Fishing

Ah, there is nothing like the relaxing sport of fishing. Well, there is, but anyway! Fishing is a way for you to obtain various fish and items in World of Warcraft. These fish can be eaten raw (yuck), cooked (yummy), or can be used in certain other professions such as Alchemy. It’s a useful skill and anyone with any kind of patience can truly enjoy fishing.

Fishing is a secondary profession meaning that no matter what primary professions you have you can always take along fishing. Fishing goes with any profession and especially goes well with Cooking (another secondary profession). It’s also cheap, all you need is a fishing rod and maybe some bait/lures and you’re ready to fish.

Want to learn how to get a quick start on fishing? See our fishing/cooking combo power leveling guide.

To gain the fishing skill you first need to obtain level five. Then you need the fishing skill. Trainers are everywhere and your best bet will be one of the main cities for your faction (although you may come upon one in the early levels). Just go to a main city like Stormwind, Silvermoon City, or Orgimmar (any major city will work). Ask a guard where the fishing trainer is and he’ll make your mini-map. There are just too many trainers to list without taking up a whole guide! The entire world of Azeroth loves to fish.

To fish you’ll need a fishing rod. These are sold for fishing supply vendors who also sell various baits and lures which can be used to temporarily increase your fishing skill. You’ll want to get the fishing rod and then some bait that is around your level whenever you pick up your fishing skill (they are right next to fishing trainers). The fishing rod is actually a weapon and as a quick interesting fact it does use your fishing skill to calculate the to-hit percentage. However, you’ll likely find the damage is not worth using it as an actual weapon.

Once you’ve got yourself a rod and some bait (fishing with bait helps a lot) you’ll need to find a pond or lake or really any body of water. You’ll also want to move the fishing skill from your spellbook to your action bar. This is the actual ability that will allow you to fish.

So, do you have a body of water, a fishing rod, and your fishing skill (it looks like a hook) on your action bar? You’re ready to fish! Now, what I do is zoom my camera in to first person perspective (you don’t have to) then use the fishing skill. Assuming you’re close enough to water and your skill is high enough for the area (you can use bait/lures to increase it if you’re not high enough) then you’ll throw out your line and a bobber will appear on the surface of the water.

Now, the mini-game starts. You watch the bobber until you see a fish bite. As soon as it does you “reel in” by right clicking the bobber. Too slow and the fish will get away. Too soon (before a bite) and you’ll get nothing. If you succeed a loot window will open giving you the option to loot the fish. If you fail, well just repeat the process all over again.

You’ll gain skill points depending on the level of the body of water you’re fishing in vs. your current skill. It’s generally a mystery unless you want to put a good bit of research in it. However, it’s my opinion that you should fish in one area until you’re not getting good skill point gains anymore. Then move on a higher level zone. Remember, zones determine what level a body of water is – not the body of water itself. For instance, Elwynn Forest will always be fishable while something in Outland will require a good bit of fishing skill to fish at.

Hopefully with this information you can head out start your career as a fisherman of Azeroth. The only other thing you need to know about is what exactly you can do with fish. Well, you can eat them raw. You can cook them (which makes Fishing and Cooking two very good skills together). You can throw them away, if they are too low for you to use.

Sometimes when exploring you’ll find various wreckages, oil splots, and pools of fish littered through the bodies of water. If you throw your bobber into these then you’ll have a chance to get an item (wreckage), elemental water, or a certain kind of fish. Be on the look out whenever you’re out! The wreckages can sometimes give decent items.

Equipment you may use for fishing include better rods that add to your fishing skill and lures, as well as some other items obtained through the fishing extravaganza series. We'll cover some of them below

Fishing Rods

+3 Blump Family Fishing Pole Quest for Alliance
+5 Strong Fishing Pole Vendor
+20 Big Iron Fishing Pole Drop
+20 Seth's Graphite Fishing Pole Quest
+25 Nat Pagle's Extreme Angler FC-5000 Quest for Horde

Lures
+25 Shiny Bauble
+50 Nightcrawlers
+50 Aquadynamic Fish Lens
+75 Bright Baubles
+75 Flesh Eating
+100 Aquadynamic Fish Attractor

+2 Enchant Gloves - Fishing

Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza Rewards
+5 Lucky Fishing Hat]
+5 Nat Pagle's Extreme Anglin' Boots
+5[High Test Eternium Fishing Line

+35 Arcanite Fishing Pole

From levels 1-100, fishing will usually take 1 successful skill to level up, but as you progress, you will notice that it will begin to ask more catches for the levels to go - after you hit 125 fishing, you can learn Expert Fishing from Booty Bay by buying the Expert Fishing Manual.

At 225, you will need to visit Dustwallow Marsh to talk with Nat Pagle, where he will ask you to do a quest for him to be able to unlock Artisan Fishing (up to 300)!

Nat Pagle will say you need to catch 4 fish for him, they are:

Feralas Ahi - West from Camp Mojache in Feralas, you will see the Verdantis River, this is the spot you can fish at to eventually catch one.

Sar'theris Striker - South from Shadowprey Village, you will find the Sar'theris strand, in Desolace.

Savage Coast Blue Sailfin - Savage Coast right outside Grom'Gol's Base camp in Stranglethorn Vale.

Misty Reed Mahi Mahi - East from Stonard, where the murlocs are at, in the Swamp of Sorrows.

Once you have obtained all 4 rare fish, return to Nat Pagle to obtain Artisan Fishing Skill!

To obtain Master Fishing (over 300 skill), you will need to buy the Master Fishing - The Art of Angling book from Juno Dufrain in Zangarmarsh, he's right outside the Cenarion Expedition's base in that zone.

To fish in Outland, it is recommended you have over 325 fishing (at least) since the first area you can send your line in is Zangarmarsh. This will make you unable to get fish unless your level is very high. Remember, fishing levels can be obtained anywhere, you could even level your entire fishing 1-375 right within Orgrimmar or Stormwind!

Upon your travels, you may find a journal in one of the wreckages or schools of fish you fish at, within an item called a "Curious Crate". This item will allow you to track schools of fishes down on your minimap should you enable the ability!

The amount of casts required for later levels are a lot, but fishing out motes of water from Nagrand or Zangarmarsh is very rewarding in the end since not many go for it!

Stranglethorn fishing extravaganza happens every sunday, from 2pm to 4pm server time, and it has you visit Booty Bay to enroll in the contest. Once in, you will need to go to the coasts around Stranglethorn and find schools of Tastyfish, once you catch 40 of them before anyone else, you win the contest and a prize of your choice!

To successfully participate in this contest, you only need around 225 fishing skill and some lures, so don't be afraid to try your hand at fishing in this contest if you have the chance!

If you want to know where to fish and what to expect from fishing there, you may visit the guides below for a full table listing!

• Eastern Kingdoms
• Kalimdor
• Outland

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