Fishing

	Trade Skills :: General \| Alchemy \| Arms Lore \| Blacksmithy \| Bowcraft/Fletching \| Carpentry \| Fishing \| Item Id. \| Lumberjacking \| Mining \| Tailoring \| Tinkering
	Trade Skills :: Fishing :: Fishing \| SOS Bottles \| Big Fish

Title	Fisherman
Delay	none	Stat ±	–
Difficulty-Based	yes	Gain	Location Limited
Starting Eq.	Fishing Pole, Floppy Hat
Hint	Use the Fishing skill to catch fish which can be eaten or sold. 1. Double-left-click on a fishing pole. 2. Left-click on a body of water. 3. SUCCESS: You have caught some fish. (Fish may not always be present in every body of water.)

Hanse on Fishing – 15^th July 01 – nocturne

Hanse on Fishing on the uo.com boards –

Big Fish –
The big fish was complained about because it was too hard to fish up. We made it more common (along the lines of a treasure map, but it requires less skill). It had a typo and had a very tough fishing up percentage (folks were spending 8 hours without fishing up one). It was something like a 0.01% chance. It was upped to roughly 3% or so successful attempts (that’s a very rough estimate). That change was made prior to the taxidermy kit being available for purchase.

Hot Spots –
There aren’t any tricks. Fishin’ is pure luck. If you find a “hot spot”, you’re just having a lucky streak. :)

Server Lines –
Oh. There is one issue with fishing near server boundaries. The deep water calculation fails if you are within 8 tiles of a server boundary.

This is because it looks for water tiles all around you. If one of those tiles is “unseeable” by the server you’re on (ie: the tile is on another server), then you are considered fishing in shallow water.

So, do not fish too close to those boundaries.

Risk vs. Reward –
I’ve fished for a long time. We fished hidden, from shore, and received tons of bottles for no risk. Now, you are revealed if you fish, it must be deep water, and the risk is fighting off a serpent. The balance is much better than it was before.

I only quoted the gameplay bits, there are also some of his personal experiences as a fisherman and all, it’s a pretty long thread.

[120101] Unlisted Changes to Fishing :: Added “a big fish”. Also, you no longer re-equip whatever was in your hand when you are done fishing. When you cast a line, your fishing pole becomes equipped and stays equipped (like your spellbook when spellcasting). Entering combat with a fishing pole checks wrestling and parrying.

This list is sorted according to skill level.
On average, a GM Fisherman fishes up an SOS bottle about once every hour.
Fishing indicates the minimum skill rating required to fish up the item. This is modified skill, not base skill.

Image	Item	Notes	Fishing
	Footwear	Whatever your skill, there is a chance you will pull up footwear, which is worth more than fish, at any rate.	0
	Fish	The whole point of fishing. Use a blade on a stack of fish to cut them into fish steaks. Each fish gives you four steaks. Cook the steaks to eat them.	0
	Sea Serpent	[09032k] Fishermen at over 80 skill will have a chance to pull up a sea serpent regardless of whether they succeed or fail at fishing when in deep sea.	80
	Highly Peculiar Fish	+10 Stamina	80
	Prized Fish	Temporary +5 Int.	80
	Truly Rare Fish	Temporary +5 Str.	80
	Wondrous Fish	Temporary +5 Dex.	80
	Treasure Map	Level 1 Map. See Treasure Maps.	90
	A Message in a Bottle	When you use the bottle you get a waterstained SOS. The SOS gives you coordinates from which you can fish up sunken treasure, and, sometimes, loot recovered from a shipwreak. More Information.	GM