The title says it all. Seriously, don't give up.
I got off to a pretty good start as an angler, through a healthy amount of persistence, luck, and I'd like to believe some skill too. I've won the contest twice, getting both the rod and hook. I've caught all the rare fish from it. When the fishing dailies came out, I made sure to do one every day, and I was lucky enough to get a bunch of the rare rewards early. I even caught Mr. Pinchy three times early on in my time as an angler. No pet from any of the three, but I wasn't too bummed back then. Just keep fishing, and you'll get another one, right?
Like everyone, though, I eventually hit an unlucky spell. For months, nothing. No rare fish. No fourth Mr. Pinchy. Nothing to tide me over. I became so negative about fishing that I was convinced that even if I got Pinchy again, I would not be rewarded with a pet. I faded from the game for a while, since it simply got frustrating. When I came back, I narrowed my focus in the game more. Fishing and PvP. I spent most of my fishing time chasing after Mr. Pinchy. Again, a few months passed. Thousands of crawdads, literally. Nothing.
Then, about a week ago, I caught him again. My prayers are answered, right? Not quite. First wish, no pet. Second wish, no pet. Now the timer is cooling on the third wish, and I'm frankly ready to just say screw it to the whole thing. I decide, "OK. I'm going to get something, even if I have to die trying." And that's exactly what I did.
I ran on down to Ironforge, I took a seat, and I started fishing. I'm Horde, mind you. Body count: ~8 corpses of enemy 70's, about the same number of my own corpses, and about a dozen lowbies who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. About a dozen times, I watched some lowbie gnome (I may have developed an unspeakable hatred of gnomes during this episode, but I still love ya, El) stop and stare at me, and I knew they were calling in the cavalry. Sure enough, thirty seconds later, time for a beat down by a squad of S4-S3 70's x3. It took almost three days. It took 1,247 (yes, that is the exact number) fish, plus about 10 more catches of junk (a bunch of potions, a magic shield, and a pair of white gloves). I got him, though. Old Ironjaw was mine. Did I mention I got the 1 Ring too, in the process?
Now things were starting to look up for me. My persistence was being rewarded. I was still staring at my third wish, though. I wasn't going to be too optimistic, I decided. I had gotten burned by that before. In fact, I was so negative that I sent in this ticket.
http://img528.imageshack.us/my.php?image=15300710fd1.jpg
So the GM responds, is good-natured as they tend to be, and I click Mr. Pinchy. Guess what? I get my box. I jump anyway, to give the GM a show. Now I feel like I'm on a roll. I wonder if I'll finally get the hat from the fishing daily today, the item that has eluded me, even after doing the daily almost every day since it came out. It's Crocolisks in the City, so I go to Org and start fishing. Before I even get the Baby Crocolisk, I get Old Crafty. No hat, but with this string of luck, I'm not exactly disappointed. I'm damn glad to have gotten what I did.
What am I getting at here? Just like every lucky streak comes to an end, so too does every unlucky streak. The RNG plays with us anglers more than anybody else. Persistence is our only counter to the fickle hand of fate. Sometimes you can go six months getting nothing, then get almost everything in the space of a few days. That's exactly what happened to me. I know some of you are in a slump, but keep at it.
