Eorzea Database

Use Spear fishing gig, southwest corner ( 11, 35 right below mercantile docks) catch 7 Ichthyosaurus from the level 70 nodes then a new node will spawn where you can easily get the 3 dafangshi

For anyone else struggling to find or catch even one Ichthyosaur like I was:

When you are spearfishing at the teeming nodes in Yanxia, the Ichthyosaurs are the largest fish that are swimming quickly. There are other large fish that swim more slowly, but they are not Ichthyosaurs. If you're catching nothing but cherry salmon, look for the ones that are the same size and shape as the cherry salmon, but swimming more quickly.You may be only able to get 1 or 2 Ichthyosaurs per node because they aren't super common.

As others have said, catch 7 of these and then a sparkling teeming node will appear on your mini map. You should easily be able to catch all the Dafangshi in one go once you hit this node.

Hope this helps.

For anyone else having a problem with the quest and the "swimming shadow" node does not appear, abandon the quest and initiate it again.
That fixed it for me!

Got 7 Ichthyosaurs at Othard, Yanxia 11.5, 37.5 area, gotta look for the blue fish icons on your minimap, after getting the 7th Ichthysaur it spawned a node, its on your minimap with a blue fish icon but with a shiny background

solid advice from everyone who posted already. the only thing i can contribute is MAKE SURE YOU'RE IN FUGGN YANXIA, NOT THE RUBY SEA.
i was a dipshit and couldn't for the life of me figure out what i was doing wrong. i scrolled further along the comments and saw someone mentioned yanxia. i was like "oh my god surely i didn't--" yeah no, my dumb ass was in the ruby sea OTL

once i raged over to yanxia, went to (11x,34y) i immediately caught 8 ichthyosaurs in 2 tries, got the elusive sea creature popup, boom caught 4 dafangshi in one go

TL;DR: MAKE SURE YOU'RE IN YANXIA FOR THE LOVE OF HALONE

Turns out there are several messages that pop up with each successive ichthyosaur catch. It’ll start with things lurking in the shadows, then more shadows, then movement, etc. If you have truth of oceans up, you’ll see the unspoiled node indicator pop up on your minimap.

I am on the quest Always a Bigger Fish did all locations got until now 47 Ichthyosaur and none of Dafangshi and i didn't get any menssage i use shark eye and go there is hard to get that 3 dafangshi i don't know what to do.

Requires Spearfishing to be unlocked.

Make sure Truth of Oceans is activated.

Location: (x11 - y37.7) & (x10 - y34.4)

You'll need to fish up 7 Ichthyosaur in total. (These can be caught at the locations above)

Once you catch your 7th Ichthyosaur you'll get a message. (Example: "You sense a level 70 swimming shadows to the east)

Once you go to the node that Truth of Oceans should of revealed to you, fish up all the Dafangshi you can!

Hope that helps some! Good luck questing!

Followed Rei Ginsei, unlocked spearfishing by speaking to the NPC in Tamamizu, went straight to x10 y34 in yanxia.

Catch some Ichthyosaurs from nodes, find them using Shark Eye skill.

The Ichthyosaurs are portrayed as big fast fishes in the spearfishing UI.

Then a prompt will say your progress, until the end where it said this: The shadow of an elusive sea creature lurks somewhere nearby!

Then just activate Truth of Oceans, then go to the hidden node to get the Dafangshi.

If anyone is frustrated, once you catch enough Ichthyosaurs, you gotta use Truth of Ocean (lvl 65) skill. i was frustrated until I found out about this

When you catch enough Ichthyosaurs (Mercantile Docks, The Sunken Junk's South Side), a sparkling Teeming Fish will appear on the mini map like an Unspoiled Node. Its interaction color will be yellow.

Large/Small Gig Heads are now outdated.
You only get 1 Gig Head for Spearfishing

Like others said, go to Othard>Yanxia - Glittering Basin
about x:10, y:33
May take a couple Teeming Waters nodes to get enough Ichthyosaurs, but they are the bigger/faster ones.
Once you get them, it'll be the nearby Swimming Shadows node that pops up.
(mine popped up about x:14.3, y:35.7)

It'll be a bunch of Dafangshi fish, so you can basically spam to catch it.

Literally Satan is right . just spearfish 7 Ichthyosaur and it will pop up after. follow their suggested coordinates. no reuquired eorzea time.

Quest: Always a Bigger Fish
- Activate 'Truth Of Oceans' and leave activated for the whole quest.
- the ichthyosaurs you need to spear fish to trigger the Dafangshi Swimming Shadoows cannot be found near Wawalago but rather at around x10 y34 as Ninida below says.
(When it says sunken Junk, it means as in the type of sea vessel, not the crashed Garlian airship near Wawalago.)
- the swimming Shadows will trigger after enough total ichthyosaurs are caught from various nodes. Watch for the message notifying it has spawned. It will be near by but still some distance away.

If you're confused about why you don't have spearfishing, go to Tamamizu and pick up the quest "A New Fishing Ex-spear-ience", which is available at level 61 and given by Sumitsubo (X: 28.9 Y: 15.9). This will give you all your spearfishing abilities and the required gig to start. Hope this helps :)

I'm having problems. I'm lvl 74 FSH (fishing expo helped lvl), and it says I'll learn Gig at lvl 61. But for some reason I don't have it even tho I'm on the mission that requires it.

got the 3 of them in shiny node lvl 70 spam shark eye II and go to the node that is rare

""change to a different job and then back to Fishing...""

I haven't seen a different point all the time, and it works like this!
Collection points that look like they occur at a specific point in time．

endwalker TLDR;
-jump underwater at around x10 y34 in yanxia
-only do lvl 70 nodes
-spearfish ichthyosaurs(around 7); they are huge and move fast
-once you fished enough, a new special node should trigger in the nearby area, move to it and get those 3 dafangshi!!

If you're not seeing the node pop up after catching (7) total Ichthyosaur (not 7 in one attempt of spearfishing at a node) try this - change to a different job and then back to Fishing... my Truth Of Oceans wasn't applied for some reason but when I did the aforementioned steps I was able to see the hidden node.

Lv. 70 nodes are what you want. You have to catch a bunch (7?) of the Icthyosaur (fast moving big shadows), and then you will get a notification and a unique node (Lv. 70 as well) on the mini map. Head there, and the Dafangshi is one of the smaller normal to slower moving shadow.

to add to what the others are saying, it should pop up in the nearby area on the map.