This topic documents changes to fishing introduced by patch 2.4, including the new fishing daily quests. It is written Out Of Character. Last update major 30 March 2008. On this page:
Thanks to Belegedhel, Fianor, Gummo, Kahless, Oberweiss, Petre, Siha, Stephenn, and Vkandis, who have contributed some of the information found here.
Daily Quests
From the patch notes:
"New Fishing Daily Quests! Visit the mysterious old man fishing at Silmyr Lake outside of Shattrath City to discover what treasures he has to offer."
The quest giver is called Old Man Barlo, pictured right. Like other daily quests, there is only one quest available each day: You cannot choose which quest to do. Known quests are:
- Bait Bandits: Catch a Blackfin Darter from the "rivers" of Terokkar Forest. Blackfin Darter cannot be caught from Silmyr Lake (that would be too easy) or the elevated lakes (Blackwind Lake, Lake Ere'Noru and Lake Jorune). The closest location to catch Blackfin Darter is Cenarion Thicket or the small lake next to the east entrance to Shattrath City.
- Crocolisks in the City: Catch a Baby Crocolisk from the water of Stormwind City, Orgrimmar, or Ironforge.
- Felblood Fillet: Catch a Monstrous Felblood Snapper from Hellfire Peninsula or Shadowmoon Valley.
- The One That Got Away: Catch the World's Largest Mudfish from Nagrand. The fish can be caught from Lake Sunspring and Skysong Lake only.
- Shrimpin' Ain't Easy: 10 Giant Freshwater Shrimps. 1-2 are found in Bloated Barbed Gill Trout. These replace Barbed Gill Trout in the open water of Zangarmarsh, until you have 10 shrimp in your inventory.
Quests assumed to require level 70. It has been confirmed that a level 50 character with 375 fishing skill cannot take these quests. Quests can be accepted with any fishing skill (confirmed for Crocolisks in the City at skill 1), however some quests require much higher skill to catch the quest fish. Quest fish are typically caught within the first 15 casts in the correct area of open water, often within the first 5 casts, but sometimes will take 30-40 catches.
The reward is a Bag of Fishing Treasures. This contains around 7g (increased since 14 February), a regular treasure, a minor or junk item, and rarely a "notable" treasure.
There are two regular treasures, one of which seems to always be found in each Bag of Fishing Treasures:
| Item | Description | |
|---|---|---|
 | 1-3 Elixir of Water Walking | "Allows you to walk across water for 10 minutes." Classified as a Guardian Elixir. Requires level 35 to use. When the gnomes complained about those pools in Nagrand that were too far from land to reach, this wasn't quite the solution we were expecting... Still, water walking is a surprisingly useful ability when fishing pools, since it often means not having to fight off the wildlife. |
 | 4-6 Sharpened Fish Hook | +100 lure. Like the Aquadynamic Fish Attractor, it requires a fishing skill of 100+ and lasts 10 minutes. |
If you do not already know the Find Fish (pool tracking) ability, it is possible to get a Weather-Beaten Journal as a reward (thanks Fianor).
Notable treasures are far less common: The majority of Bags of Fishing Treasures will not contain any of these items:
| Item | Description | |
|---|---|---|
 | Bucket Pets: Chuck's Bucket, Muckbreath's Bucket, Snarly's Bucket, and Toothy's Bucket | Baby crocolisk non-combat pets. Tentatively: these pets may only be gained after completing the quest "Crocolisks in the City", not from the other fishing dailies. My gnomish compatriot, Breanni, really will have to improve her fishing skill! |
 | Eye of the Sea | Unique-equipped blue gem, giving +15 stamina. The gem gives the same bonus as the Solid Empyrean Sapphire, which values it at several hundred gold on the auction house markets. |
 | Recipe: Captain Rumsey's Lager | The recipe allows the cook to make Captain Rumsey's Lager, which when consumed, increases fishing skill by 10 for 3 minutes. This skill bonus stacks with existing bonuses from lures and gear. That means the maximum possible effective fishing has risen from 527 to 537. The lager requires a Skin of Dwarven Stout and a Flagon of Mead to brew 5 drinks. The lager's raw materials are all purchased from vendors, at a cost of about 16s each. The recipe requires a cooking skill of 100 to learn, and binds when picked up. Finally someone has started to understand why fishing is so popular with the dwarves! Tentatively: Like the cooking daily quest rewards, once the recipe is known you will not receive it again as a reward. |
 | Spun Truesilver Fishing Line | The line is used in the same way as High Test Eternium Fishing Line: Apply it to a fishing pole to permanently give that pole an extra +3 bonus to fishing skill. Spun Truesilver Fishing Line does not stack with High Test Eternium Fishing Line. Apply one or the other. |
 | The 2 Ring | Epic quality ring, giving: +22 Strength, +22 Agility, +22 Stamina, +22 Intellect, +22 Spirit. Requires level 70. Binds when used, so can be traded. The 2 Ring is one of the best rings available for hybrid classes (such as Druids and Shaman). Much like its namesake, The 1 Ring, The 2 Ring is exceptionally rare: The daily fishing quests had been completed thousands of times before ring was even discovered: Chances are you will never find The 2 Ring. The combination of exceptional rarity and exceptional desirability probably makes The 2 Ring the most valuable traded item in Azeroth. |
 | Weather-Beaten Fishing Hat | Cloth hat which gives a +40 Stamina bonus, +40 Spirit bonus, and +5 to fishing skill (changed 27 February). It is used thus: "Attach a lure to your equipped fishing pole, increasing Fishing by 75 for 10 minutes (10 minute cooldown)". In effect, a reusable +75 lure, with the same fishing skill bonus as the Lucky Fishing Hat. The hat binds when picked up. |
Minor/junk items include: Ancient Coin, Antique Silver Cufflinks, Beautiful Glass Eye, Broken Spyglass, Giant Shark Tooth, Gold Wedding Band, 1-3 Jaggal Pearl, Mariner's Log (Cedric's story), Mithril Shaving Razor, 1-4 Mote of Water, Noble's Monocle, Ornate Drinking Stein, Piece of Polished Driftwood, Razor Sharp Fillet Knife, Rusted Lock, 2-4 Salvaged Scrap Metal, Shadow Pearl, Silver Statuette.
Isle of Quel'Danas
The Isle of Quel'Danas (often called Sunwell Isle) contains fishable coastal water. An effective fishing skill of 355 is required to cast, 450 to stop fish getting away. The table below shows the proportion of different fish caught in open coastal water. There does not appear to be any variation by time of day (fish were caught over 3 of the 4 standard time periods).
| Fish | Catches | Percentage of all Catches |
|---|---|---|
| Bloated Giant Sunfish | 44 | 5% |
| Giant Sunfish | 307 | 38% |
| Jaggal Clam | 122 | 15% |
| Lightning Eel | 77 | 10% |
| Luminous Bluetail | 110 | 14% |
| Mote of Water (1-2**) | 17 | 2% |
| Seaweed | 127 | 16% |
| Total | 804 | 100% |
** Total number of catches that were either 1 or 2 Mote of Water is shown.
Luminous Bluetail restore 455 to 585 mana and acts as a potion: The same affect as a Mana Potion, but requiring level 55 to use.
Bloated Giant Sunfish can be opened, and contain a range of Outland herbs and minerals, V-type scrolls, Stranglekelp, and even Darkclaw Lobster. The rarest item recorded was a Star of Elune.
The isle is intended for those who have reached level 70. It can be reached by those at lower level via a Warlock summon (thanks moongleam).
Outland Pool Changes
New pools have appeared: "Brackish Mixed School" have replaced all Feltail Schools in Terokkar Forest and Zangarmarsh. These will make it easier to catch Golden Darter.
Based on a sample of 35 Brackish Mixed Schools fished empty (145 catches in total), the average catch per pool is:
- 1.9 x Golden Darter.
- 1.3 x Spotted Feltail.
- 0.9 x other normal catches from all Outland pools (such as Curious Crate and Mote of Water).
Each Brackish Mixed School contains 3, 4, or 5 catches.
In non-elevated areas of Terokkar Forest, all the pools found will now contain at least some Golden Darter: There seems to be an equal chance of a Brackish Mixed School or School of Darter appearing at each of the 17 or 18 spawning locations. School of Darter now contain an average 2.7 Golden Darter per pool. Add the Darters from the Brackish Mixed Schools, and a complete sweep of Terokkar Forest's low-lying pools should gain at least 40 Golden Darter. A complete sweep will take about 35 minutes with a fast mount. All assuming nobody else is fishing.
The pools in Terokkar Forest still follow the normal rules for pool appearance: Pools won't respawn until "about an hour" after they were last fished empty. So, even if you are the only angler fishing, there are still not enough pools to sustain continuous fishing hour after hour.
25% of the catch from open water in Terokkar Forest will be Golden Darter. Assuming 3.5 catches per minute, it will take 45 minutes of open water fishing to catch 40 Golden Darter. Sweeping all the pools for the same number of fish takes just 35 minutes. So pool fishing of Golden Darter is finally quicker than open water fishing, if there are pools available to fish.
There are many more pool spawning locations in Zangarmarsh, however there are still 3 different types of pool there, and Brackish Mixed School are only half-full of Golden Darter. This means that sustainably fishing for just Golden Darter in Zangarmarsh will take longer than in Terokkar Forest. Brackish Mixed Schools appear in all parts of Zangarmarsh, including the eastern waters where the base fishing skill required is 305 (400 to stop get aways): Anglers with lower fishing skill will now be able to catch Golden Darter.
Overall, the change should make it worth the effort of moving between pools to gain Golden Darter, which I think is what the designers had in mind originally.
Other Changes
From the patch notes:
"Broiled Bloodfin now increases resistances to all schools of magic instead of increasing Stamina and Spirit."
The buff is worth +8 resistance for 30 minutes. There will only be certain circumstances where resistance will be more useful than another food-based buff. However, this change should create a viable market for cooked Bloodfin Catfish.
The debate over tracking whether the Find Fish pool tracking ability is supposed to show Schools of Tastyfish has been resolved. From the patch notes:
"Find Fish now correctly tracks Schools of Tastyfish and Muddy Churning Waters."
Fishing can now be trained up to 225 as low as level 10. From the patch notes:
"Removed the level requirement from the expert fishing book, The Bass and You."
The Bind on Pickup confirmation dialogue has been removed for the Stranglethorn Extravaganza rare fish, Mr. Pinchy, and similar uncommon or rare catches. (This dialogue was added back again in patch 2.4.2.)
Undocumented change: Silmyr Lake in Terokkar Forest has an increased base skill requirement: Now 405 to cast, 500 to stop get-aways.
Undocumented change: Barbed Gill Trout have been removed from the waters of Shadowmoon Valley. The catch is now 100% Felblood Snapper.
Undocumented change: The skill-up formula seems to have changed, so that around 400 fewer catches are required between skills 100 and 300. See this forum discussion.
Learn More
- Daily Fishing Quests - Walkthrough and rewards for the daily fishing quests.
- Public Test Realm Patch Notes - Latest official patch notes.
- Fishing changes in 2.4 - The Dailies - El's Anglin' forum discussion.
- 2.4 Change to Skill-Up Rate? - Forum discussion.
- Fishing in 2.4: Daily quests and more - Daily quest summary by WoW Insider.
- Fishing up Chuck - WoW Insider reports the first sighting of Chuck's Bucket.
- PTR for Patch 2.4 is Open and Fishing daily quests - Observations on the daily quest by Stephenn.
- Banana Shoulders - Fishing - Daily quest information from Shia.
- Fishing dailies and rewards - Belegedhel's post on the MMO-Champion forums.
- Fishing Changes - Petre's post on US professions forums.
- PTR is up, Vendors, Sunwell - World of Raids contains some new fish icons, suggesting some new fish.
