The Lu Shang's Fishing Rod is very challenging to obtain

Also, under the old program you didn't have to put on your grabs down before pulling them in, all you had to do was hit get into, which intended even very low level fisherman could land Ryugu Leaders and crack the Lu Shang's regularly with some Ffxi Gil, while under the existing program most fisherman are unable to capture Ryugu Leaders consistently until they arrive at the late 70s/early 80s.

Basically, under the old program, if you were sportfishing on the Boat with the Frog Lure, Meatballs, the Minnow, Peeled Seafood, Rotten Meat, the Shrimp Lure, the Falling Minnow, Slice of Red tail, or Sliced Sardine and connected a seafood that led to "large sweat", there was generally no way of knowing if you had a Ryugu Powerhouse, which could easily click your Lu Shang's, or any one of the other secure seafood may cost your Last Desire Gil that couldn't crack your rod on the other end of the variety without gritting your teeth, rolling the dice, and hitting get into.

Sometimes you would find out you had actually connected a Grugru Seafood, Bhefhel Marlin, Powerhouse ictus, or Sea Zombie and were secure, sometimes you would get lucky and generate a Ryugu without taking your rod, but regularly you would mixture your fingers and wish you had connected a secure seafood, only to watch the top half of your rod go flying off into the big blue yonder, and there was nothing you could do about it.

The Lu Shang's Fishing Rod is very challenging to obtain, simply. You can either spend months sportfishing up all 10,000 Moat Carp yourself, several weeks and millions of Last Desire XI Gil for the Public auction Home to be able to buy them all, or any mixture of the two. Either way you will be investing a lot of cash into finishing this quest, but like enough time you invest into stabilizing sportfishing, it will definitely pay off in the end.