Fishing

Overview

Fishing is a secondary profession: you equip a fishing pole, cast into any body of water and click the bobber when it splashes. What you catch depends on the zone and your skill, so the same pool can give low-level fish to a beginner and rare catches to a master. Fishing feeds Cooking directly and also yields oil, chests and the occasional valuable trinket.

At higher skill you can fish from schools (visible swirling pools) for much better odds on specific fish. Late-game catches such as Stonescale Eel, Oily Blackmouth and Firefin Snapper are reagents for alchemists and cooks, and they sell well on any established server.

Leveling tips

• Buy a pole from any fishing vendor and a few cheap lures. A lure raises your effective skill, which matters most when you are trying to fish in a zone slightly above you.
• Below about 150 skill, fish in the starting-zone ponds and cities; you gain skill on most successful catches regardless of what you hook.
• The Expert book in Booty Bay needs skill 125 or so and is the one trip you cannot skip. Booty Bay’s docks also make a decent spot to keep leveling once you have it.
• Nat Pagle’s Artisan quest asks for a few rare fish caught in specific zones. Read it in advance so you can collect them while leveling elsewhere.
• Zones with lots of water near flight points, such as Stranglethorn, Feralas and Azshara, make the upper range far less tedious.

Making gold

Stonescale Eel, Oily Blackmouth and Firefin Snapper feed alchemists and the flask/potion market, and Raw Nightfin Snapper and similar fish sell to cooks raiding every week. Fishing during peak raid days and listing in stacks usually beats dumping single fish. Floating wreckage and pools also give chests worth a few silver to a few gold each.