Aquatic Depopulation Team - Fishing Skill?

I want to try MMM Aquatic Depopulation Team, but I am concerned that my fishing level is too low (it is 30ish).

Has anyone done this with a low fishing skill? How difficult was it and did you win solo? Quite a few of the fish I see are way above my fishing level, so I don't know if I should try to get that skill up first or jump right in.

Thanks!

As long as you fish with a Composite Fishing Rod or Lu Shang, and maybe bring some extra bait, your skill won't affect you that much. None of the fish in there can break either of those rods, but they may break your line.

Well I do have a composite. I will give it a whirl and report back here, in case anyone else with low fishing skill is interested.

Okay, so I did go last night and I lost (not a huge surprise, I wasn't expecting to do too well the first time).

I brought a Sinking Minnow, Shrimp Lure, and Worm Lure per the guide on wiki's advice. Before I started fishing, I purchased some MMM bait (a mix of regular, large, and an MMM minnow). When I started at the first pond, I tried the Composite and Sinking minnow, but I was not getting any bites. I switched to my Halcyon with large MMM bait. That was a mistake - my halcyon ended up breaking on a catch. So then I switched to the MMM rod and used both small and regular MMM bait.

I ended up getting around 1700 points I believe when they beat me. They were way ahead and catching the much larger fish. I'm really not sure if I should try to target the Monke-Onke or not. I'm thinking that for my next attempt, I might just stick with the Composite rod and see if I can get a fish eventually. I switched because I casted out about 4 times and got the message "You didn't catch anything" each time. If you do this maze, how often do you get this message?

The only rune I had in my map was peon. I've done MMM for xp before, but I don't have a ton of runes so I can't really customize my map that well. If anyone is interested in doing some MMM to get more runes, I would be down. Send me a /tell in game or you can send a message on here.

Also, any advice on this maze would be appreciated. I am really not that experienced a fisherman and I know I have a lot to learn! Thanks. :)

Edit: Also, with the MMM bait, I was only catching crayfish, copper frogs, and moat carp. I got a few hundred points from fishing up monsters. I think I got 100 for a crab, 75 for a pugil and then 100+ points for another pugil.

Edit: Okay, last one. For the most part, they were fishing up small fish, but they also caught a few monke-onkes and giant catfish. In case it's relevant for this maze, I went around the full moon.

Still did not catch a single fish using a composite rod and the worm/shrimp lures and sinking minnow.

I see that there is a copiable salinity shift maze and i think I might try that next time. I'll try to target the fish closer to my level and see if that helps.

When I spammed the MMM for my fishing rings I used freshwater maps only. I focused on using worm lure only and stuck to the South east fishing hole. By doing that I could only catch Black Eel 200 points and 1 larger fish name I forget... for around 500 points. You can still get unlucky with the NPCs reeling in some big fish, but usually can win.

-Freshwater

First Pond: Composite Rod + Sinking Minnow

-In my experience, Giant Catfish had about 40% bite rate.
If the NPCs don't start at this pond (they usually do, but not always) can fish here till you win, or till Bird pops.

-Small Birds seem to camp whatever pond they pop at, and the big ones just roam as I'm sure you've seen, I'd suggest sticking only to the first two ponds. Otherwise you risk your catches taking the far pond or waste what is alot of the time, precious time dodging the big birds, and may get caught by a small bird in the process.

Second Pond: Composite + Shrimp Lure

-Don't have alot of experience at this pond, I only ever use it if the NPCs dry out the first pond, or a bird spawns at the first pond. Monke-Onke seemed to have around the same bite rate as Giant Catfish, though.

Third Pond: Composite + Fly Lure

-This pond is risky for a few reasons, theres the birds/long run back to NPC etc, and the bite rate is, what I've heard, pretty bad. Not surprising though, I think you can catch fish worth 1,000~2,000 points? I'm not really sure, I never use this pond.

Yeffebel and Kenrusai, do you mind me asking what your fishing skill was when you were doing these maps? Mine is still a little higher than 30. I just don't seem to be hooking any fish (beyond the crayfish and moat carp I got the first time I came and used MMM bait).

I've tried using the Composite Rod and Sinking Minnow/Fly Lure/Shrimp Lure. I never catch anything using these setups. Maybe I need to be more patient? I spent half my time trying to fish with them though and never got a bite (except for monsters).

I'll try your strategy on the Black Eels Yeffebel, thanks! What runes, if any, were you using?

I really appreciate the input, thanks everyone!