Fishing Leveling Guide 1 450 – WotLK

Fishing Leveling Guide 1-450 – WotLK

Table Of Contents
  1. Trainers
  2. Leveling
  3. Equipment
  4. Fishing Dailies
  5. Fishing Contests
  6. Valuable Fish for Cooking
  7. Sea Turtle Mount and Mini-Pets
  8. Fishing Achievements

In WoW, Fishing can be one of the most rewarding professions, but it certainly requires the most patience. In the endgame, Fishing provides the materials needed for buff foods like Dragonfin Filet and Spicy Fried Herring as well as feasts like Gigantic Feast and Fish Feast. It can also get you the aquatic Sea Turtle mount and mini-pets like Giant Sewer Rat and Chuck, provided that you’re willing to put in the time. Additionally, the server-wide Kalu’ak Fishing Derby and Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza are great ways to spend a weekend afternoon, and you can receive valuable prizes like the Dread Pirate Ring, Hook of the Master Angler, or powerful Fishing-specific gear.

All you’ll need is a simple Fishing Pole to get started, and you can fish anywhere that there’s water. But, simply casting a line does not guarantee that you’ll catch the creature you’re looking for, or even any fish at all. In fact, there is no quick or easy way to power level Fishing. It requires dedication and for you to commit your time to improving your skills. Because of that, only the first section of this guide will focus on how to train and level Fishing. The rest is dedicated to the Equipment that you can acquire, Daily Quests you can complete, the Competitions you can compete in, how to make money from selling fish for Cooking, the Sea Turtle and Mini-Pets you can collect, and how to complete the achievements that will earn you the “Salty” title.

Old World

Like most professions, Fishing can be learned from trainers in any major capital in Azeroth. All trainers that teach you Apprentice can train you through Artisan.

Outland

Unlike almost any other profession, there is only one Master Fishing trainer in all of Outland: Juno Dufrain. He can be found in Cenarion Refuge in Zangarmarsh.

Northrend

Grand Master Fishing can be learned in several places throughout Northrend. The first, and potentially most convenient, is in the same area as the other Grand Master trainers in your faction’s first questing area. For the Alliance, this will mean finding Old Man Robert in Valiance Keep, and for the Horde, Fishy Ser’ji at Warsong Hold will do the same.

All players can also learn Grand Master from Marcia Chase in Dalaran, but as Fishing can be leveled anywhere and does not require additional gear or recipes, there is no distinct advantage to learning from her.

Skill-Ups

One of the best parts of leveling Fishing is that it can be done anywhere. Because Fishing does not involve crafting anything, though, the only way to increase your skill is through successful casts. This means actually catching something (even if it’s just junk) when you send your line out. As you progress, however, it will take an increasing number of successful casts to level your skill up once. The number of successful casts per skill level are:

  • 1 – 115 = 1
    • You should train to Journeyman at 50.
  • 115 – 135 = 2
    • Train to Expert at 125.
  • 135 – 160 = 3
  • 160 – 190 = 4
  • 190 – 215 = 5
    • Once you reach 200, train Artisan Fishing.
  • 215 – 295 = 6
    • At 275, train Master Fishing.
  • 295 – 315 = 9
  • 315 – 355 = 10
    • After reaching 350, you can train Grand Master Fishing.
  • 355 – 425 = 11
  • 425 – 450 = 12

Find Fish

One of the most important skills for fishing efficiently is Find Fish. Like Find Herbs or Find Minerals, it will mark fishing nodes — which can be groups of specific called “schools” or wreckage pools — on your mini-map. But, unlike the other Find spells, you cannot learn Find Fish from a trainer. Instead, you have to find the Weather-Beaten Journal, a rare, BoP drop from wreckage pools.

While the Journal can be found in every junk container throughout Azeroth, it has the highest chance of dropping from Curious Crate, which is found in schools and pools throughout Outland. The Crate can be fished from open water, but it has the highest chance of dropping directly from all schools of TBC fish. The second best way to farm is to look for Mithril Bound Trunk. While the journal has a higher overall chance of dropping from the Mithril Crate, the types of pools that it can be found in are limited to Azshara, Feralas, Stranglethorn Vale, and Tanaris.

The other wreckage that the Journal can be found in includes:

An important aspect of fishing at higher levels is the gear and enhancements players use. These can make you more successful when farming for specific fish, speed up your dailies, or give you a competitive edge in either of the Fishing contests. Within the broad category of equipment, there are several ways to increase your fishing skill either permanently or temporarily. They include: Fishing Poles, Gear, Item Enhancements, Lures, Enchants, and Consumables.

Since TBC, Blizzard has included Daily Quests for Fishing. If you have not capped, these can be a great way to build your skills while working towards a small reward, and if you have, the rewards in each bag of treasures can be immensely useful. In addition, TBC and WotLK dailies can both be completed in one day, meaning you have double the chance to reap their benefits.

Information on both sets of Dailies is below, but as this guide is focused primarily on WotLK, only the necessary details are provided for TBC dailies.

The Fishing dailies in Outland are offered by Old Man Barlo, who can be found at the lake just north of Shattrath. In total there are 5 options, most of which require you to go catch a specific fish somewhere in Outland. One, however, sends you back to either Orgrimmar or Stormwind, so it might be of use to set your Hearthstone to Shattrath or find a mage who can port you back there when you’ve collected the necessary critter. Old Man Barlo’s quests are:

As a reward for completing these, you will receive a Bag of Fishing Treasures. Most of the items in these are significantly outclassed by their WotLK equivalents, but there are still a few of note. Namely, the Sharpened Fish Hook, which is on par with Glow Worm from WotLK and, most notably, the mini-pets Toothy, Muckbreath, Snarly, and Chuck. Each of these crocs has around a 15% chance of dropping. Check out the mini-pet section below to see what other companions you can get through Fishing.

In Northrend, Grand Master trainer Marcia Chase will begin your Fishing Dailies. She can be found by the fountain in Dalaran. She also has 5 potential options for quests, but these will all take place in Northrend. In addition, 1 takes place in the PvP zone of Wintergrasp, so be ready to queue up for combat. Her dailies are:

As a reward for finishing her quests, you’ll receive the Northrend version of the Bag of Fishing Treasures. The rewards from this bag are much more valuable and diverse than its Outland counterpart, and like the crocs from TBC, it has the chance to drop the Strand Crawler, a mini-pet version of the crabs found throughout Azeroth. The most notable drops include:

Though it’s mostly a solo activity, there are two server-wide Fishing Competitions every week: The Kalu’ak Fishing Derby and The Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza. Both factions can compete in these as the hand-ins are at neutral locations (Dalaran and Booty Bay, respectively), and competition is often fierce. The rewards for these are among some of the best Fishing gear players can acquire, and winning either contest is a huge honor.

As a note, each competition takes place at a set time based on the server’s clock. When planning to compete in these, make sure to figure out any differences between your own time zone and your server’s time beforehand.

Every Saturday from 14:00 – 15:00 server time, the Kalu’ak Fishing Derby takes place. It begins when Elder Clearwater, who appears by the fountain in Dalaran an hour before the event starts, makes the server-wide announcement. The contest is a race to see who will be the first player to bring him 1x Blacktip Shark. These sharks can only be caught during the Derby itself and are found in pools throughout Northrend where Pygmy Suckerfish can also be caught.

Because the catch rate for the Shark is so low, there is very little players can do in terms of overall strategy for the Derby. As the competition spans the entire continent, the best advice is to:

  • Set your Hearthstone to Dalaran, or be near a mage who is willing to create a portal.
  • Find an area with as few other players as possible. It may take you several Derbies to figure out your ideal location, so do not be afraid to move around and continue looking if your spot becomes overcrowded.
  • Have your enhancements stacked and ready. Whether you’re using Sharpened Fish Hook, Glow Worm, or something else, make sure you have enough to last you the full hour of the competition before it starts. Scrambling to find them during the event will only cost you precious time.
  • Don’t give up! Just because you didn’t win your first time doesn’t mean that you can’t win in the future. And, catching a Shark can still net you prizes after someone has already come in first.

If you’re the first player to turn the Shark into Elder Clearwater, you’ll have the choice of:

And if you’re not first, but still catch a Shark before the hour is up, you can turn it in to complete Better Luck Next Time. This will get you a Bag of Fishing Treasures, which might even help you to win your next Derby.

Like the Kalu’ak Derby, The Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza is a weekly, server-wide event. Every Sunday from 14:00 – 16:00 server time, School of Tastyfish will appear throughout Stranglethorn Vale, and the first person to bring 40x Speckled Tastyfish to Riggle Bassbait will be able to complete the Master Angler quest.

If you’re the first to complete it, you can receive either:

There are also alternative prizes for the Stranglethorn Extravaganza, but instead of bringing in Tastyfish, they require you to collect certain rare fish that only appear during this time period. There’s no limit on the number of players that can complete these quests or how many of them you can complete per Extravaganza. They are:

One more rare catch — the Rockhide Strongfish — is available during the Extravaganza, but that’s only necessary to complete the One That Didn’t Get Away achievement. Head down to the Notable Achievements section to learn more about it and other strategies to earn it.

In the endgame, one of the primary uses for Fishing is to catch fish and use them to prepare various buff foods. The recipes for each of these will cost you 3 – 5x Dalaran Cooking Award, so you should only purchase the final recipes you’ll need for personal use. But, that also means players looking for specific buffs who have the recipes, but not the materials, will need to purchase stacks of fish from the AH, which can generate a solid amount of gold if you’re willing to put in the time. If you’re interested in farming these fish for cash, check the AH to see which recipes are the most valuable, and then you can either catch or cook accordingly. The Northrend fish and the buff foods they make are:

Fish are also the ingredients for cooking three of the feasts in WotLK. These can feed multiple members of a party, and Fish Feast are often used before dungeons, raids, or even PvP. The feasts that require fish, and the necessary catches are:

For all Fishermen, the Sea Turtle is one of the most highly prized catches. Other than Druid’s Aquatic Form, the Sea Turtle is one of the few items — alongside a small amount of trinkets and consumables — that will increase your swim speed. As a BoP mount, it must be caught by you directly, so finding it is quite the feat. The process to catch it is deceptively simple: just fish in any school in Northrend. The drop rate, however, is well below 1%, so it may take some patience to catch. There is no explicit strategy or quick way to find it; you just have to be dedicated.

There are also a number of mini-pets available through Fishing. In addition to Toothy, Muckbreath, Snarly, and Chuck which drop from the Bag of Fishing Treasures (TBC) daily reward and the Strand Crawler that drops from Bag of Fishing Treasures (WotLK), you can catch:

  • Mr. Pinchy / Magical Crawdad
    • Mr. Pinchy has a < 1% chance of being fished from Highland Mixed School in Terrokar Forest
      • These schools spawn at Stonebreaker Hold, Allerian Stronghold, and Skettis on a 45 – 60 minute timer, so making a circuit between these three locations on a flying mount should come close to the time it takes them to respawn.
    • Using Mr. Pinchy has a chance (< 1%) to yield Magical Crawdad, but he has multiple charges
  • Giant Sewer Rat
    • Fished up in The Underbelly, < 1% chance

Finally, Fishing is one of the most achievement heavy professions in WoW. Besides the standard achievements that you will earn from fishing in certain schools, catching a certain number of fish, or casting into all types of wreckage, there are a number of noteworthy or somewhat difficult achievements. They are:

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