I've decided to write a little guide, since it seems to me there are many misconceptions among some community members about Tier / Level and other stats on fishing rods.
It’s based on my own experience (so far I’ve reached level 22), so if any of elite fishers want to drop some diamonds into this well, they are more than welcome to do so (maybe it’ll spawn some crazy drops too).

some abbreviations:
plvl - proficiency level on you skill tab (here we discuss fishing only)
flvl - fish of particular level
frl - fishing rod of particular level (tier)
props - properties you can find on rods other than durability
dura - durability
BP - breaking point - proficiency level 5, 10, etc. (just any number divisible by 5 that allows you to catch higher flvl)

First things first.
Unlike the other items,tier and level on fishing rods (frl) have nothing to do with character level but rather the proficiency level on a skill tab (plvl).
So yes - you can technically equip even frl 55 on your character level 1 and try using it in the pond or well (sometimes wonder whether some guys ever did).
It doesn’t always mean, higher tier equals more useful fishing rod, though. There's more into it.

What rods to equip?
It depends on two things:

1. Your plvl - you would never want to equip the frl below your plvl.
Example: If your plvl = 7 you want the frl 10 or 15, never 1 or 5. Even extreme hi dura frl 5 is going to be worse than a clean frl 10 for you.

2. Flvl you are aiming for - yes you can target higher flvl than your plvl. That makes sense if you are approaching a BP... but not there yet exactly.
Example: When your pvl is 7-9 you want finally try to catch cods (flvl 10) so you want to ‘fish ahead’ if you catch my drift. Same at plvl 12-14 with trouts (flvl 15) and so on.
When you are fishing ahead frl must be above flvl not only your plvl so it may be even 2 tier higher than plvl but when the difference is too big the rod may snap before you can even make it to the town.

(BTW never escape to the town but hit ‘realease the line’ button. Escaping to town ‘spoils’ the rod forever. It’s going to behave very strange from that point. Maybe, it’s just my imagination or maybe there is some hidden mod on every rod we all don’t know about).

Dura
Dura comes in handy especially when you are fishing ahead. The more ahead the more dura you need. What it does, it gives you more time to escape when the things go wrong by prolonging the whole process.
Dura also comes in handy when your aim is to progress faster but not to catch faster - the longer the process lasts the more experience you get (on average).
There’s also a downside to durability:
When you are exactly at BP or just 1 point higher you might rather consider speeding up the process (thus catching faster) than getting experience. You want these fish after don’t you, and you finally passed a BP so you catch new types anyway. In that case - use low dura rods or even clean rods. You will catch much faster this way but the experience bonus... - well that’s a little painful.

Props are useless - try it yourself if you don't believe. There are many props out there, but they are much harder to find so my experience with them isn't that rich as with dura but all rods with props I had so far were worse than just dura in the long run.


Who to pm or rather NOT TO PM about what frl, what to sell on the market.
(I start getting some pms from people about rods and I know Razo had the same problem - it’s even in his profile as #$^%#$%#$%).

Have a look at the skill table for all the players: https://ladderslasher.d2jsp.org/index.php?a=3&h=0&t=3&c=0
Check where they are and what flvl they may want to target at a particular moment and yes at higher level it’ll take long time to progress so this thing changes very, very slowly.

After reading this. The first obvious conclusion may be that even Razo would avoid frl 55 and yet they are often to be found in the market - your fee lost, your problem.

This post was edited by mastodont on Mar 15 2019 07:50pm

Nice little guide:

Do you prefer fishing from computer or from phone?

Also, do you find fishing in town well worse than catacomb well?

So far as I can tell there is no difference in average value on the fish between well and pond. That said it does not seem to matter until you fish for lvl15+

Every 15 levels in a well drops off one tier of fish. For example fishing lvl 30 on a well will result in catching tier 3 to 9 fish. No tier 1 or 2 fish will spawn for the example fishing in a well.

Hey, thanks!

Phone connection can be unstable for me (I'm connecting from EU). Maybe US players don't have these problems.
I prefer comp and good ol' mouse - it's much more handy this way.

Thank you for well vs pond fishing question - that is indeed worth mentioning. So there it is:

Well vs Pond

As you progress at some plvl you don't catch the lowest kind of fish anymore. In other words - you can catch 3 highest types corresponding to your plvl, providing that you don't fish ahead.
In that case you would catch that 4th kind above your plvl as well.

Example: At plvl 21 say goodbye to sardines, 26 to herrings and so on...

Alas, sadly this applies only to Wells. You are always going to catch sardines in the pond.

So, Well is much better than a pond but after my break I tried to find wells. You know, it takes more time to find one these days and then you want to drop some whites, only then fish a little and then... you realized it poofed before you even started.
I had some disconnects while fishing lately in wells too, so I catch them back in pond. I guess after the changes it's worth looking for wells from plvl 26 and above...

This post was edited by mastodont on Mar 16 2019 06:25am

edit: nvmd

This post was edited by mastodont on Mar 16 2019 06:24am

I wanted to edit the above but I don't have the permission. Made a missclick up there.

I've mentioned unstable connections myself, and that reminded me: there's one more thing for EU guys. Maybe it doesn't concern the US.
I experience that my connection to jsp server can be very laggy at some hours. I don't feel like it's about my ISP, it might be some rush hours for jsp server or the Internet in general. I know a little bit about networking and I checked many times - the ping is always more or less the same, so the 'packets losts' is the problem here.

That said, avoid fishing on 'bad connection'. Wait for a good one. The best way for me to check whether it's ok or not is to cook a fish. On bad connection the 'flame' sign would come somewhat late or in extreme cases I wouldn't see it at all.

this is pretty cool.

Just to clarify if i got the point.

I'm plvl 3. according to your guide i should use a frl 5 with 40+ dura and catch lvl 5+ fish for exp?
"if" i simply wanted as many fish as possible, i should be using a splintered fr 0 rod with 0-10 dura?

Any info on the "loaner" or free rod? is there any difference as you level up or should you simply avoid?

exactly

Thanks for the guide!

You are welcome. I appreciate all the comments and questions. Often a good question means that the guide was useful to some of the slashers. That was the whole point of it after all
Since I really do appreciate the feedback I'm planning to do the cooking guide this evening. If you ask who the heck would need a cooking guide then just wait a little. There's something interesting I have discovered about cooking too.

If you fish and cook, and want your cooking progress to keep the pace with fishing you may want to read it too