WoW Fishing

Fishing is a secondary profession that any character can learn and it does not taking up a primary profession slot, as Mining or Blacksmithing would.

Leveling up Fishing can take a fair amount of time, as you are limited by how quickly fish will be caught on each cast, rather than the cast time of a recipe in other professions. It is best to either level this up while you are leveling and are looking for a change of pace or, if you are hoping to rush to Level 60, you should wait until max level to do it.

Note that, when you do level Fishing, you will have a huge amount of fish that can be used to level your Cooking. If you are planning to do so, do not sell the fish and put it in the bank instead.

Alliance Fishing Trainers

• Androl Oakhand — Teldrassil
• Arnold Leland — Stormwind City
• Astaia — Darnassus
• Brannock — Feralas
• Donald Rabonne — Hillsbrad Foothills
• Grimnur Stonebrand — Ironforge
• Harold Riggs — Wetlands
• Lee Brown — Elwynn Forest
• Matthew Hooper — Redridge Mountains
• Paxton Ganter — Dun Morogh
• Stuart Fleming — Wetlands
• Warg Deepwater — Loch Modan

Horde Fishing Trainers

• Armand Cromwell — Undercity
• Clyde Kellen — Tirisfal Glades
• Kah Mistrunner — Thunder Bluff
• Katoom the Angler — The Hinterlands
• Kil'Hiwana — Ashenvale
• Killian Sanatha — Silverpine Forest
• Kilxx &mdash The Barrens
• Lau'Tiki — Durotar
• Lui'Mala — Desolace
• Lumak — Orgrimmar
• Uthan Stillwater — Mulgore
• Wigcik — Stranglethorn Vale

How to fish

In its simplest form, fishing only requires the Fishing skill, taught by fishing trainers. If one is just starting fishing, a fishing pole can be optional, sold by a general trade goods or fishing supplies vendors. Fishing trainers and fishing supply vendors are often in the vicinity of fishable waters. When fishing without a pole, your character will make do with a reasonably straight branch with the end whittled smooth and a string tied to it. Once your fishing skill or level is high enough to benefit from fishing poles that increase your fishing skill, that would be a good time to acquire one. When fishing with a pole, consider using a fishing lure, available from vendors that sell fishing supplies.

After procuring the fishing skill, and if you like, a fishing pole, find a body of water; a pond, a lake, a river, a section of coast, a dock or pier, a moat, or something similar. To be fishable, a body of water has to be sufficiently deep - if it is not, you will get a warning that the water is not sufficiently deep and will be unable to fish at that location. Most bodies of water in Azeroth are deep enough, but some minor pools are not. The small ponds in the Valley of Trials in Durotar do not support fishing, for example. If a fishing trainer is standing nearby, you can be sure the water is deep enough. If you are in a river and get the message, try moving up or downstream. If in a lake, try moving a bit into the lake.

While facing the water, equip the fishing pole, and/or use your Fishing skill (found in the professions tab of your spellbook) to cast the fishing line. Your character will cast the fishing line in the direction he is facing, with minor random deviations in length and angle of the cast. If you miss the body of water ("Your cast did not land in fishable water"), you may wish to adjust the direction your character is facing and/or simply cast Fishing again.

The bobber splash effect may be hard to notice. Rely on your ears instead.

Fishing is like channeling a spell, counting down from 21 seconds to 0 seconds. A fishing bobber will appear somewhere in the water in front of you, and you'll notice that your character will start channeling the Fishing spell. Move your cursor over the bobber and it will turn into the standard interaction cursor. Wait for your bobber to splash, then click it (within 3–4 seconds) to draw the fishing line in. Depending on the area you're fishing and your fishing skill, you may either catch something useful, or you will catch a junk item like Driftwood. You can then repeat the whole process by using the Fishing skill again.

Technical information

You can move your character so that they are mostly submerged in the water (but not swimming) and angled so that no casts will go onto land or shallow water. If you are having trouble seeing the bobber bob when a fish is on your line, you may want to zoom in so you are looking in 1st person. If you are fishing alone, you can hear your bobber splash; in a group, all of the bobbers sound the same.

Fishing pools

Fishing pools are objects found in bodies of water in WoW. A higher portion of more desirable items can be fished within a fishing pool. Fishing pool is a general term; a School of Fish is a fishing pool that contains (primarily) fish, floating debris contains primarily chests and container objects, and so on. Fishing pools can be found in Azeroth, Outland and Northrend so presumably will also be found in new areas in future releases.

Fishing pools appear at set locations along coastlines and rivers. Similar to the schools of fish particular to the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza, characters can catch specific fish and valuable items when their cast lands in the pool. Pools despawn after several items are caught, only to spawn again over time, much like mineral nodes.

[Weather-Beaten Journal] is a book that can be found in crates that are fished from fishing pools. It teaches  [Find Fish], which shows fishing pool locations on the mini-map (all types, not just schools of fish). Though BoP, the book can be sold while still in the crate. If you open such a crate with less than 100 fishing skill or after having learned fish finding already, you won't see the book, but the crate won't destroy itself - you can store it for later, or mail it to someone else.

Fishing level requirements

The mechanics of fishing skill levels were changed significantly in Patch 3.1. Prior to 3.1, each zone had a minimum skill requirement to be able to cast in that zone and a cap where you achieved a 100% catch rate in that zone. In between there was a chance your fish could "get away"; you would catch nothing and receive no skill-up for that cast.

As of 3.1, there is no longer a minimum skill requirement to fish in any zone, and all casts will catch something and award a chance for a skill-up. However, if your skill level is too low for a zone, you will catch mostly vendor trash items. The skill level required to guarantee "no junk" catches is equivalent to the old "no getaway" level.

The easiest areas (any designed for characters level 20 and below) have very low skill level caps, allowing you higher success initially. You will need to have one point of fishing skill (apprentice level fishing training) to fish these.

However, if you have a brand new character with no financial resources on the server, the vendor trash items are not a bad catch, and you may want to maximize these catches. To do this, fish in a harder fishing area, such as in one of the cities. If you are on a trial account, this is probably your best bet.