Fishing in ESO is a popular past-time, and ZOS has made slight changes and improvements to the mechanics and fishing drop rate over the years. These tips can help you get the most out of your time, especially if you’re looking for achievements.
Fishing Spots
Fishing spots seem to have about 15 casts available. This means if another person fished the spot before you and casted 10 times, you may only have about 5 casts before it is depleted and disappears. Or if you fish with 5 people together, you’ll each only get about 3 casts each (if you’re catching fish at the same rate).
Some fishing spots seem to be a mix of two different types of water types. For example, you may be able to catch BOTH ocean and lake fish from the same spot. This seems to be fairly rare.
Catching Rare Fish
Fishing alone is the best way to catch a lot of white fish, but if you’re after the rare trophy fish, you increase your odds of catching one by fishing with others. The current odds appear to be as follows:
| 1 person fishing | 5% |
| 2 people fishing | 10% |
| 3 people fishing | 15% |
| 4 people fishing | 25% |
* To my knowledge, this has not been confirmed by Zenimax, but in our extensive fishing — we’ve seen this generally prove out.
The increased odds of catching rare fish seem to cap at 25%, and as stated above, you don’t want to deplete the fishing hole too fast, so fishing with more than 4 people is counter-productive.
We’ve also learned that the drop rate bonus seems to only work if lines are in the water together. If your friend is trying for a trophy fish you’ve already gotten, try letting your friend cast first, then you cast a second or so later.
There have been a lot of different theories about how the bonus works (is it better when actually in a group? We’re not sure!) so grab a drink, jump on discord or TS, grab some guildies for a fishing event, and test it for yourself!
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