FFXIV Fishing Leveling Guide 1-80 (Shadowbringers UPDATED)

Shadowbringers UPDATED! How to level up Fishing Quickly!? Confused with Fishing Levequests? Looking for FIsh & Fishing Spots? Power Level your Fisher!

FSH Leveling Navigation:
[01-15] | [15-35] | [35-50] | [50-55] | [55-60] | [60-70][70-80]

This tiers grinding summary (~35-50)

FromToMAXLocationMapBaitNotes
353740Sagoili DesertSTHSand LeechGreat overall grind spot. Decent until 40 if you choose to.
374041The NailCCHWildfowl FlyHigh chance of Bronzelake and Crimson Trout. (can begin @36)
404445Burning WallETHStem BorerSlim choices :( Use Myhtril Spoon Lure - Snurble Tuft when able
444546Exploratory IceholeCCHTopwater FrogCatches Northern Pike (Levequest fish). Good EXP.
454750Sea of CloudsCCHHoverwormPurely a grinding spot.
455050Ceruleum FieldNTHGlowwormLevefishing AND good EXP

Fishing Level 35-40

Fishing Quest Level 40: Raincaller x5
Level 35 Fishing Levequests: Coerthas, Observatorium.
Level 40 Fishing Levequests: Coerthas, Whitebrim.

Where to find RaincallerIn Gridania city WHILE IT’S RAINING. You can check the weatherman in hopes of a rainy day coming to Gridania. Bait used is Stem Borer. You can also find Raincallers in Gridania Marketboard :). RNG can make this a terrible wait.

FSH Level 35-40 Levequest fish
(?) 3 [9] Lamp Marimo [R] :
(?) 3 [9] Giant Bass [R] :
(?) 3 Seema :
(?) 3 Crimson Trout :

It’s a strange leve tier due to how rare the fish are in holes you can access at this level.

FSH Level ~35-40 Grinding spots

Staying in Sagoili until 37 is great, then go ahead and move to The Nail in CCH.

 

Fishing Level 40-45

Fishing Quest Level 45: Cloud Cutter x5
Level 40 Fishing Levequests: Coerthas, Whitebrim.
Level 45 Fishing Levequests: Mor Dhona,St. Coinachs Find.

Where to find Cloud CutterRight outside Whitebrim in CCH. Cloudfishing is unlocked at 45, so don’t try it before then. Use Hoverworms, which you can buy right at Whitebrim, too.

FSH Level 40-45 Levequest fish
(?) 3 [9] Abalathian Smelt [R] :
(?) 3 [9] Golden Loach [R] :
(?) 3 Bronze Lake Trout :
(?) 3 Northern Pike :

Golden Loach sucks. There’s really no way to catch these in a way where simply grinding isn’t better. If you really want to catch some Golden Loach, go to Forgotten Spring and load up on Honeyworm. Fortunately you can catch the rest of these fish in The Nail (CCH).

FSH Level ~40-45 Grinding spots

@40 Head to the Burning Wall, but this time pack some Stem Borers. Not the best grinding spot compared to lower tiers, but grinding spots are pretty thin in this level range.

@44 Go to CCH, Exploratory Icehole. Using Topwater Frog as your lure, you have an 80+% chance to sfish up Northern Pike, which is a levequest fish for this tier too.

Fishing Level 45-50

Fishing Quest Level 50: Mazlaya Marlin
Level 45 Fishing Levequests: Mor Dhona,St. Coinachs Find.

Where to find Mazlaya MarlinThese are DOUBLE MOOCHES, and can be quite troublesome to get on your own. It’ll take around 40 tries on average to fish one of these up. Use a Floating Minnow and try to catch HQ Harbor Herring > HQ Ogre Barracuda > Mazlaya Marlin. (Hello, marketboard!)

FSH Level 45-50 Levequest fish
(?) 3 [9] Ignus Snail [R]: Ceruleum Field, NTH | Stem Borer > Glowworm
(?) 3 [9] Sludgeskipper [R]: Ceruleum Field, NTH | Stem Borer > Glowworm
(?) 3 Boltfish : Ceruleum Field, NTH | Mooch from Silverfish
(?) 3 Ilsabardian Bass : Ceruleum Field, NTH | Mooch from Topwater Frog > Glowworm

Boltfish sucks – It’s the “Golden Loach” of this tier. Luckily you can catch all three of this fish in either Ceruleum Field (NTH), or North Silvertear (MDA). Overall I would recommend Ceruleum Field, using Honeyworm (Generic catch-all bait).  Short on Snails and Skippers? Use Stem Borer. Short on Bass? Use Topwater Frog. Short on Boltfish? Goodluck :)

FSH Level ~45-50 Grinding spots

Grinding these levels is extremely slow. I’ve been experimenting with all sorts of holes and lures in this tier but it’s simply too hard to justify NOT using leves in this final push to 50. I can post the best grinding spots in this tier, but I’ll need to find the best of the best for it to even come close to “levefishing” this tier.

Fishing End Game: What to do now?

Grats on hitting 50! Now what? Well, [Big Fishing] is one thing you can do…
You’re also going to need better gear for that: Gathering End-Game Gear Guide (+Max Materia Melds)

Any suggestions to improve the guides? Anything you guys want to add? Feel free to comment below.

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FSH Leveling Navigation:
[01-15] | [15-35] | [35-50] | [50-55] | [55-60] | [60-70][70-80]

126 thoughts on “FFXIV Fishing Leveling Guide 1-80 (Shadowbringers UPDATED)”

  1. It would be really neat if all the locations had x-y coordinates cus now i often need to look up where it exactly is and also which vendor to buy the lures/tackles from!

  2. If you’re trying to catch the Giant Plesiosaur, use Patience II to make sure you actually catch HQ ones. It’s hard as hell to do without.

  3. Let me just start by saying your guides are amazing! Thank you for putting in all the hard work to put these together.

    I’m sure you are already aware, but on some pages I’m getting a permission error and cannot access full guides. Any idea how I can get around this? I’ve tried different internet browsers with no luck.

    Thanks again for all you do for the community!

    1. Sadly, It’s extremely difficult to trace the cause of this. All guides are free, but this mysterious error is throwing up a 403 error for some pages for some people… I’m investigating! Back from holidays!

  4. One thing about mooching for the fish is to use low level bait to catch the HQ low level fish you need to mooch in the first place.

  5. Would you consider updating the site with a dark mode?
    I’ve been following this guide but it’s kind of blinding with all this white. :(

  6. 30 – 35 you say use Sylhid Basket do you mean Syrphid Basket or do i miss something :) in fishing guide thx :)

  7. I just want to say thank you for all of your hard work over the years. I’ve been following your guides to level my gatherers/crafters since you started and they have stopped me from ripping my hair out.
    Even better now with the new updates .. I could skip most of your recommendations …just relying on one or two things every three levels.
    You’re amazing.

  8. Can you update the guide with an equipment guide? What levels to upgrade your gear, and what gear should you be wearing at specific levels?

  9. Please consider updating the links on this page, as XIVDB no longer “exists”.. I know it’s an older guide that has been updated.. but just thought to leave a comment to bring it to your attention that all your links lead to dead pages. :)

  10. Unfortunately, a majority of the lures/baits mentioned in the 50-60 range are lvl 60, and cannot be used. I wonder if there was an update to change these? An example is “Steel Bladed Jig” “Goblin Jig” “Brute Leech” are all level 60, and the guide mentions catching fish which are only caught using one of those.

    1. The guide makes no mention of Bladed Jigs. The only time Brute Leech was mentioned was for the L60 quest. Goblin Jig, mentioned in the guide, is L58. I’m really not sure what you’re complaining about?

  11. As far as Boltfish go, I found constant good luck fishing for them in The Tangle during Gloom weather, 6pm to 859am Eorzea Time. Glowworm, Sinking/Floating Minnows had the highest results.

  12. Worth mentioning that you’ll get one of those pieces of gear plus the fishing rod while doing the class quest. This is the second tier I’ve bought everything then immediately gotten it again by doing the quest. lol Even spending the money on the class quest fish would be a smarter investment.

  13. “L68 FSH Class Quest – HQ Dafangshi … Once in this new node (it has a large % bonus to HQ gathers)”
    Actually, that is a random proc. I ended up having to spawn the Teeming Shadows node twice (painful, I know…) and the first time didn’t have any bonuses, while the second time had an additional gathering attempt.

  14. I’m currently level 40 and I’m trying to do the level 30 class quest. Went to “Isles of Umbra Northshore” but that spot requires Skyfishing now I think… and you don’t get that until Level 45.

  15. for the 40-45 tier, instead of farming at The Nail, go into Daniffen Pass. The Golden Loach, Bronze Lake Trout, and Abalathian Smelt are all here and able to be caught with Honeyworms. Since that covers 3 of the four leves for the tier you should be able to stock up prettty easily and compelte whichever ones pop up.

  16. you may want to add that in order to catch the deep velodyna carp you MUST be on the quest. i got pretty discouraged after 150 or so fish and hadn’t seen a single one lol. looks like it was to keep ppl from buying it, which seems completely unnecessary with them so easy to catch (once you pick up the quest)

  17. Voor Sian Siran in Sea of Clouds (not coerthas) with stonefly nymph bait is a really good spot to grind around 50.

  18. For grinding lvl45-50 I found the best place to be was cloud fishing in Coerthas.
    I had my other gatherers on a higher level, so I had easy access to commercial survival manual.
    With Gatherer’s Grace turned on, a hq Rift Sailor will net you 40K xp, without rested xp turned on.
    I skipped the leves because I found the items to be worth more on the market than the 30-90xp I got for them.

  19. I found doing the Silken Sunfish collectible turn in was very worth it from 69-70 because it gives about 800k exp a piece when it’s a starred item, and with nature’s bounty and a full gp bar (roughly 700) even with veteran trading the Mosasaur, yielded upwards of 5 Silken Sunfish!

  20. Just wanted to say thank for this guide, I got to lvl 44 so for with little to no effort taking long breaks while following this guide. And this has only been a few days of nearly a week of fishing, and only using food for the exp boost, no other exp enchantment.

    To clarify:
    Went from 0-44 in just a few days with minor fishing, and no exp boost outside of food.

  21. i leveled my fisher from 50 till 55 today and noticed that the best thing to do when you reached level 51 is going for the icepick collectible. I fished at unfrozen pond in Coerthas Wester Higlands. This is the place where you also find the collectible sorcerer fish and you can allready catch it when you are lvl51. The collectability has to have a minimum of 646 and it appears in the list of collectibles when you reach lvl52. I don’t know if it was luck or not, but when i reached level 52 i turned instant 53 with turning in the Sorcerer Fish. I used the action patience and powerful hookset to get a higher collectability. (sorry for my English, it’s not so good ^^)

  22. Just wanted to throw out there that Golden Loach can be found quite easily in Daniffen Pass using honey worm (along with Alabathian Smelt), just south-west of The Nail.

  23. I wanted to let you know about the lvl 50 glacial core bait is incorrect. It is not red balloon; you cant use that until lvl 53. The bait would be Balloon Bug.

    1. To clarify: RED BALLOON has the highest catch-rate.. its the “best bait”, but yes balloon bug is the “Earliest bait”. Check the table above, I’ll clarify this in other instances of glacier core in the guide.

  24. On the Level 54 fishing writeup, you include this part:

    Alternative Grinding: Mogpom, fished from Greensward in Churning Mists – is a great fishing hole to grind on. Not only do mogpoms hold a bit of crafting material value, the fishing hole has 100% chance to catch this level 55 fish, meaning it’s a very stable choice for mindless grinding.

    Problem is, Mogpom cannot be fished until lvl 58, as it needs a goblin jig or steel spinner jig to be caught.

  25. I tried fishing Ceruleum Field last night with Chocobo Fly. 4 straight non-Grip Killifish, level 5 Rock whatevers. Moondrip is way better. Switched over and started catching nothing but Blindfish and Killifish. Ceruleum Field with Chocobo Fly is not best 27-30, Moondrip is.

    1. I was confused about this too, but the farm spot is directly south of the Ceruleum Processing Plant crystal.
      You’ll see a long chasm and some metal tubes, just cast the fishing rod there and it will work as instructed.
      Every catch yielded over 3500xp and HQs about 10k. Went from 27 to 30 in a flash!

  26. Guide is either out-of-date or the level 45 quest changes if you’ve (completed?) HW prior to leveling Fisher. Just hit 45 and I’m being sent to sky-fish for Cloud Cutters in Sea of Clouds. Hoping grind spots are up-to-date :)

    1. skyfishing for Cloud Cutters in Sea of Clouds is right haha, its a nonHW area in CCH. It’s not literally the Sea of Clouds map, just the fishing hole name.

  27. Hello, don’t know if anybody did tell about grand company Company-issue survival manual II. it gives+50% up to 40k exp… Cool, init?
    Thank you for your guide

  28. Need to fix the lvl 25 leve quest location FSH from “East Shroud, Quarrymill” to “South Shroud, Quarrymill”

  29. I’m going through this atm and just want to point out, you say for the lvl 35 quest, Desert Catfish, that they can be caught from either of the Sagolii Desert sandfishing spots, but they can only be caught from the one on the east side.

    1. Red Balloon is 53 – YOU’RE CORRECT! It’s also the BEST LURE for Glacier Core. However, Since you cannot equip it – use BALOON BUG in the meantime.

      I’m sorry for the confusion, I specifically remembered the exact point in time wherein I asked myself as I was coding the table “Hmm.. which lure should I put for Glacier Core?” I ended up going with Red since it’s the BEST, and hoping people would click on the more info or figure out that Balloon Bug was the only other choice.

      Thanks to your comment, maybe I was wrong. /fixed – added balloon bug.

      Even if I didn’t help you one damned bit – I appreciate your feedback.

  30. How I can visit CERULEUM FIELD? Please tell me ;) Yesterday I tried to find there with my fellow fishers but we could not find it (with two 50 lv fishers..)

    1. same thing happened to me. i put a brass spoon lure on and could catch things during the day. just try different baits/lures for day time

  31. Just to let you know for 30-35 Black sole, Sea Pickles and Ash Tuna can all be caught in north bloodshore, with Indigo caught in costa del sol, right next to it

  32. I’m rather new to FFXIV, having played on a month, or so. I’ve found all your gatherers’ guides particularly helpful. I started my Fisher only about a week ago and reached level-50 today. I did only a couple of levequests — I’ve also got a Culinarian and have set a personal goal of catching one HQ of everything. It still didn’t seem to take very long. I’m into the game more for gathering/crafting than fighting; so, slow leveling is okay with me.

    One comment per the Level-50 Class Quest: I found it rather simple; I caught three HQ Mazlaya Marlins and two NQ ones in about 30 minutes. Yes, “Hello Marketboard” for a nice profit on my extra Marlins, and I shall return often.

    Again, thank you for your terrific guides.

  33. I noticed there was no grinding spot for 30-35. I’ve been doing The Juggernaut fishing hole in 17.31 Eastern La Noscea.
    With a chocobo fly I get about 90% Grip Killifish which are about 3k exp per fish (I do have rested xp atm though)

  34. So I am currently in the 40-45 fishing range. Based on primarily grinding from 35 to my current level of 43, I would say sticking with the Nail until 45 is probably better than moving to the Burning Wall. The rate at which I am catching the three choices of level 40 fish is pretty low with the mix of the salmon and boneytongue, it seems quite a bit slower.

    I think the more steady higher exp (compared to salmon and boneytongue at the wall) catches at the Nail make it faster.

  35. In the 20-25 grinding spot, you suggest the Yugr’am river in W.Thanalan, which is inocrrect. Yugr’am river is in E.Thanalan.

    1. I’ve been grinding in Yugr’am river for a while and noticed that Black Eel with Butterworm nets 100% ALL DAY not just at night. Don’t know if this was mentioned in a patch note somewhere.

      1. Correction, just hit the “nothing bites” slump. But it does keep going into the daytime quite a bit. Til 10 am I think.

  36. So I noticed that you suggest Cape Westwind for level 30 to 35 leveling. What I also noticed when I got there is that the enemies are kevel 48, and thus not affected by Stealth until level 38. Is there a better place to level for those 5? Love your guide by the way!

  37. Love your guides! Pretty sure I’ve used all of the crafting and gathering ones to level up. Have any idea when the 50-60 guide will be ready?

  38. I’m sorry, but please use the full name on the locations and please use cordinates, it takes forever to figure out were you accually mean.. If you allready are taking the time to make this guide, why be so lasy as to use shortened words.. Not trying to be rude, just telling you that this guide is a pain in the behind to use.

    1. I’m sorry, but refinement to pre-50 FSH will be done after I’m done with the 60 chunk. I’m sure you can manage, you’re a grown up :)

    2. Saying “not trying to be rude” doesn’t make it not rude… Calling a person who voluntarily made a nicely-written guide “lazy” isn’t really nice.. I’ve only started playing the game recently and it doesn’t really take long on finding these locations. You get move your lazy bum and look for these yourself! :)

    3. To end this mini-scuffle let me clarify a few things…

      It’s a far cry from laziness. A lazy person cannot create this entire site by themselves. Which I am doing. I realize the site is not perfect, and neither is this guide. I cannot explain all choices I made but I’ll make an exception for this…

      Coordinates are a great idea, I definitely want to do this! And I appreciate your reminder. I simply cannot backtrack this guide at this time… the FSH leveling guide has great info (IMO), and is definitely usable at this point… I’m sorry if the coords aren’t listed and this is very much a great addition in the near future.

      I used the shortened location names for many reasons. the primary one? SPACE. Especially in the tables. These abbreviations are commonly used in many FFXIV related communications, within and without Eorzea… It would be beneficial to you to learn them! But as I said earlier it’s primarily a SPACE issue… it may not seem like a big deal but trust me it is…

      FSH Guide in general is a pain in the ass even to write… I mean.. the uniqueness of the class and the personalities of people trying to level fishing are wildly varied! As wildly varied as the ways and methods and goals of those attempting to max the class. I’m just here trying my best to even give a sliver of a guideline to those who may seek it. I appreciate any feedback, good or bad.

      Thanks!

      1. I had zero issue with your guide and it was a great help keep up the awesome work dude!

  39. Thanks so much for the guide!
    However, I noticed that on the 30-35 leves, you have listed Indigo Herring twice. The repeatable one should be Sea Pickle!

    1. Thanks for the heads up! I will be updating this to 60 shortly, and i’m wishing to refine the pre-60 half of this after that.

  40. You’re guides have been a real life saver,

    I did come across one mistake, you say that Yagram river is in Western Thanalan, but it is in Eastern Thanalan.

    Thanks for the guide. :D

  41. bit late to reading these guides but u know a lot more fun stuff than fishing lol but I notice u say that yugram river is in W.thanalan but its actually in E.thanalan

  42. I noticed that you put the level 40 fishing hole Burning Wall, which requires Gulleye II, as a recommended grinding spot for level 26-30. Is there a good fishing hole for grinding that is actually possible for this level range? Love your guide!

    1. Burning Wall seems to be accessible even before Gulleye II. This was done long ago, but I can try to verify this through another recently leveled fisher?

      1. i was able to fish there at 25 also there was a place i couldnt fish not mentioned here the pond in wt near moon drop

      2. i was just there lvling my fisher i dont think i went there at 23 i belive it was 25 i went there i had no problem fishing there where misses and eventualy one stole my spoon but i did lvl there to 27 before moving off to Ceruleum Field the only gear i had on was from fishing guild quest rewards no extras or special bennys through the free company

      3. One other note I had some trouble finding vendors that sell the needed lure or bait for the different areas. I think adding a vendor location for the different baits needed as your lvling would be a good thing to include in your guide.

        1. Great Idea! I will be working on many of these guides come 3.0, in case new ways to level up appead.

        2. Just go to 1 of the housing areas (Goblet, Lavender Beds, & Mist) & the junkmonger there sells everything.

    1. I’m sorry, but this is somewhat used quite commonly in my server – i apologize. If you haven’t discovered by context… “NSH” would be North SHroud, WLN is Western La Noscea… ETH is Eastern Thanalan. Hopefully that helps!

      1. No apology required IMHO. Players need to figure SOMETHING out for themselves. THX for your guide. Just turned in my Raincallers and gonna farm CCuttters next. GG

        1. WTH does “THX” mean and why would anyone expect people that would be looking for a “guide” to already know this stuff?

  43. Just wanted to say this guide has been fantastic. Currently at level 46 and about to get more grinding on. Comp Bryagh on Excalibur says Thanks a bunch!

  44. May have been noted already, but Yugram River is in Eastern Than, as opposed to Western which it states in the 20-25 section. Fantastic guide, would be lost without it!

  45. Just want to point out that the info for level 15 levequests is wrong. They are in Aleport. Moraby Drydocks are level 20.

    1. The info on the 1-15 page is incorrect. The 16-35 reflects correct information. Also, I’m having better luck finding Helmet Crabs and White Coral at Brewer’s Beacon with Rat Tail. Skull Valley is where I’m getting Razor Clam and Rothlyt Oyster, also with Rat Tail.

  46. Loved the guide ty for your time and effort to putting this together. I just want to throw in here that I got my mazlaya marlin at 32x 25y e. LA noscea with a rattail it’s 100% harbor herring the rest is rngesus I got mine on second cast :-D

      1. I also wanted to say, great guide, I’ve followed it from lvl 15 to lvl 50, and it’s really helped me out a lot. Keep up the good work!!

  47. “Where to find Shadow Catfish? Using low level bait Moth Pupa, you can mooch a Striped Goby(HQ) to get your Shadow Catfish rather easily! You cannot pre-emptively finish your L25 Class Quest since you need to mooch – which is a skill you gain at 25.”

    Didn’t say where ^.^

    1. Oh man.. is the location in the first page? I just got back and replying to comments quickly. AFAIK it shold be in fallgourd float (checking)

    1. Yes I’ve been itching to find the best way to implement that… Any Ideas? If I use a bunch of images… man.. load times? hmm…

        1. I will be fixing this up pre-3.0, in terms of showing a map of where these locations are. :) yes that is a great supplementary resource!

  48. An alternative for White Coral, if your having trouble catching it. I found is if you have a retainer with atleast 5 levels in fishing they can gather it for you.

  49. Here’s an alternative for Boltfish…instead of using just about anything else, you can use honeyworm to catch about 3 times as many Silverfish…GREATLY increases your odds of getting an HQ quicker and mooching.

  50. For the Mazlaya Marlin (lvl 50 job), I got it by rather easily at lvl 40 Fishing in Western La Noscea (Northern Bloodshore) using Krill Cage Feeder.

    Just as an alternative :)

  51. So much incorrect information… Yugr’am River (not yugram) is in Eastern Thanalan, and the bait this guide suggests does not work there. Wish there was a more reliable guide somewhere.

    1. Please read it again :D, Butterworm to catch eels only work DURING NIGHT TIME… otherwise you will not be able to catch anything! Don’t be so hasty to post!

    2. Would it actually hurt to be constructive and polite? OP writes a guide–If it’s not up to your personal standards, or if you don’t feel like properly reading, move the hell on. Do you actually need to be a prat about it? Thank you goes a long way. Constructive criticism goes a long way. Being an entitled sounding asshat only makes people not want to help, advise or otherwise be kind to you.

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