All your questions can be answered here: http://papa.org/blog/2011/06/do-you-love-the-fish-tales/

It isn't easy for me, thats for sure. I can be having an awesome first ball and have the next two drain STDM in seconds.

Hard and addictive

It's up there for one of the higheset GPH (Games per hour) for me but I love it. Once you lock in the shots it should help but the lanes are wide and the gap between the flippers seems huge. You could try fitting standard flippers if it has Lightning flippers atm.

For me it's all about the left shot up to the top of the playfield. If I'm having a good night and I can hit that at will, I'll score well. Some nights I can't hardly hit that shot and without that shot in the bag you'll suffer. Jackpot, Monster Fish, Truth-O-meter, depth finder, and feeding frenzy all rely on hitting that shot. For me Fishtales is feast or famine!

I've got a set of standard yellow Williams flippers on mine that I'd be happy to trade for lightning flippers if anyone's interested.

Maybe I'm crazy, but I find the game easier than most... and I'm not at all bragging because I don't consider myself a fantastic player.
I played FT a ton when it was first released and before I understood the game like I do now. I always wanted one and just picked one up a couple of months back. It was in storage until recently and we've been playing it at the office maybe 30 minutes each day after work. I find that I can hit almost every shot like butter. Don't get me wrong, I love it an maybe this is just a game that I gel with, but I do not find it frustrating or difficult at all.
However, this could be attributed to the fact that my FT is dirty and routed. I'm sure once I get it all restored, clearcoated and moving a lot faster, it will be harder to tame. Still, it was well maintained and is pretty quick as-is.
Just my observations.

By the way, what's a good average score on this pin? And what would be a fantastic once or twice a year score?

I'd say anything over 500M is pretty satisfying. I've only had mine a little while & my best score so far is 800M. I haven't hit 1 billion yet, but I know it's within reach!

Tough pin for sure, haven't even cracked the 100 million mark yet.

My average is usually between 150-300 million.... I have cracked 1.5billion once and 1billion a few times...

Okay, I don't feel like I was blowing smoke then. I got over 200 mil on my first game and I can consistently get into the 150-300 mil range now after just about a week of having it set up and maybe 25 games on it total.

Sounds like it scores similar to games like TAF or IJ. It actually has a lot of IJ similarities in the ruleset which I like. Collecting left and right ramps to start a hurry-up, a physical rotating ball-lock, having to lite and then collect jackpots on two separate shots, the shooter, captive ball, etc...

Aboot where I am on it. I like the game a lot though and there are different things to do, whcih keep you interested. Concentrate on Fish & tales, captive ball, lock/supers.

EDIT: Helps a lot if you can hit the left orbit hole with the left flipper.

I remember thinking how versatile the shots on this game were when I discovered you can make that left orbit shot with the ball cradled on the left flipper... very cool! It seems that a wide variety of shots can be made from both sides... without back flipping.

Again, I'm just getting re-acquainted with this game after many years so, how does the Truth-O-Meter spinner and the drop target work? My drop target doesn't seem to come up, even after the first MB. And is there any strategy to the spinner? I've cranked it really hard and gotten a crappy tale... and I've gotten 5x from a weak shot from the left flipper. Seems pretty random.

Yes the drop target should be working...that's why it's there

As far as I know the spinner of truth always starts off at the bottom and each spin moves it up one.
I've never really paid to much attention to it or tried to hit it in a diff'rent way. Not a lot of points there.

Definitely way too hard. You should give it up now and just sell the machine to me.

Getting a super jackpot is no easy task on this game.

Make sure it works in test... goes up (and stays up) and down. If it works in test then it might have something to do with how you have the rules set.

I think by default it only comes up after getting a jackpot. After you're done with the multiball the drop target should pop up. If you have the game set up to hard, I think the drop target pops up at the beginning of the game.

Mine took some manual adjustment to get working right.

FT is so unforgiving... and so awesome when you hear SUUUUUUUUUPER JAAAAAAAACKPOT!!!!

I wish CPR would hurry up and do the repro playfields already!

+1

This game has to be one of the hardest games to lock balls during multi-ball for jackpots and super jackpots. Makes you keep coming back for more. My high is only 645,000. Just got it a few weeks ago. Hitting those supers is very satisfying! Love my FT. Its a keeper.

This is what prevented me from getting one for years. Couldn't find a decent one without playfield wear. I ended up scoring a dirty but fully Mylared example. Can't wait to attempt peeling that up

I have, only one time ever, scored a double super jackpot. SOOOO awesome.

I own at Fishtales...its tough, but if u have the lockshot and left orbit jackpot shot down...ure golden