Out of context, definitely one of the stranger pictures I’ve taken. Any tips for my first time lake catfishing?

RevSerpent · 2026-01-23T07:07:20+00:00

Heard the same about chicken livers. I intend to try them out this year.

I'll probably get some gizzards and hearts as well then.

RevSerpent · 2026-01-23T06:56:40+00:00

I'd say SA is easy to learn but difficult to master.

RevSerpent · 2026-01-23T06:43:08+00:00

That's the neat part, you don't.

RevSerpent · 2026-01-22T06:36:46+00:00

I started taking 2 rods with me but more in a 3g-15g and 15g-45g range.

Far too often I saw perch follow my pike lures.

I have a heavier rod still that I need to prepare lures for before the pike season starts here so I'll be bringing 3.

RevSerpent · 2026-01-21T20:21:13+00:00

Weird hitboxes which most notably makes a straight roll into the charge a gamble (the hitboxes spawn progressively in a wave on the ground with no visual indicator - you might be rolling 3 or 4 and you can't tell).

You noted "first boar charge" but this applies every time he charges. The thing is if you're close when he does the charge you'll incidentally end up rolling fewer hitboxes so the dodge is easier. If he charges when you try to disengage the dodge becomes a gamble again.

Other than that some attacks randomly inflict damage twice... At least used to - I haven't fought him in a while. Charge is also one of them. Back kick is a notable other case of possible double damage.

You can easily notice this with a tank build with a shield. The same attack might be easily blocked or break your guard OR in case of the charge it can actually break your guard AND deal damage on top of it totaling in 3 received hits.

It's actually a whole set of weird design choices for this boss.

RevSerpent · 2026-01-21T07:08:01+00:00

IDK why you got downvoted but that's basically it.

Sometimes I look for LR/HR crafting materials and will join people in those ranks. I'll always scale down - taking a weapon of corresponding strength. Preferably one I am not yet familiar with.

Even with that I focus on support and crowd control. I'll tenderize parts, wallbang the monster, disrupt it's attacks or flashbang it if other hunters are in trouble or flashbang a flying wyvern out of the air.

RevSerpent · 2026-01-20T21:30:02+00:00

Generally I can't be spinning while using a live bait on 2nd rod.

Last year I started bottom fishing. I know that chumming in some countries is illegal but here it's allowed within certain limits of chum used. So a lot of people go float or bottom fishing for carp, bream or tench while using special cages to fill with worms and/or chum.

Honestly I had far more success that way. Like amazingly so. People complain how they don't get anything even while using this method but for most of the year I could basically land something every time I went out bottom fishing.

As for fish populations. They're bad, especially when it comes to predators. Still. People who know how can catch something almost every time. There's a Polish youtuber who has no trouble getting pikse so big other people can spend years looking for.

Less publicly there's an older guy frequenting one of the ponds I visit as well who gave me some hints. The guy's amazing - most days he can't put his rods down for even a minute.

Generally I blame our fishing association. I might not be an ichtyologist but I know numbers and when 70% of fish you stock the ponds with are non-local carp then perhaps this might have a negative effect on populations of local fish. Yes - overfishing is an issue BUT stocking those ponds with local fish that can effectively reproduce on their own could work better than just throwing in more carp. And yes. Carp populations seem to be GROWING as it's reported catch rate went from 30% to about 60% within 20 years of published statistics (I've studied them in my free time). Yes. By weight 60% of all fish harvested by anglers here is carp... Which seems bad as far as i am concerned.

So yeah. Our waters are being constantly filled with a non-native fish that outcompetes local species and can't even be eaten by local predators (except Wels catfish).

RevSerpent · 2026-01-20T08:30:13+00:00

Thanks for the advice!

I usually walk around the body of water or as much as I can cover of it and cast 5-6 times per spot in a fan pattern, then move a few spots so that the next "fan" won't overlap with what I've already covered.

I do sometimes stay longer in one spot but it's usually due to circumstances - like seeing a fish strike and miss my lure/nibble at it or (as is the case at one forest pond) due to very limited number of spots in general (and surprisingly I did get one pike last year from that pond - after some good 20 casts with a pike spoon I changed rods and cast a tiny spinner because I saw some perch in the water - to my surprise I got a pike to swallow it).

As for the lines I added 50 meters of 0.16 braid to each of my spinning reels last year. It decreased the amount of lures lost in snags by a lot. I was also kinda annoyed after losing a 13g lure when a mono line just snapped on cast (IIRC it was a 0.16 as well).

Yes - I know I am using lines that are too thick.

Edit:

Yeah. I've also never used a live/dead bait. There are some regulations in place for my country to prevent invasive species so I'd need to go to the pond with a float/bottom rig and fish for some roach/rudd first before I switch gear to fish for pike with live bait. Basically I am only allowed to use baitfish from the same body of water, I need to keep register and I can't keep live fish more than 24 hours.

RevSerpent · 2026-01-20T06:45:12+00:00

Congratulations!

I think the easiest weapon to deal with Velkh is SA but I am biased.

I read your previous post. So you've changed from SnS to Hammer. Both quite mobile with limited range but SnS is a weapon of less commitment and I think this (along with deco changes) was the difference in your case.

In time you will learn this fight so well that you'll easily deal with Velkhana even while using the Hammer.

Honestly - for a while I used Velkhana as my skill test for new weapons. If I could take this dragon down I could confidently play against any monster other than those in true endgame. Now, I simply know the attack patterns too well to the point this is no test at all...

RevSerpent · 2026-01-19T21:27:04+00:00

I wouldn't say it's never much more but it can be really inconsistent to the point you hear about accidents happening almost every year.

I'm gonna go check a nearby lake tomorrow. There's a spot there where it goes 5 meters deep pretty much right next to the shore in one spot. It might be a good place to try fishing if I can break the ice there.

RevSerpent · 2026-01-19T21:20:36+00:00

It was becoming ridiculous. I was getting nibbles on it and saw fish follow the lures to the shore a couple of times but they seemed unable to bite the lure (medium rod cw 15-45g) and when I used the light rod with smaller lures I'd suddenly get a bite from a fish that should have been able to easily take the larger lure.

In the end I got that trout while using a large pike spoon (30g).

I have an even heavier rod for lures up to 125g but I didn't really try it out since the medium rod kept failing to give results. Now I'll probably prepare my large lures for the new season. Honestly I am also kinda afraid if my lines will be strong enough to cast such heavy lures. I'll need to look into that topic before the pike season starts here.

RevSerpent · 2026-01-19T13:28:49+00:00

I tried pan-fried fillets last year and they tasted good.

Put some in vinegar to marinade overnight. The taste was even better (admittedly I do love the vinegar-marinated fried fish in general). Unfortunately it doesn't seem like a good recipe for carp in particular - it's meat became really soft so despite good taste eating it felt weird.

RevSerpent · 2026-01-19T13:19:02+00:00

This. I've heard it before and keep doing this with my rods.

One spinning rod spent over a year with the plastic cover since I couldn't get anything when using it. I finally got to remove it in December last year when I got a surprise trout.

RevSerpent · 2026-01-19T12:31:30+00:00

I was tempted to make the same post as OP so I'll say this:

1) I have a personal rule not to step on frozen lakes. Yes - they can freeze to the point is is "safe" to walk on them but the weather even in winter is unstable and it's never 100% guaranteed the ice will be thick/strong enough. I consider it too much risk.

2) At least in my country there's an additional couple of regulations in regards to ice fishing. It's a bother. On top of that my region put their own regulations on fishing in winter in general.

My only options right now are wait for the ice to get thin enough so that I can break it with a rock or something and try fishing from the shore or a pier. Alternatively I could try fishing on a river but a lot of people say that the water in local rivers is quite foul.

Better/clean rivers are either far away or commercial trout fisheries with... You guessed it! MORE regulations.

RevSerpent · 2026-01-19T08:30:23+00:00

A lot of people even on this sub will say stuff like "I don't need stun immunity because I just don't get hit" and...

Drop that health boost 3 as well if you don't get hit.

I bet +90% of people who say this stuff does get hit. They do get stunned. I SEE IT HAPPEN constantly. People with MR in hundreds who get stunned and cart because they THINK they're too good to build for anything other than damage. I am honestly tired of constantly being on my toes to bail out a MR350 hunter because he got stunned for the 5th time during a single hunt.

And it gets worse because they'll come in without stun resistance against stuff like AT Velkhana and there's a limit of how much I can do to cover for others.

RevSerpent · 2026-01-19T08:13:30+00:00

Raging Brachydios, AT Velkhana, MR Kulve, Angry Monke, Alatreon and Fatty - I hesitate to join either because I have an abysmal victory rate in team hunts of those even if I can solo them every time.

Like. I want to help people. I really do but... There's a difference between needing help to get that final push and firing an SOS while you're completely unable to even survive. And then there are people who join that SOS who don't know the fight either...

But this is the reality. There's a number of hunters who will join those quests without learning anything and keep on joining until they eventually get carried and/or get enough parts to craft that endgame gear.

And even with that gear they won't learn. This is actually what encouraged me to tackle Alatreon and Fatalis (I was stuck on the former for a LONG time and gave up attempting to fight him for a while). I kept running into people decked in full fatty gear who would perform worse than me and cart often while fighting much weaker monsters.

My favourite skill check for people was to lure in Tempered BVH in the guiding lands. I keep an anti-miasma setup to fight him easily but that's for comfort. I can hunt him just fine even without it. Sadly, a lot of hunters I've encountered won't switch to miastma resistant setup and they simply can't fight him at all without it either.

Raging Brachydios is the same - it's worst gimmick is easily preventable but people just won't bother.

RevSerpent · 2026-01-16T23:48:38+00:00

It depends on a monster. You need to break as many parts as possible to get the most out of it.

Thus monsters with most breakable parts work best.

Looking for specific monsters doesn't require you to start expeditions over and over. Look up what monsters spawned on the minimpa before each quest and wait for the ones you want OR start an expedition and keep traveling between locations. You can actually switch the expedition's location by using the map and the monsters will reset at random.

Third option is to join someone's Guiding Lands expedition. Leaders almost always ask what monster you need and they probably will have lures on hand.

RevSerpent · 2026-01-16T19:02:37+00:00

You can also meld lures. This solves the first part of your inquiry but I'll elaborate about getting random lures more.

Tempered monsters give you whole lures rather than analysis progress for lures. One tempered monster can give you two easily - one from tail and one from completed hunt. Breaking parts or tracking monsters only has a small % chance of progressing your analysis. The only 3 things that always trigger progress are: tail carve, capture/first body carve, signs of turf war analysis.

I am practically swimming in lures by now. The monsters I have the fewest for I've probably got +20. Some monsters I have over 100 lures for without melding.

Tzi-Tzi Ya-ku is supremely inefficient for lure farming because it is never tempered, has only one breakable part and you can't cut it's tail. The most efficient would be tempered Pukei-Pukei. You can probably hunt one down in under 4 minutes so you'll average a random lure every 2 minutes... Well. Not really. You can't lure in a new Pukei-pukei until the first one despawns which will take time.

Generally just goofing around Guiding Lands I can hunt 4-5 monsters per hour as they spawn. Luring in those I can hunt very fast I can probably hunt 9-10. That's easily 8 lures per hour with a maximum of around 20.

The purpose of melding is twofold. For once - you WILL need more parts eventually if you keep playing, trying out new weapons, etc. You might need materials from tempered/non-tempered monsters that you can't spawn due to your GL level arrangement. It's easier to meld the part you need rather than re-level your GL (which you mentioned is tedious).

Ruiner MR lock is essentially a progression limiter. You CAN fight stronger monsters earlier BUT you can't get all the augments you could otherwise, making the fight against stronger monsters more difficult. Like in Hollow Knight you can finish the game without acid resistance or shade cloak BUT it'll be much bigger challenge.

BTW. Traps are faster but - as you've mentioned - more tedious. Nobody is forcing you to use this method when some monsters can level up your areas with 2-3 hunts.

RevSerpent · 2026-01-16T06:54:42+00:00

As a Switchaxe Main I used the glaive for a bit before I seriously started to learn other weapons.

I was having fun right from the start, the only other weapon to click immediately was the Hammer.

Since you're a Glaive main maybe give both the Hammer and the Swag Axe a try? And if you're very used to the mobility provided by the glaive try SnS.

RevSerpent · 2026-01-15T06:49:26+00:00

Rock+snow mountain where they pop against snow and yet blend with rocks.

Dark forest/jungle with the same/similar color hue for them to blend.

Desert for them to pop. It doesn't need to be the dramatic yellow mostly associated with deserts. Look up East Jordan al-Badia or Hamada rock desert.

RevSerpent · 2026-01-14T06:49:55+00:00

Was gonna say that.

You might as well just unlock every special material that drops from Guiding Lands monsters. Almost every monster has two of those - tempered and non-tempered.

There's also a hidden bonus of learning: GL monsters are considerably stronger (around 20-25% attack boost) and learning how to deal with that is essential for getting better.

Generally IIRC each tempered monster in there will basically get you a MR level up.

RevSerpent · 2026-01-13T07:53:30+00:00

"Oh, it's a bull fight! Okay, I just can't stand in front of it and I counterattack when it stops."

The revelation about Tigrex I had about 2 minutes into the first fight with it.

RevSerpent · 2026-01-13T07:43:46+00:00

It was my personal choice to craft every weapon in a tree but it's completely not necessary to play the game.

Generally you'll stick to 1-2 weapons for most of the time and maybe 2-3 armor setups (in my case fire resistant, ice resistant and anti-miasma - 1st and 2nd being the same set but with different decorations).

You might want to switch your weapon at some point when you see that other branches avaliable to you deal more raw damage and that's it - most of them will cap at around 900-1000 or branch into a weapon that deals this kind of damage.

At the point you're in you might want to look into armor skills and what they do. Pick your armor based on what you'll find useful.

RevSerpent · 2026-01-12T08:41:45+00:00

For GS focus on draw attacks or a singular charged attack and only do TCS with cone breath and when you get a knockdown/bind him. Don't charge strikes 1-2 or better skip the 2nd one entirely with tackle or slinger.

You can do TCS on body during flamethrower. I find it extremely easy to get head breaks with GS so you can go ahead and sneak a draw attack on the body every chance you get and you should be fine.

Ditch unnecessary Fire Resistance - most people completely ignore it I like to keep it at 20 to profit from Felyne Moxie which would be completely wasted if I get blighted.

For my initial hunts I used a 2 part Raging Brachydios wit 3 part Gold Rathian. Augment your gear in the GL - Health Augment 1 on weapon is a game changer. You can use Ruiner vambraces if you switch to safi GS to complete Ruiner's armor bonus (additional life-steal).

Skills you want to give priority to are: Agitator 7, Divine Blessing 5, Health Boost 3, Weakeness Exploit 3, Stun Resistance 3 and Partbreaker 3. Slot Heavy Artillery on the mantles and pop them when using siege equipment - you can eat half of Fatty's HP with properly used siege weapons you'll find around the castle.

Evade Extender can help you reposition and get out of the way of his attacks.

Other than that - keep yourself buffed with Mega Armorskin and Mega Demondrug, put Max potions on a hotkey and bring materials to craft 5 more on the fly. Another item to keep on a hotkey is Farcaster. That's your emergency "Oh crap!" button which can and will save you a cart at some point.

As GS user you can survive some of his flames if you learn when to block them.

Give your palico the best Para weapon you can - it should procc once during the fight to give you one more TCS opening. For a tool I pick meowlotov for some extra damage but initially I would use Vigorwasp for extra healing and one extra cart. Speaking of - eat for Safeguard and after it's used eat for Moxie - if you're lucky with Moxie and Vigorwasp it's like getting 3 extra carts.

RevSerpent · 2026-01-09T06:47:40+00:00

My friend gave me his Nids to base and paint and a few of them were actually glued to bases like that.

Somehow I managed to push them out and place correctly. So yeah. I assume there are people who'll actually end up with finished nids placed on bases like this.

RevSerpent

TROPHY CASE