Eorzea Database

Location: The Coral Banquet in the Ruby Sea (X32.0, Y6.0)
Lure: Live Shrimp. You may end up catching different things and sometimes a fish getting away.
Time: Managed to catch two quite quickly after 11:00AM
Gear: Tacklekeep
Skills used: Snagging, Patience II, Precision Hookset

Used Dj-cat Nipp's tip on bait and it worked flawlessly. No skills other than Cast & Hook. Bought 18 Live Shrimps, got the 3 Sprags in less then 10 minutes with 7 shrimps left.

use live shrimp. i got 3 in a few mins

End of Shoal Rock Pier
Versatile Lure

I went to the end of the dock off the north side of Shoal Rock and caught two fairly quickly. The third took a few minutes.

Weather and time don't seem to matter much. Follow the location advice below and use a simple cast and hook and you should be good.

Caught at Shoal Rock (33.7, 6.9) using landsaint's gear and versatile lure at 11:00 PM ET, clear skies. I didn't seem to have any problems using the higher level gear and caught the fish on both Patience + Precision and normal cast + hook.

Caught at X32.1, Y6.7 like many others.
Patience + Precision worked best, chum didn't make a difference for me.
Was undergeared still got 3 in around 10 minutes with Versatile lure and those abilities. Gathering 483, Perception 368. (Yeah even that low you can get all 3 thanks to the HQ requirement being taken away).
Would recommend getting your higher gear set to save time.

Two Tips:

1. If the message pops up "Mark for the quest "Search for the Spawning Grounds" detected, you are in the right spot and can fish up the quest item. Sometimes you have to reset this by Quit fishing, then Chum and Cast again.

2. If you are trying to complete this class quest at a higher level, your gear stats may be too high. Remove your gear to try to get stats to around Gathering 750 and Perception 450 to increase your chances of catching this small fish.

I got all 3 within 15minutes @ North of Shoal Rock at 32.5 6.6 using Versatile Lure at 7:21PM Eorzea Time.

Caught all three the same way that Ameshki mentioned, simple Cast and Hook. However, I got them between 3 and 4 ET, fair skies as well.

I am catching them with a simple CAST and HOOK using versatile lure, all the way til 3pm in fair skies (North of Shoal Rock at 32.5 6.6)

Caught three using versatile lure at Shoal Rock (35.0, 11.0) in fair skies after about 20 casts with gathering 487 and perception 405.

Caught them at 35.5, 10.0 (Shoal Rock) with fair skies.
They seem not having a concrete spawn time, since I read they are caught from 10 to 12 and I just caught around 2pm/3pm.

Time 10-12pm ET,
weather Clouds,
bait Versatile Lure,
ability Patience, precision hookset
location North shore of Shoal Rock
Stats Gathering 617, Perception 510

(SPAG, fail but w/e lol)

Definitely go north to Shoal Rock. I started catching them right away with Versatile Lure and Patience II.

Character: Gathering 510, Perception 364
Bait: Versatile Lure
Location: X:35.5, Y:10.1
Weather: Clear to Fair Skies
Time: 8PM - 10AM ET (caught throughout the night and early morning)
Used Patience I, wait for weak (!) bite after 25+ seconds, use Precision Hookset
- You'll either get a Ruby Laver or a Harutsuge Sprag
- Ended up getting 3 HQ Harutsuge Spray after

It seemed like I had slightly more luck with the Versatile Lure than the Metal Spinner. Ruby Sea (35.5, 10.0), up by Shoal Rock. It was daytime and cloudy, and I caught the three HQ needed for the quest within about twenty minutes IRL time, using Patience and Precision Hookset with no Snagging. Gathering 825 Perception 647.

Caught for the quest, metal spinner, patience II and precision hookset. A little north of the npc.
1106 Gathering/909 Perception

Caught north of NPC at shoal rock using patience II and precision hookset. Metal spinner used.
Gathering 593 / Perception 497

Metal Spinner was the key, tried the other baits listed for over an hour with zero catches. Completed in 10 minutes with Metal Spinner & Patience II. 740 Gathering 600 Perception.

Caught all 3 of them in a row with patience 2 and live shrimp, on the first cast in the little cave at shoal rock, at 10am. gathering 721 and Perception 611

Make sure you head North of NPC to Shoal Rock. Once there I used Patience 1 and Precision Hookset...only real difference I see is I used Live Shrimp as bait and it took me less then 10 minutes.

Versatile lure + Patience II
(33.2, 11.4)
1 x HQ 3.29pm, 1 x HQ 4.52pm, 1 x HQ 5.52pm (ET time)
1475 gathering / 1219 perception

You need 707 gather, 549 perception, using patience 1 or 2, precision hooksett and while using snagging to get haru fish. If you need to meld your fishing meld it.

Metal Spinner, everything off, Patience 2, Precision Hook, <pos> 34, 11.Hooked all 3 from 8am-8:50am EZT.

35.5, 10.0

Metal Spinner

Patience and Precision Hookset of course.

Less than 20 casts to get all 3 for quest.

This quest was made to specifically feature Patience/Patience II, and using them will save a lot of time. Make sure to turn off Snagging and I would recommend turning off Collect as well to save on inventory space (You also seem to get an insane amount of Ruby Laver if it's on).

For those still having trouble with this quest in particular prior to hitting level 70, the fish is considered a lv68 catch on this lv65 fishing quest. If a fish gets away from you, then it is definitely the Harutsuge Sprag, and it means that your gathering is too low. It is in your best interests to focus on leveling fisher through other methods and put all of your yellow gatherer scrips into a full set of Landking gear. It should allow you to bulldoze through the remaining fisher quests and set you up for 70-80 since 350 land king gear is better than unmelded level 77 vendor gear.

After 6pm, north of NPC at Shoal Rock got the notification:
Mark for the quest "Search for the Spawning Grounds" detected.
1211 Gathering 1099 Perception.

Didn't need precision or time, just needed to not be next to npc.

My gathering is 1851 and patience is 1374. Before 6pm I used a metal spinner and caught 13 in a row. As soon as 6pm hit, I didn't catch any more