You Lost Your Catch.

I make 95% of my money from fishing. I enjoy fishing in game very much. As a mid level fisher with the Lu Shang I can target some very profitable fish like Black Sole, Gigant Squid, Grims etc. The market fluctuates as always, but lately things have gone a bit ugly.

I'm going to copy and paste a post I made over the Titanictus forums as it sums up my feelings nicely.

"I've had 3 stacks of Black Sole stuck on my mule for a while. The Black Sole market in Jeuno is almost 100% bot controlled now. The price has fallen from 50k a stack to 23k a stack in around two weeks. I guess its good for people buying Sole Sushi, but its hard on us fishermen.

Over the past weekend there were, at one point, 82 stacks of Black Sole on sale at Jeuno AH, the price dipped to a 20k low. Bots are everywhere here. In addition to the usual crowds in Port Jeuno and on Quifim North shore, there's a whole cluster of bots fishing on the northern coast of Battalia Downs, just outside of the wandering range for the high level orcs that sometimes spawn there.

Legit fishers are getting pushed into Sea Serpent Grotto in a big way as a result. Grims are 7k last I checked, but equally there were over 100 in stock in Windhurst. Bream - heavily botted in Windhurst - down to an eye watering 8k a stack, Nebs still at 20k but heavily overstocked.

As well as all these bots, the RMT levelling train is in full effect. I was in Garlaige Basement last week and there were 30+ RMTs down there claiming every mob while being PL'd. It was impossible to XP down there, not that SE would care. I'm guessing SE will do nothing until we hit another hyper inflation like we had back at Christmas, then belatedly ban accounts they could and should have banned months earlier."

It's very frustrating, not just for me but for other hardcore FFXI anglers. There are level 80+ fishermen saying that the only way they can make money on fish now is to go after legendaries like Ryugu Titan and hope to get the valuable item from Zaldon - something where the odds are utterly random, and most likely will result in nothing but a few hundred gil for a great deal of effort. Not good. I can make some small profit using the fish in Cooking which is ticking me over at the moment, but is no substitute for good old fashioned angling.

I really hope SE hauls itself off its butt and brings the hammer down on these bots. There will always be fish botting, but either a new bot has been released or the RMT crowd have got their hands on a good one as the market has absolutely nosedived these last two weeks or so.

Come on SE! Do something!

To end on a positive: I had an XP PT on Samurai on Sunday. After the excruciating garbage I had to put up with getting MNK from 48 to 50, it was a breath of fresh air. In fact, it was absolutely brill, i got about 16k XP, lvl 62, and enjoyed every minute of it. Keep your fingers crossed I can get another one before the end of the year. ^.~