Why'd I Make This?
How to Fish
Things That Are Not Fish
Things That Are Fish (w/ Locations)
How the Heck Do I Catch a Lord Fish?

I couldn't find all the information I needed to get all of the fish in one place. There's an incredibly useful guide at https://psnprofiles.com/guide/6533-ys-viii-lacrimosa-of-dana-trophy-guide#10-reel-big-fisherman that gives a lot of good information, but I suspect that here on PC there are some minor differences from the PS4 version.

This gathers information from various places and puts it all in one spot, along with a bit of extra information I gathered along the way.

Keep in mind that some of these location names may be considered spoilers as they are areas one would access later in the game, so review this at your own risk. I've tried to mark the good stuff with the spoiler tag so that you have to mouse over those locations to view them.

Let me know if you have information that varies from what I have here and I'll update the guide.

Fishing isn't available from the beginning of the game. It happens after a story-related event. The game will walk you through how to fish. Here's a recap with a few additional tips.

Find a spot where there are shadows of fish and ripples on the water. Here's what those spots look like:


Before you begin fishing, make sure there are no enemies around that can actually hit the person you have fishing, or they will take you out of fishing mode. Enemies can be aggressive, targeting you, and attempting to attack you -- as long as they can't hit you. Your lead character will be the person who does the fishing, and each character has different fishing capabilities.

You'll need bait. There aren't different types of bait, just an item called "Bait". Bait is rare early on, so when you find a fishing spot where you want to fish, save the game. Reloading a game will make enemies reappear and you'll have to kill them again, but you'll be able to save the bait by reloading if you don't catch the exact fish you want. Bait isn't actually spent until something is caught, so don't worry about failing to get a bite or failing to fill the fishing gauge.

Not all fishing spots will always be present. They won't always contain the same size of fish. They won't always contain the same number of fish. Sometimes the things you catch won't even be fish.

Make sure the fishing icon in the corner is white or highlighted and not greyed out. Press up on the D-pad to go into fishing mode. Use the analog stick to position where your lure will land. The game lacks an indicator of exactly where on the water it will land and instead gives you a pretty good gist of the spot using arrow indicators.


Press the confirm button (X in my case on a DS4 controller) to cast your line. There's a chance at this point for your character to miscast, meaning the lure won't land near where you intend it to land. If this happens, press the cancel button (O in my case) and recast the line. Occasionally, due to the lack of exact indicators and depth-of-field effects, your lure may land much closer or further than you intend, even without a miscast. If this happens, recall the line again by pressing the cancel button and simply reposition using the analog stick and recast the line. Then don't press anything. Be patient.


You'll eventually hear a sound and see an exclamation point appear above the character's head. Hit the confirm button at this point.


Begin repeatedly pressing (a.k.a. "mashing") the confirm button to build up the fishing gauge.

How difficult it is to fill this gauge depends on several things. Some of these are hidden attributes that are determined when you enter the area where the fish are located.

• The type of fish being caught (if it even is a fish...)
  
• The size of the fish being caught
  
• Whether you're catching a "lower level" fish (determined by type and size) in a higher level area
  
• The character doing the fishing
  
• Whether you have accessories that increase fishing skill equipped
  
• Whether it's your first time attempting to catch the fish at that spot. The game takes pity on you the first time you fail to fill up the fishing gauge at a particular spot and your next attempt at fishing in that spot will become SLIGHTLY easier.

While fishing for fish that are considerd "non-easy" for a particular fish/area combination, you won't easily be able to fill up the gauge by mashing. In these cases, you'll receive on-screen indicators that give your fishing gauge a boost when you perform the action indicated.

The indicator actions may be as follows:

• Press down on the analog stick
  
• Press left on the analog stick
  
• Press right on the analog stick
  
• Circle the analog stick counter-clockwise
  
• Circle the analog stick clockwise
  
• And a special indicator to hold down the L1 and R1 buttons simultaneously. This indicator does not boost your fishing gauge. Instead, it indicates that the fish is "fighting" and prevents rapid attrition of the gauge while the indicator is on screen and the buttons are pressed. You might briefly consider giving your mashing finger a break for a second while this is on the screen, but you'll need to begin mashing again as soon as it's gone, so I don't actually recommend stopping your rhythm.

When the fishing gauge fills, you'll be considered to have caught the fish. Congratulations!

When you go fishing, you can catch Things That Are Not Fish. These things are:

• Treasure
  
• Driftage
  
• Enemies ("Angry Catches")

You won't catch Driftage at spots that still have fish shadows in the water.

If you see a bird on the water, you are guaranteed to pull up a treasure chest if you catch something in that spot. (image from the in-game help)


If you fish at spots without ripples and fish in the water, you will either catch nothing, you can catch a fish, or you will pull up any of the Things That Are Not Fish. From most likely to least likely (but really it depends on where you do it): Driftage, Fish, Nothing, Treasure, Enemies. Some areas where you can fish inherently simply contain nothing.

In one special area, the Waterdrop Cave Exit(where you find Captain Barbaros), you will only catch enemies. As part of any modern Ys game mechanic, you are able to fast-travel to various spots you've been previously. When you are first able to fast-travel back to this spot, the angry catches will generally be a much higher level than you. Fighting them repeatedly will allow your characters to gain skills prior to when they would normally gain them in the game. Each character has 12 skills available. You won't be able to gain them all here (for story reasons), but it's fun to see which ones you can get.

If you pull up Driftage, you can pull up 10 different kinds of Driftage. The contents of some kinds of driftage are randomized and will change based on how far you are in the story and where you are fishing. Other things (like Bitter or Sweet Driftage) are set in their contents. The kinds of driftage are (in alphabetical order, with examples of contents):


The enemies that you can pull up are called "Angry Catches". Here's a listing of those. See notes below the table.
NOTES:
* This is the enemy base level. Catching the same enemies at different places in the game will up their levels and increase their other stats.
** Considered "undead" and needs special Adventuring Gear (mandatory story item) equipped to kill. Consider fighting for skills regardless. You won't be able to get experience or items from this enemy until you have that special Adventuring Gear. You won't get that until MUCH later in the game.

There are 28 fish in the game; 24 regular fish and 4 "Lord" fish.

Okay, this one is kind of interesting.

Lord fish have a VERY VERY VERY BIG shadow in the water. That's how you know you can catch one in a particular spot, as opposed to regular fish.

Remember how I said earlier in the "How To Fish" section "Fish and fishing spots are randomized to appear when you enter an area." ? Those were good times, weren't they? That's one of the main reasons I'm writing this guide.

In my experience, the four Lord fish spawned 100% of the time the first time I encountered their main locations. After that, it's been written (in multiple places, one of which being this forum post[gamefaqs.gamespot.com], be aware it may container spoilers) that they have a 5% to 10% chance to appear. The rewards for catching them are pretty good, so you may want to catch them again.


I read on the aforementioned page from user "bilegrinder" that you can keep fast-traveling to the same location over and over again to reroll the fish spawns. To paraphrase their advice and add a bit of my own, you can actually fast-travel to specific locations and WITHOUT MOVING (but rotating the camera as necessary) you can see if a particular Lord fish has spawned. If not, fast-travel to the same location again by simply selecting the same place again on the map. You don't need to leave the area to make this happen.

Although you may encounter the Lord fish in different bodies of water, the aforementioned places are the IDEAL places to force them to spawn. If you have trouble catching them after they've taken the bait, refer to the earlier "How To Fish" section for tips.

Here are the ideal spawn locations for each fish, with pictures.
Keep scrolling. Spoilers ahead.

Use Sahad to do the fishing at each location except for Path of the Ocean Era. I believe only Dana can cast her lure far enough to reach that fish.

To catch the Grand Angler, fast-travel to the entrance of Great River Valley. Adjust your camera angle if necessary so that you can see the fish shadow as in the below picture. If you can't see it, re-travel again and again until you can. Click the picture for a larger view.


For the Nubulobrim, fast-travel to the Path of the Ocean Era. Rotate the camera 180 degrees so that you can see it in the distance beyond the entrance. I couldn't cast my line far enough to reach its location with any character fishing except Dana.


Catching a Bulldart was vexing to me until I discovered that it spawns in Sky Garden in the Lodinia Marshland.


And finally, the Ancient Abyss spawns at Solitude Island:


If you have any additional information, please let me know and I'll add it to the guide after I verify it!