Here are the steps required to catch a Matsya; you can be the judge if you think it is worth 1mil per fish or not.
- Catch Sea Zombie's (Selbina/Mhaura ferry during pirates only) or Cave Cherax (Kuftal/Quicksand).
- Turn Zombie or Cherax into Zaldon for a chance (about 1 in 4) for the EX bait needed to catch a Matsya.
- Catch Matsya in Vunkrel(S) on the eastern bridges.
- Turn in to Zaldon for a chance at the cape.
The above steps, depending on the route you take (either zombies or cherax) can take a few hours to obtain as little as 5-10 of the bait. Then it is still possible to break your line on Matsya and lose the bait (or release a catch and lose it also).
Matsya is now guttable as of the 7/23/12 version update. wiki.ffo.jp is reporting that the Shaper's Shawl is found by having Zaldon gut Matsya. Source: http://wiki.ffo.jp/html/1338.html
To clarify Bekisa's statement, you lose bait not only when Matsya break your line, but also whenever Cobalt Jellyfish bite the line or enemies bite the line. And let me tell you from experience, Jellyfish and enemies are more frequent than Matsya, even with Mega Moglification, Fisherman's Smock, Puffin Ring, and Noddy Ring.
"Have a mule or friend grab and hold any monsters you fish up. Having someone hold all 5 monsters will eliminate them from you being able to catch them thus you keep more bait. At this point you should really start catching everything that is on your line. Items, if caught, will not consume your bait but will if released."
1.) Always pull up items. You will be able to keep your bait from the cast.
2.) Pull all monsters out of the water and hold with friend or trusts.
Trust Method:
a.) Call Trusts: Brygid (+Def Aura), Sakura (+Regen Aura), AA EV (-Phys DMG), & Mnejing (-Phys DMG).
b.) Equip 1 DMG weapon (preferably one with 0 skill on current job) [E.g. Trainee Burin]
c.) Sneak/Silent Oil yourself. Helps to avoid extra enmity from pulling it up so trusts can hold without aggro. (Tried with & without. Trust me.)
d.) Fish.
e.) Pull up monster. Engage trusts with 1 hit (hopefully a miss). Allow them to Flash & Provoke. Disengage.
f.) Sneak/Silent Oil yourself, and repeat until all 5 monsters are out of the water.
3.) Rip some Matsya.
Now you can maximize bait retention by only losing baits to jellyfish and broken lines. Unfortunately, you'll lose the majority to jellyfish....
Thought I would add some drop rate data for those thinking about going the Mog Gardens route(I would advise just fishing them).
I leveled 6 characters mog gardens to rank 7 to get these fish, off of prophecyy's small sample size.
In 19 days I've pulled in 2 Matsya from the Coastal Fishing Net(Not Pond Dredger).
2/114...
