Fishing: A Beginner's Guide

Last updated Sun, 16 Aug 2009

Fishing is a secondary skill, so it does not count towards your two profession limit.

So you want to take up fishing

Or maybe you're thinking "Why bother?" Let me give you three good reasons.

Reason One: Cheap food

Fishing gives cheap food for melee characters and hunter pets. I know what you're thinking: food drops from mobs all the time... I can buy food from the vendor... I already have Cooking so I'm covered. And you're right, but that's not the full picture. Even if you have Cooking, you'll be locked out of half of the buff food recipes if you don't use fish. You can't count on buying the fish you need either, most of the fish that is listed on the Auction House is already cooked. The best types of fish can sell for over 20 gold a stack, whether they are cooked or not. If you catch the fish yourself and make it, your cost is usually nothing. Besides, fishing is a great way to pass the time while waiting for a raid to form, heh.

Reason Two: Alchemy components.

If you are an Alchemist you'll pretty much be required to fish. Many of your recipes will need fish and while you might get away with purchasing lowbie fish and still make a profit on potions, it will be more difficult to do it that way. So if you don't fish you can either kiss profits goodbye on those items or just never make the roughly 10% of Alchemy recipes that require fish-related components.

Reason Three: Money!

That's right, I said money. You'll be able to catch and sell lucrative fish such as Glacial Salmon or Dragonfin Angelfish used by raiders. In Outland and Northrend, there are special fish for just about every class which have desirable buffs as their "Well Fed" property. Some of those buffs can be made from dropped critter meat, and some can only be made with fish. Even if you don't need to supply your own buff food, you may still want to help the guild by supplying materials for Fish Feasts.

As of the 1.9 patch, floating wreckage was added to many coastal areas of Azeroth. When you cast your bobber into the floating wreckage, loot comes out! The type of loot depends on the level of the zone you're in, but in Stranglethorn you'll get salvaged boxes containing things like heavy leather, bolts of silk and some green weapons and armor, usually 2-3 items per box. If you are in Feralas you can expect to get thick leather, bolts of runecloth, potions and level 40-45 green items. You'll also fish out Rumsey Rum and Stranglekelp. Most of this stuff sells for good money on the Auction House, especially the weapons and armor. So if you see floating wreckage -- stop and fish it out!

In Outland this trend continues with the steampump flotsam in Zangarmarsh containing Motes of Water, Netherweave, Knothide Scraps, Engineering parts and Fel Iron ore and more. Even the gray junk that drops from the wreckage is worth 10g a stack and on rare occasion you can catch a Goldenscale Vendorfish which sells to the vendor for 6g. In Nagrand the lakes have a chance to spawn "pure water" pools which contain predominantly Motes of Water. This is a very easy way to collect any Primal Waters you might need for crafting, it's not unreasonable to get 1-2 primals in just 10 minutes of fishing if there are enough pure water pools in the area.

Even more goodies have been added in Northrend, including a special Fishing Mount! That's right, you can actually fish up your own transportation. The Sea Turtle mount can be fished out of any pool in Northrend. There was also a daily quest added that grants Kirin Tor rep. Right now this quest is only one of three dailies that can be done for the Kirin Tor, if you need it then this quest is sure to be on your hit list.

I hope I've convinced you that Fishing is a worthwhile craft to pursue, so on with the guide...

First you'll need to find a fishing trainer. These can often be found near the water, mostly in towns that are situated on the water. A few good examples would be under the docks next to Auberdine in Darkshore, near the waters of Loch Modan or even hanging out in the Canals of Stormwind.

Next you'll need a fishing pole. You can get one from numerous vendors around Azeroth. Most towns will have a Trade Goods vendor who sells them, and often a Fishing vendor will be standing on local docks, ready to sell you a fishing pole. The basic pole costs about 10 silver, so it's affordable to most players. You will need to equip this pole in your main hand in order to use it. You will also need to remember to put your weapon back when you're done!

Finally you'll need a spot to fish in. Fishing skill requirements were changed in Patch 3.1 and you are no longer required to fish in zones that match your fishing skill. This means that high level characters can fish anywhere they want, as long as they are willing to accept a high level of junk catches. Junk catches are gray items that you receive instead of a fail message. However, if you prefer not to catch junk, you can still fish in level appropriate zones. In general, if your skill is below 75 you should stay in newbie zones, up to 150 you should stay in level 20-30 zones, up to 225 should be done in level 30-40 zones and under 300 should be done in 45-55 zones.

You'll have a much easier time advancing your skill, as well as catching more interesting fish, if you use a lure. Low end lures can be bought from the same vendors who sell fishing poles (Trade Skill vendors and Fishing vendors). There are also better lures that can be made by Engineers (or bought from the Auction House). I've compiled a handy little chart:

Fishing Lures

The act of fishing.

Cast your line by clicking on the Fishing button, which you have hopefully already placed in one of your action bars. If not, you can find it in your spellbook with your other crafting skills. Once you cast your line, a fishing bobber will appear in the water in front of you. You simply wait for it to splash in the water and then right-click it to see what you caught. If you managed to catch a fish, a loot box will open up with your fish inside. If your casting timer expires, just cast again. To automatically put your fish in your bags, you can hold the Shift key while clicking the bobber.

Now that you're fishing, let's talk about what you can expect to get. Most of the time you will get the standard fare, fish that are appropriate to the level of the zone you are in. But on occasion you'll get other items. This includes lockboxes, clams, bloated fish, bottles and off-hand fish. Make sure you open any item that can be opened, as these will generally have interesting loot inside. The "off-hand" fish is basically a fun item that you can equip while you're in the city to show off what an amazing angler you are!

Once you've honed your fishing skills a bit, you'll probably want to find more exciting places to fish. At this time there's no official list of zones and the fishing skill they require. But fishing is just like any other profession in the game where it relates to the expected level of your character. In general most professions assume that you will reach the Artisan level (225+) at around level 35-40. So you should be able to use the same rule of thumb for fishing zones. If your Fishing skill is 225, by all means head for a 35-45 zone and try your luck. Feel free to test the waters of any zone you happen to be in, for experimentation's sake. Also make sure you take advantage of any fishing lures you have access to, since they will enable you to fish in zones slightly higher than your base level of fishing will allow. If you end up with a high percentage of junk catches, this generally means the zone is a bit too high for you.

At some point you'll find that you've maxxed out your fishing skill. No problem, to get higher fishing skill just keep visiting your fishing trainer every 75 skill points. Here's a list of Fishing Trainers if you need it. You may also find various fishing quests along the way, including Nat Pagle, Angler Extreme in Dustwallow Marsh. This is a great quest, especially if you haven't gotten a special fishing pole yet.

To maximize your profits from fishing, keep an eye out for the Pools of Fish that appear around Azeroth. These pools tend to contain more desirable fish than the zone typically yields. Examples of fish pools you might see are Firefin Snapper, Oily Blackmouth and Stonescale Eels. Occasionally these pools will also give you a chest with loot, booze or Stranglekelp. Fishing in pools guarantees that you will catch the fish of the type indicated by the pool. This is especially exciting for high-end fish, which tend to have very low drop rates (10% or less). You must be sure your bobber lands inside the swarm area to retrieve the fish.

Blizzard also added the ability to track pools of fish on your mini-map. In order to do this, you'll need to fish out a "Weather-Beaten Journal" from some floating wreckage. This can be done in any of the zones that have wreckage spawns, including Ashenvale, Stonetalon Mountains all the way up to Zangarmarsh. The journal only requires a fishing skill of 100 to learn, so this ability is available to most players. Once you find a wreckage pool, you'll need to fish out the crates and trunks. The book has a 10-40% catch rate depending on what level zone you are in, Zangarmarsh having the highest drop rate of course. Once you find the journal, simply click it to learn fish finding and you'll be able to see the fish spawns on your mini-map.

You may notice as you level up your fishing skill that the rate of increase seems to be slowing down. Instead of gaining a point every fish, you may get a point every 3 or 5 fish. This is normal and by the time you are closing in on 450 skill you'll probably only gain a point for every 10-12 successful catches. Leveling fishing can be a tedious process if the skill points are your goal. However, there are so many things you can do with fishing that if you focus on something else, the skill points will slip right by. For example, if you're also working on your Cooking skill, you will easily reach 450 Fishing as you catch the fish needed to cap in Cooking. Other things you can work on while fishing are the various Fishing Achievements. I guarantee you will reach max Fishing skill before you finish the Fishing Achievements.

We already talked about the concept of 'junk' catches, so you know that fishing skill is an important ingredient in your success rate. If your skill is too low for the area you are fishing, you'll get junk instead of fish. The bigger the disparity between your skill and the zone, the larger your percentage of junk will be. There are zones in Azeroth that require fishing skill in excess of 300 and some areas of Outland require fishing skills over 400. The highest fishing requirement for any zone is 575, which is the Frozen Sea in Borean Tundra.

You may be wondering how that works when the maximum fishing level for your character is 450. Basically, you are expected to be using fishing buffs and lures when you fish in certain areas. The Frozen Sea is one example of a zone with fishing requirements above 450. If you plan to fish there, you should be sure to bring along a stack of lures. If you want to completely alleviate junk catches, you'll have to achieve a total fishing level of 575. This is usually done with a combination of lures and fishing gear.

The idea of reaching a fishing skill over 450 begs the question "What can I do to enhance my fishing skill?" Luckily there are a number of items that dedicated fishermen like you can acquire to boost their fishing skill. Probably the first item you'll want to get is a better fishing pole:

Fishing Poles with Skill Bonus

There are other in-game items that can boost your fishing skill as well. The easiest one to acquire would probably be the enchantment to gloves. This will give a +2 Fishing bonus to any pair of gloves. Most of the other skill boosting items are given out as rewards for the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza that occurs every Sunday afternoon from 2pm to 4pm, server time. Depending on what you are able to catch, you could win an enhanced fishing line for your pole, a Lucky Fishing Hat or the coveted Arcanite Fishing Pole. Each of the rewards from the Fishing Extravaganza will give a +5 fishing bonus, except the Arcanite Pole which gives +35 fishing bonus. Quest givers for this event will be available only on Sundays, you can visit the WoWWiki for a good writeup and full details on the event. For those who want to know anything and everything there is to know about WoW Fishing, visit El's Extreme Anglin' Site.