Originally posted by stormbringer_1966:

Ah yes, over 2,000 hrs in this game lol and the only thing i have not done is serpent fishing. In fact maybe my luck, I have only seen 3 serpents the entire time and they were in very early game when i new i had no chance :).. I play 99% solo, i will have to make a new character to attempt that..

i guess it's that habit to sleep away every night and not heading out to sea unless it's early in the day and there is no thunderstorm either. if you stay near the shore at night you won't get to see any serpents as they only spawn in ocean biome.

it's worth just sailing out at night with a karve on medium speed. make sure the minimap says ocean and then just keep looking around.
once you found one you could mark the location. it seems to me that there are spawn points for night serpents and thunderstorm serpents. so depending on the weather or time of day the points maybe need a certain requirement met in order to spawn the serpent.

in my first play through with friends i killed 3 serpents in one night. before H&S they did flee when low on health. now they seem to stay close and just let you easily bow them to death. so it's easier than ever to hunt them for food.