How to catch Xehabopo’u in FFXIV

How to catch Xehabopo’u (pronounced Shay-ah-bo-po-ooh), the Legendary fish of Kozama’uka. Text guide in the description.

This guide assumes you know the basics of big fishing and how Patience and Hooksets work. All !! and !!! bites are caught with Powerful Hookset.
Driftwood Catfish explainer:

0:00 Intro, Assumptions

0:22 Window Prep
Arrive early to Miyakabek’zu, use Patience II, and cast out with Popper Lure. Immediately use Ambitious Lure up to 3 times (or until you see the large-jawed proc message) and reel in any !! bites that you get. If it’s a Driftwood Catfish – use Spareful Hand to store it and repeat the previous step. If it’s not Driftwood Catfish… repeat the steps anyways as you want to get Angler’s Art stacks.

The goal of prep is to get 9-10 Angler’s Art stacks, and then use Identical Cast on the 5th Driftwood Catfish. When you’re close to that 5th Driftwood Catfish, be sure you don’t catch it off of an Identical Cast, as you won’t be able to Identical Cast again.

As you’re preparing for the window, if you are low on Angler’s Art stacks but pretty close to 4-5 Driftwood Catfish, you can use Modest Lure instead of Ambitious Lure and only reel in ! bites OR you can use Metal Spinner. If you’re doing the latter, be sure to swap back to Popper Lure before the window opens.

If you’re close to 9-10 Angler’s Art stacks, but low on Driftwood Catfish, you can “sort of” target fishing Driftwood Catfish (well, to the best of your ability).

Regardless, be sure to have the 5th Driftwood Catfish caught in a state that allows you to use Identical Cast on it, then use Prize Catch, and wait until just before the Xehabopo’u window to cast and catch the 6th.

1:43 Catching Driftwood Catfish
During the window you will use up all your Driftwood Catfish and need to get more. However, there are 2 other strong biting (!!) fish which overlap in bite time with Driftwood Catfish. As such, there is no easy way to get confident catches with it. So, instead, you use Ambitious Lure up to 3 times (like before) and then only reel in any !! bites at or before 19s. If you do not have a bite by or at 19s – use Rest, cast back out, and repeat using Ambitious Lure (still, like before). 19s (technically, 19.5s) is the latest that Driftwood Catfish can bite, so waiting for a bite past that is a waste of time.

I have a video and slightly deeper discussion on why we do this (and why it really only works with Popper Lure) at this video. How to catch Driftwood Catfish (and why we use Popper Lure)

2:23 Catching Xehabopo’u
Just before 13:00 (roughly around 12:53-:54) cast out and catch your 6th Driftwood Catfish to trigger the Xehabopo’u intuition. Mooch it immediately (make sure it’s at or after 13:01) and wait for a bite.While Driftwood Catfish does rarely bite off a mooch of itself (leading to a mooch loop) I, personally, reel in any !! bite I get between 14 and 22s after mooching as this could be Driftwood Catfish to enable a loop. If you don’t want to do that and just rest any non !!! bite on the mooch – that’s fine! The choice is yours.

Use up all your mooches and swimbaited Driftwood Catfish, then catch more like mentioned before. This time, if you get a Driftwood Catfish, use Spareful Hand THEN Identical Cast (if GP allows) to catch a second. Mooch them both.

Once you get a !!! bite, catch it appropriately depending on the buffs active.

4:18 Outro

—
Xehabopo’u
Location: Kozama’uka
Hole: Miyakabek’zu
Bait: Popper Lure, Mooch off Driftwood Catfish
Conditions: 13 – 15, during Showers after Clouds (this is technically, still tentative with 1 possible window remaining to test)
Folklore Book: Alexandria Folklore Tome
Min Gathering: 4,570
Intuition: 6x Driftwood Catfish (6 minute intuition)

Good luck and happy fishing!

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