Ocean fishing is a fun and relaxing Final Fantasy 14 side activity, though it can be stressful if you don’t know what you’re doing. Getting on a boat with friends to reel in big catches is a unique experience, but you can only ocean fish during certain times of the day.

You do not need to own any expansions to ocean fish and you can participate even if you’re playing the free trial. Yippee!

Below, we explain how to unlock ocean fishing in FFXIV. We’ll also tell you the ocean fishing schedule, what bait to use while you ocean fish, and tips to score big and rake in rewards.

What is ocean fishing?

Ocean fishing is like an alliance raid, but for fishing. You’ll board a big boat that’ll take you through three different parts of the water and you’ll have to complete objectives for extra points.

You’ll be put into a full party, with two other parties on your boat. The goal is to catch fish to score big during the time limit.

It’s not all just catching big, rare fish, though. Catching special “spectral” fish has a chance to trigger a spectral current. These spectral currents allow you to catch even more fish with higher point values, so triggering one of these is nearly always the goal.

There are also a handful of objectives to try to complete during the expedition, like catching a lot of sharks or jellyfish.

How to unlock ocean fishing in FFXIV

In order to start your grand ocean fishing adventure, you’ll need to unlock the Fisher job, which you can do by heading to the Fisherman’s Guild in Limsa Lominsa. You’ll also need to complete the next Fisher quest, “My First Fishing Rod.” You can ocean fish even if your Fisher is at level 1. (In fact, ocean fishing is a really easy way to level Fisher up super fast.)

Once you have your Fisher ready to go, you’ll just need to complete the quest “All the Fish in the Sea” in Limsa Lominsa, which starts at the NPC Fhilsnoe below:

Once you finish that quest, you can queue for ocean fishing via Dryskthota at the Limsa Lominsa Ferry Docks (west of the Arcanist’s Guild Aetheryte), as long as it’s time to ocean fish.

Note that you will not be able to take the Ruby route through the Stormblood locations until you beat the Stormblood expansion.

Ocean fishing schedule

Unfortunately, you can’t ocean fish whenever you want to. Ocean fishing abides by a schedule and you can only register for it for fifteen minutes from the top of the real world hour, every other hour. For example, if the registration period starts at 2 p.m., you have until 2:15 to queue for ocean fishing. If you miss this period, you’ll have to wait until 4 p.m.

While we would recommend looking out for the odd or even hours, the exact time changes depending on daylight savings and on your timezone, so we actually recommend Lulu’s Tools, which has a live ocean fishing schedule, even noting which objectives and routes the next few boats will take.

Which bait to use while ocean fishing

There are three main bait types used during ocean fishing: krill, ragworm, and plump worm. You can nab all three of these baits from the merchant on the docks where you queue for ocean fishing. You should stock up and buy a ton of each of the three.

In every ocean fishing experience we’ve had, there has always been somebody in the group who will use alliance chat (the orange chat) to say which bait to use — or, alternatively, somebody who will tell you which bait to use if you ask. However, if you don’t want to rely on these genius fishing strangers every time you get on the boat, here are the best baits to trigger spectral currents by location:

• Bloodbrine Sea: krill
• The Ciedalaes: ragworm
• Galadion Bay: plump worm
• Rhotano Sea: plump worm
• Rothlyt Sound: plump worm
• Northern Strait of Merlthor: ragworm
• Southern Strait of Merlthor: krill
• Sirensong Sea: plump worm
• Kugane Coast: ragworm
• Ruby Sea: krill
• One River: krill

In a very broad sense, these three baits will keep you covered. There are some specific catches that take a different bait from the three, but for the sake of simplicity and scoring points, using these three baits should lead you to success.

How to get a high score in ocean fishing

You can min-max in ocean fishing, and while scoring big also relies on luck, there are a few things you can do to help boost your score:

• Empty your inventory to prepare for the fishing trip, as you’ll be hauling in lots of unique fish that take up a ton of inventory slots. Do not use the “release list” feature to automatically discard fish, as the animation that plays to discard the fish wastes your precious time on the boat.
• Bring and use Cordials and Hi-Cordials to restore your GP. You should be using your fishing skills, whether you’re using Patience, Powerful and Precision Hookset, or other fishing skills. You should not just be using your basic Hook skill.
• Don’t forget to use Thalaik’s Favor, a level 15 skill that gives you back 150 GP in exchange for three stacks of Angler’s Art (a buff you get for just catching big fish).
• Use Chum between catches during spectral currents to get fish to bite faster.
• Don’t stress too much about your point value while fishing, as there are a ton of bonuses at the end that’ll shoot your score up. You’ll be surprised about how many bonuses you may get at the end.

Just by following the above, we’ve been able to score above 10,000 points (which is all you need to get the mount and minions).

Ocean fishing rewards

Every time you finish ocean fishing, you’ll get a boatload of EXP, as well as gatherers’ scrips (if you’re high enough level to have them). Notably, there are a few exclusive rewards to ocean fishing that are locked behind specific achievements.

The following achievements give minions and mounts:

• On a Boat IV: Earn a cumulative total of 1 million points while ocean fishing (Much-coveted Mora minion)
• No More Fish in the Sea I: Score at least 5,000 points during a single ocean fishing voyage on the Indigo route (The Major-General minion)
• No more Fish in the Sea II: Score at least 10,000 points during a single ocean fishing voyage on the Indigo route (Hybodus Horn for the mount)
• Near, Far, Wherever Fish Are II: Score at least 10,000 points during a single ocean fishing voyage on the Ruby route (Mossasaurus minion)
• Mine, Mine, Mine: Encounter 3 seagull flocks while ocean fishing (Gull minion)
• Double-backwards Somersault: Encounter 3 dolphin pods while ocean fishing (Dolphin Calf minion)

You can claim these rewards from the achievements menu once you earn said achievement.

These achievements give you titles:

• On a Boat V: Earn a cumulative total of 3 million points while ocean fishing, (World-class Troller title)
• No More Fish in the Sea III: Score at least 16,000 points during a single ocean fishing voyage on the Indigo route (Ocean Fisher title)
• No More Fish in the Sea IV: Score at least 20,000 points during a single ocean fishing voyage on the Indigo route (Master of the Sea title)
• Near, Far, Wherever Fish Are III: Score at least 16,000 points during a single ocean fishing voyage on the Ruby route (Doom of the Deep title)
• What Did Octopodes Do to You?: Earn the “Octopus Travelers” bonus during an ocean fishing voyage on the Indigo route (Octopus Traveler title)
• What Did Sharks Do to You?: Earn the “Certifiable Shark Hunters” bonus during an ocean fishing voyage on the Indigo route (Shark Hunter title)
• What Did Jellyfish Do to You?: Earn the “Jelled Together” bonus during an ocean fishing voyage on the Indigo route (Jellyfish Fanatic title)
• What Did Seadragons Do to You?: Earn the “Maritime Dragonslayers” bonus during an ocean fishing voyage on the Indigo route (Sea Dragoon title)
• What Did Balloons Do to You?: Earn the “Balloon Catchers” bonus during an ocean fishing voyage on the Indigo route (Balloon Catcher title)
• What Did Crabs Do to You?: Earn the “Crab Boat Crew” bonus during an ocean fishing voyage on the Indigo route (Deadliest Catcher title)
• What Did Mantas Do to You?: Earn the “Sticking it to the Manta” bonus during an ocean fishing voyage on the Indigo route (Manta Maniac title)
• What Did Shellfish Do to You?: Earn the “Maximum Mussel ” bonus during an ocean fishing voyage on the Ruby route (Sea Comber title)
• What Did Squid Do to You?: Earn the “Squid Squadron” bonus during an ocean fishing voyage on the Ruby route (Squidzure Dragoon title)
• What Did Shrimp Do to You?: Earn the “Shrimp Smorgasbord” bonus during an ocean fishing voyage on the Rubyroute (Shrimp Mariner title)

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• Source: https://www.polygon.com/ffxiv-guides-ff14-final-fantasy-14-online/24122128/ocean-fishing-unlock-schedule-bait-routes-beginners-tips