crayfish, and eels.

Insect Paste: All Carp, you'll being using a lot of these.

Lugworms: Useful for beginners. Can catch sardines, quus, and other saltwater fish.

Crayfish Paste: Good for nebimonites and noble ladies.

Sabiki Rig: Saltwater fish, can catch 3 small fish at a time.

Minnow Lure: Too many fish to name here, I'll mention them in the leveling guide.

Shrimp Lure: Nebimonites and Noble ladies, my favorite lure.

Worm Lure: Black eels, nothing else that I know of.

Fly Lure: Salmon and Crescent fish

Frog Lure: Catfish and terrapin

More to be added whenever I remember them.

Armor
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Heres a short section, there are only 4 pieces of standard fishing armor. Each piece of Fishermans- equipment adds +1 fishing skill, the HQ versions of this provide extra defense.

That's it.

Guild Point Items
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Once you reach the novice Rank (28) you can turn in fish for guild points and obtain the following items. I can only remember a few of these items, but the ones I don't know I never bothered to remember cause they sound useless.

Robber Rig: 1500 points, good for catching items.

Frog Fishing(38): point total unknown, I think 25,000. I think this is only used with the Lufaise Flies bait, I gala know much about this I'm afraid.

Waders(skill 48): 70,000 points. Boots that add +2 to your fishing skill.

Fisherman's Apron(skill 68): Fishing Status symbol, reduces chance of catching items

Fishing hole map: skill unknown, points unknown, a map of various fishing locations

III.- Leveling Guide

Updating this since I've just remembered various alternatives to what I used. I'm also listing the fish caps, so caps will be shown in after the name.

Levels 1-11
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Fish to catch: Moat Carp(11), Crayfish(7), Sardines(10),

You can gain these levels in any Town. For the cap and the crayfish fish with little worms in FRESHWATER. My personal favorite is Bastok Markets, you catch only Moat Carp there and you can sell those for 4k a stack while you skillup, Crayfish are found in almost every source of freshwater.

For Sardines I recommend Port Windurst, use Lugworms (you can try sabiki but it might be easier to just use lugs)

Levels 11-18
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Fish to Catch: Greedies(14) Yellow Globes(17) Quus (19) Cheval Salmon (21)

My recommendation is Sabiki rig in Mhaura for the Yellow Globes. They cap at 17 but youll probably be hooking Quus at the same time so you'll hit the 18 mark as well. If you don't, try some of the other fish or move on to the next set.

For Greedies fish in Selbina with minnow lure. Also if you get a Fat Greedie use that for Oswalds First quest.

Quus can be found in Port Windurst, Mhaura, the Ferry, and various saltwater areas. Use lugworms or Sabiki Rig.

Cheval Salmon: I don't like these, but if you want to try them out, go to the Cheval River in East Ronfaure and use a fly or minnow lure.

Levels 18-24
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Fish to Catch: Giant Catfish (31)

Fish in Bastok markets with a Minnow, or Frog Lure. These don't stack so be ready for quite a few NPC trips.

Levels 24-27
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Fish to catch: Nebimonite(27)

Use a Shrimp Lure or Crayfish Paste for this set. Nebimonites are good money whenever the danm things sell, they go in waves it seems. Anyways watch your fishing instinct and sweat animation for this set. Nebs are small bites so if you get a large bite skip the darn thing.

Levels 27-38
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Fish To catch: Gold Lobsters(46), Zafmlug Bass(48), Ogre Eels(35)

Get a Sinking minnow or two and head to South Gustaburg. You'll be catching Ogre Eels, Gold Lobsters, Zafmlug Bass.

Levels 38-47
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Fish to Catch Red Terrapin(53), Sandfish(50), Black Eels (47)

For the Terrapin, use a frog lure in the Knightwell, West Ronfaure. Sandfish can be caught in Rabao, using Insect Paste, Black Eels can be caught in Bastok Markets, using worm lure.

Levels 48-58 (AKA, hell)
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Fish to Catch: Noble Lady's(66) Gold Carp (56)

There are a few different ways to go about these 10 levels. And all of them are slow and can be very irritating if your luck is as bad as mine was.

You can use a shrimp lure in Windurst or Jugner to catch Gold Carp, these are good up till 56 or you can use the shrimp lure on the ferry and aim for Noble Ladies. Now, Noble Ladies are an excellent source of skillups until about 57, which took me almost an entire month to level, I don't know why but it happened. I searched for many, many alternatives to these 2 slow ass methods but I couldn't find a one that was any better. Luckily you have the advantage of the increased skillups from the updates that I didn't have, you {Bastard SwordS}.

Levels 60+
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Fish To catch: Crescent Fish(67) Noble Ladys (66, still) BladeFish(71)

This is where I currently am and with the new fishing system still in place I'm getting a large amount of skillups on Crescent Fish, found in East SarutaBaruta lake, with fly lure. Nobles are back where they always are, same ol shrimp lure. Bladefish are in either saruta (in the sea) or Gustaberg. Use Sliced sardines or meatballs for those.