I had the same problem. I moved to one of the smaller lakes near the valkurm zone and I catch Giant Catfish and Dark bass. I have yet to catch a Red Terrapin though.

Fishing Skill: 21
Rod: Mithran
Bait: Frog lure

Caught a Red Terrapin. It seems the only place you can fish /w the Mithran rod and frog lure is the pond at L-10

Edited, Thu Nov 11 21:38:55 2004

Okay, here's my info on the angry little red turtle of the Quon continent.
I have fished from lvl 16-17 in La Theine at the little pond in L-10 (also water element spawn so if your job lvl is around 30, you can take these to shift up the fishing).

I currently have 9 in my inventory, and am waiting for 3 more as stacks sell for 15k on Carbuncle, in San d'Oria.

I use a Composite Rod and a Frog Lure. I have all four pieced of Fishing gear, which, what? increases chance of catching fish or something and all that good stuff.

Anyway, there are the things everyone wants to know.
On: "Something caught the hook! You have a good feeling about this one!" out of 11, 2 were terrapins.

On: "Something caught the hook! You don't know if you have enough skill to reel this on in." out of 9, 2 were terrapins.

On: "Something caught the hook! You're fairly sure you don't have enough skill to reel this one in." out of 8, 3 were terrapin.

Like all fishing, there's all that day and moon phases and whether. On the last day I was fishing, which went through Earthsday and Watersday I caught a lot of Dark Bass and no Red Terrapins, were on, might have been Firesday, I caught about 5 in a row.

Can't ever just give it one go and give up when it comes to catching fish. If you want it, and know you have the right rod and bait, all you have to do is fish your little heart out, and one day you will be rewarded with a snappy little turtle on your own!

Edited, Tue May 31 22:39:38 2005