This page summarises how to catch Sea Turtle.
About Sea Turtle
- Binds when caught.
- Use: Teaches the Sea Turtle mount. Requires Riding skill 75. Level 30 is required to learn riding, and use the mount. Increases swim speed by 60%. The turtle is the same shape as the Riding Turtle mount gained from playing cards, but is a different color. They are probably related: One driven to extinction by greedy goblins, the other by over-enthusiastic anglers!
Catching Sea Turtle
- Notes: Very rarely caught from any pool in Northrend.
- Commentary: Catch rate is estimated between 1/2000 and 1/5000. Someone will always manage to catch a Sea Turtle on their second cast. But realistically, you should expect to spend days fishing for this mount: Pool fishing averages about 2-3 catches a minute, including time moving between pools. So 5000 catches would take 30-40 hours of fishing.
- Guide: Catching the Sea Turtle Mount - Strategies for catching the Sea Turtle, a rare mount.
- Achievements: Turtles All the Way Down: Fish up a Sea Turtle mount from any fishing pool in Northrend.
- History: 3.1: First caught.
| Water | Areas | No-Junk Skill | Catch Rate | Common Catch | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % of Catch | Sample | |||||
| Borean Man O' War School | Coastal: Borean Tundra | 1 | <1% | 1045 | ||
| Deep Sea Monsterbelly School | Coastal: The Frozen Sea | 1 | <1% | 1045 | ||
| Dragonfin Angelfish School | Inland: Dragonblight | 1 | <1% | 1045 | ||
| Fangtooth Herring School | Inland and Brackish: Howling Fjord | 1 | <1% | 1045 | ||
| Glacial Salmon School | Inland: Grizzly Hills | 1 | <1% | 1045 | ||
| Glassfin Minnow School | Inland: Crystalsong Forest | 1 | <1% | 1045 | Glassfin Minnow | |
| Imperial Manta Ray School | Coastal: Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, Grizzly Hills, Howling Fjord | 1 | <1% | 1045 | ||
| Moonglow Cuttlefish School | Coastal: The Frozen Sea | 1 | <1% | 1045 | ||
| Musselback Sculpin School | Inland: Borean Tundra | 1 | <1% | 1045 | ||
| Nettlefish School | Inland: Sholazar Basin | 1 | <1% | 1045 | ||
| Pool of Blood | Wherever you Jump: Borean Tundra | 1 | <1% | - | Mostly-eaten Bonescale Snapper | |
Images
Learn More
- Valuable Fish - Details the most valuable fish, and how to catch them.
- Pools and Wreckage - Describes how to fish pools such as schools or floating debris, where to find pools, and how to efficiently fish them.
- Wrath of the Lich King - Fishing changes in Wrath of the Lich King, the second expansion to World of Warcraft.
- Fishing Achievements - Introduction to fishing-related personal achievements.
- 3.1 Changes - Patch 3.1's changes to fishing, including new fishing poles and Wintergrasp.
- Catching the Sea Turtle Mount - Strategies for catching the Sea Turtle, a rare mount.
- Minipets and Mounts - Non-combat pets, companions and mount found by fishing - including the Magical Crawdad, 'Bucket Pets', and Sea Turtle.
- Sea Turtle - Warcraft Mounts information.
Comments about Sea Turtle
Below are readers' comments about "Sea Turtle":
Turtle, in how many catches did you (not) get it?
fredje222, April 2009:
Thought i just made this topic because the other topic isnt really about cathing it :p
so post all stuff you fished here while looking for turtle and where you fished it :)Almost fished non-stop since patch released, 2500 catches done and still no bloody mount, this will be a tough one... Fished in the Frozen Sea just south of Boreans...
Btw all my catches are fish caught (that includes pygmy suckerfish/crystallized water/reinforced crate) no junk catches (well a couple, because of missed pools)...
Edit: 3000, still no mount
Edit: 3500, still no mount
Edit: 4000, still no mount
Edit: 4500, still no mount
Edit: 5000, still no mount
Edit: 5500, still no mount
Edit: 6000, still no mount
Edit: 6500, still no mount -> changed the title :p
Edit: 7000, still no mount
Edit: 7500, still no mount
Edit: 8000, still no mount
Edit: 8500, still no mount
Edit: 9000, still no mount -> changed my place from Frozen Sea too Grizzly Hills... lots more money to be made here
Edit: 9500, still no mount
Edit: 10,000, still no mount -> whopteefreakingdooGihelle, April 2009:
Nearing 600 casts now...
Gishey, April 2009:
I'm up to about 850 casts at the moment. Nothing yet.
Meraxes, April 2009:
I wasn't counting, but I fished about 30 in Fangtooth Herring Schools then 2 in a Glacial Salmon School. So around 32. Keep fishin!
m, April 2009:
Caught it 30mins ago :D
(Catch nr. 72 this evening)
MfG
ÒómZarnoth, April 2009:
I'm at about the 1100 mark, still no turtle..Just had a guildy catch his at the 20th cast. Loading my gun now.
*Update* 2200 still no turtle...
*Update* 3000 still no turtle...
*Update* 3500 still no turtle...
*Update* 4000 still no turtle...
*Update* 4500 still no turtle...*Update* 4724 FINALLY WOOT!
Numbers, April 2009:
Id say it took around 200 casts for me. I just did the round in the Frozen Sea.
Cori, April 2009:
THe Frozen sea is definatley best as theres loads of pools close together, took 10 cast's which seems to be realy lucky
osgald, April 2009:
Got it on my 20th pool I'd guess, lake in dragonblight. Seems very streaky from the posts here...
ferenc, April 2009:
about the same as numbers, around 200 casts from a fangtooth school in the small lake just on the west side of utgarde keep
Secretsauce, April 2009:
Got it on my 5th cast, and yes I'm serious, it was in Sholazar Basin.
I thought this was supposed to be difficult to get, did the blizzard people misplace a decimal point?
Eloderung, April 2009:
Over 900 casts in various pools so far and zero luck on the mount.
Nonzor, April 2009:
I got mine after 120-some casts in Borean Tundra (from a pool of Imperial Manta Ray), shortly after my server came online. Very cool to have the achievement done on the date that the patch released. >grin<
Good luck to all you anglers!
setsuko, April 2009:
I'm probably around 150 and haven't got it so far. This is slightly off topic, but due to the insanely large amount of people on my server, I'm having a very hard time fishing somewhere where people don't fish in my pools despite me being there first :(
This of course -never- happened pre-patch.
Paralord, April 2009:
So far I am at 880 or so fish and still no luck, I have been fishing south of Borean, mainly on the icebergs.
Kelushapa, April 2009:
Just got mine after about 80 catches in an imperial manta pool in BT. In the little strip between the major land mass and the area where the Nexxus is located. Super lucky! Now just wish I could win an extravaganza, lol!! Good luck everyone!
droppings, April 2009:
Got mine around the 800th cast. I saved all fish caught and counted that (not including the suckerfish) and ended up with 683. That also doesnt take into consideration a fair number of junk catches, crates, and crystals. Caught it in an Imperial Manta Ray school as i was following the coastline in HF
Vagg, April 2009:
I just got my mount in Sholazar Basin, in the River's Heart area on my third pool of fish in that area. I fished for an hour or so in the Frozen Sea with no luck and went to SB to pick up a new egg from the Oracles and decided to try the few pools that were there. 15ish cast later there was my achievement.
Oom, April 2009:
You don't think it has a higher chance to drop from higher level pools than the lower level pools such as Herring?
InfectedZombie, April 2009:
Up to 945 casts. gotten 3 dark herrings, no turtle.
Coralshell Turtle, a mount?
C Rage, March 2009:
El says: For a summary of strategies, see Catching the Sea Turtle Mount. Original post:
In the latest build, according to the data mining at MMO Champion, there is a new mount...
Coralshell Turtle - Summons and dismisses a rideable Coralshell Turtle. This is a very fast mount, both on land and in water.
And it has been reported here, that "The One That Didn't Get Away" has a baby Coralshell Turtle added to it. Could we finally be getting a fishing mount?
TheTacoMan, March 2009:
i will kill someone in cold blood for a turtle mount....
I've wanted one ever since i saw the one from the TCG, and seeing the Kal'ulk ride them around just made me want it more :(
Lebeline, March 2009:
*takes 3 steps back from TheTacoMan*
=) I really hope that it is fishing based, I'm just hoping its not like a fishing extravaganza 2.0 because that would suck
el, March 2009:
The achievement lists a Baby Coralshell Turtle, although the mount is intriguing. If I've read the data correctly, the mount increases both land and swim speed by 100%. There's also a Baby Shark icon in the data files, so perhaps that rumored minipet really exists now?
Hard to discover much, because the servers are restarting every few minutes at the moment. However, I did pull some Tangled Fishing Line and Driftwood out of Sholazar Basin. Both are junk, but I don't recall seeing them before.
TheTacoMan, March 2009:
Two things i thought about:
A: The 'Baby Coralshell Turtle' behaves like the oracles egg, after 7 days (or whatever) it grows into a full grown mount
B: The baby Coralshell turtle starts a quest, in which you have to return it to a Kal'ulk village. As a reward, you get a full grown turtle mount
Obviously, no-one is pulling a full sized mount out of the water, so this seems like a clever way to work around it
C Rage, March 2009:
When reading the info, the first thing I thought of was those giant turtles that run the routes between the Tuskarr villages. A baby version of those of those would be about right for a normal mount for us. It is true that it wouldn't make much sense to catch a full sized mount.
After puzzling it out for a bit, I have come up with a few more places to keep an eye on...
A unimplemented achievement reward.
An addition to one of the rep vendors, perhaps Kalu'ak?
Or an addition to the Mysterious Egg.
The more I think on this, the more possible places to look. Right now the servers are still down, so I can't even start poking around.
Edit:
Looking on wotlkwiki, they have a icon listed as "INV_Misc_Fish_Turtle_03.png" on the main page right now. We at least have a icon for now.
TheTacoMan, March 2009:
As the 'Baby Coralshell Turtle' is included in the one that got away, one would assume that you simply catch it as you would a dark herring. WHERE is the question. If it's related to the Kalu'ak, it could be anywhere in dragonblight, Borean Trunda OR howling fjord. My money is on it being catchable ONLY from the Frozen Sea (what kind of sea turtle lives inland?)
wisely, March 2009:
If I have to take a guess,
I would say the turtle pet will be a rare catch while the mount will be from rep award of the Kalu'ak.
There are quite a few NPC in of the faction are riding on the turtle mounts currently.
OR,
this could be the new rep reward from The Silver Covenant, but I can't think of any relationship between them and this mount.
Gummo, March 2009:
Another note, the turtle mount would be another "equalizer"; right now, DKs can use path of frost to cross water at full mount speed, so having a turtle mount would allow non-DKs to keep up.
el, March 2009:
Official confirmation of, "A new (and very rare) special mount can now be caught from Northrend fishing pools."
Oom, March 2009:
el wrote:
Official confirmation of, "A new (and very rare) special mount can now be caught from Northrend fishing pools."
Yea I just read it!!! I just hope the catch rate isn't something crazy like 1 in 10,000 or 20,000.
Just gives me a whole new reason to skip Teldrassil and farm the Howling Fjord pools after patch for the achievement One That Didn't Get Away and the new mount!!!
Gummo, March 2009:
I hope the "very rare" mount isn't soulbound; since it has a unique (as far as I know) ability to travel on land & water at fast speed, it would sell for quite a lot.
Genom, March 2009:
Oh god. Another reason to spend inordinate amounts of time fishing and cursing.
wisely, March 2009:
Other than the engineer / tailor crafted mount, there is currently no any other mount that is not soubound.
So I would say mostly likely this will be a BOP mount, but still, this is a HUGE buff to fishing and no doubt will bring much more people into this.
wisely, March 2009:
Also,
I believe this mount will be totally unique than the DK or Shaman waterwalk skill,
I believe this mount should be moving INSIDE the water or UNDER the water with fast speed.
and thats a huge difference.
Again, this is a pure guess, I believe the speed may not be as fast as the spedd of a fast ground mount, but I believe the speed inside the water should be at least faster than a glyhed druid.
narvil, March 2009:
wisely wrote:
Also,
I believe this mount will be totally unique than the DK or Shaman waterwalk skill,
I believe this mount should be moving INSIDE the water or UNDER the water with fast speed.
and thats a huge difference.
Again, this is a pure guess, I believe the speed may not be as fast as the spedd of a fast ground mount, but I believe the speed inside the water should be at least faster than a glyhed druid.Blue post
Zarhym wrote:
The current iteration of the mount will give a 100% speed increase on land and in water. :)
These changes are taken from the latest version of the PTR notes and are subject to change.
note it says IN water.
TheTacoMan, March 2009:
So its out there, in the PTR currently, who's dedicated enough to try and catch it in the PTR and give us all a first opinion? :P
Calibad, March 2009:
Salty Caliban is on the case.
TheTacoMan, March 2009:
note that it specifically says pools, which is where it differs from the other 'one that didn't get away' fish, that could be caught in open water OR pools
Biggest concentration of pools for turtle mount?
fredje222, April 2009:
So the new turtle mount will be fishable from any pool in northrend, completly random...
Like evry good fisher i'm gonna fish like hell till i get it :p but i was wondering where the biggest concentration of pools is for fishing it...So what do you think?
el, April 2009:
I suspect the biggest (closest) concentration is in the Frozen Sea, just south of Borean Tundra. Sholazar Basin also has a lot of pools, fairly close together. Both are higher skill areas, which will tend to reduce the number of people fishing.
Of course there are locations such as Lake Kum'uya (near Warsong Hold in Borean Tundra) where pools generally respawn fast enough to allow one angler to go round and round the same lake. So you might not need a huge concentration. Likewise, it is reasonably effective to fly round the coast of Northrend, or along the rivers of Grizzly Hills.
There are other things to consider, such as who else is fishing, the value of the normal fish you are (mostly) catching, and whether you can (mentally) survive fishing the same handful of pools for days. Personally (over 6,000 pool catches so far - and no turtle), I have to keep on moving to new areas, just to break up the boredom...
fredje222, April 2009:
tbh, i'm kinda glad you have 6000 catches and still no turtle
how harder to catch, how cooler it will be to have :pthanks for the good idea's, seems their are enough good spots and moving around will be needed idd if i dont wanna go crazy :p
InfectedZombie, April 2009:
i have the turtle mount from the tcg, he probably wont see the light of day once i fish this up!
heathisrael, April 2009:
"Barely outpaces Hook of the Master Angler"
Umm, not sure about that. The hook is 25% swim speed bonus correct? And the mount is 60%. Not to mention that you have to wait 30 seconds after equipping the trinket to use it so the mount is WAY better imo.
The thing i'm curious about is what happens when you leave the water? can the turtle go on land or do you auto dismount??
If it can't get out of the water, the mount will simply suck...just like the trinket sucks when you hit air bubbles (it knocks you out of form whenever you hit an air bubble).
hopefully it'll give you 60% riding speed in AND out of water (so it'll behave like a lvl 30 mount out of water).
Dethwolf, April 2009:
hmm yes offshore is probably best place to fish..until everyone reads our posts lol
fredje222, April 2009:
meh, most of you are us servers anyway :p
Secretsauce, April 2009:
So, brace yourself for the hate..... I just fished up the turtle mount. I went into sholazar to do the fishing daily (ghostfish), saw a nettlefish pool, 5 casts later.... TURTLE.
One, this mount is not nearly as big as I thought it was. Two, I'm a little disappointed because I thought it was going to be a challenge. That said, I'm moving slowly through Dalaran on a cool new mount!
Boothby, April 2009:
I fished mine up about an hour ago in the little lake by Westwind Refugee Camp. That area has a pretty good concentration of pools and rarely anyone there.
Nonzor, April 2009:
Woot! I just fished up the turtle mount in Borean Tundra from an Imperial Manta Ray school. (I spent over an hour fishing in The Frozen Sea and had a bag of cuttlefish and monsterbelly, so was just fooling around looking for other pools.) Of course I mounted immediately - and was pleased to see that while riding underwater I didn't get a breath bar ... I wonder if that will change?
Happy casting!
Secretsauce, April 2009:
So..... is the drop on the turtle mount abnormally high for some reason? If all of us got one this quickly, and it took El 6000 casts to get nothing, maybe something is wrong in the coding.
Batter, April 2009:
Fished up my turtle mount about a half hour ago in Borean fishing for Musselback Sculpin at around the 350 catch mark. I was shocked (and pretty pumped) that it dropped so soon!
Good luck everyone!
el, April 2009:
Congratulations and thanks for the reports. Keep in mind that random loot is random. So many people are trying to catch the Sea Turtle, it is inevitable a few people will be lucky.
shuuya, April 2009:
I got my sexy turtle from Glassfin Minnow pools in Crystalsong Forest. I love this thing. :D
samboda, April 2009:
Secretsauce wrote:
So..... is the drop on the turtle mount abnormally high for some reason? If all of us got one this quickly, and it took El 6000 casts to get nothing, maybe something is wrong in the coding.
It's a random drop with a low drop %, some will get it after a few catches, others after thousands, and others will never get it. And dont forget that this is a site about wow fishing so u will see other ppl posting that they got the turtle.
Meraxes, April 2009:
Glacial Salmon pools in Grizzly were going to be my place. The salmon sells well and is used for fish feasts. Might as well do something productive while trying for the turtle.
Suran, April 2009:
Got my turtle after 127 Salmons in Grizzly Hills.
Dethwolf, April 2009:
Hmmm none of the turtles so far from what I see here and on the wow forums were from the frozen sea so far.........I figured the pools where u can see the giant turtle boat is the LOGICAL place to catch turtle mount
Sigh 450 casts last night...I'll try to fishfor an hour or so tonight out there again
fredje222, April 2009:
fishing next to warsong hold, going fine, lots of pools
Sea Turtle Mount photos - share them!
Nonzor, April 2009:
I've got a lot of people asking me to stop so they can take a better look at the turtle ... and I'd ask too, if I hadn't been one of the lucky ones who's caught one. Happy casting, everybody!
fredje222, April 2009:
bah i hate them stupid people that already have the mount, i wanna be the first to show it off!
el, April 2009:
I'll put up some sort of gallery of the best images. Please either:
- host them on another site (Imageshack, etc) and post a link - in this topic, or another forum turtle topic - there are plenty in the "catch" topic already, which is great; or
- mail the best picture to el @ elsanglin.com.
(There's no image uploading here, but it's probably a feature worth adding in future.)
Oom, April 2009:
Got mine about an hour ago, with about 600 casts under my belt since patch:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/Blood_Vixen/WoWScrnShot_041809_003709.jpg
Isa, April 2009:
I got it yesterday. In, say, two hours.
Gihelle, April 2009:
Here's my pics. Feel free to steal them like you did with the Lurker tutorial, El!
(just kidding, it's actually an honor to be able to help :))
http://img2.imageshack.us/img2/6492/turtle1.jpg
http://img2.imageshack.us/img2/1908/turtle2.jpg
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/2288/turtle3.jpgBindar, April 2009:
Here is me on my Sea Turtle (in the water off of Borean Tundra):
http://picasaweb.google.com/NikonDahl/WorldOfWarcraft#5326239206357007986And here is looting the turtle:
http://picasaweb.google.com/NikonDahl/WorldOfWarcraft#5326088718845828194While I was hunting for the turtle, my statistic "fish and other things caught" increased by about 2,600 (a moderate fraction of that were Pygmy fish caught in tandem with other things from pools).
el, April 2009:
Indeed, Gihelle. I've started illustrating the Sea Turtle guide with pictures posted on the forum. I decided that was the logical place for a few of them. If anyone has any objection to being shown there, just let me know.
Kreight, April 2009:
Well, for dumb looks I've got you all beat. A cow riding a turtle is pretty far up the goofy scale.
http://www.woodenbadger.com/wow/turtle01.jpg
http://www.woodenbadger.com/wow/turtle02.jpg
http://www.woodenbadger.com/wow/turtle03.jpgausry, April 2009:
Turtle Mount + noggenfogger + speedy = priceless.
"Turtle cavalry... CCHHHAAARRRGGEEEE!!!!"http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/ausry/heroes-1.jpg
~Aus
Gizel, April 2009:
Guess whos' me :D
http://www.axiomfiles.com/Files/174460/flameleviathan.jpgGishey, April 2009:
3.2K casts to gain it.
Speedy's so happy to have a friend
http://www.dontstealmydomain.com/content/turtlemount.jpgSparhawk, April 2009:
Took me abuot 950ish casts.
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/5928/seaturtlec.jpg
Spleen, April 2009:
http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f165/spleenseer/?action=view¤t=WoWScrnShot_042009_185831.jpg
Genom, April 2009:
I'll post a pic as soon as I can, but I just got mine tonight. So happy.
MightyFlub, April 2009:
I managed to get mine last night with about 100 Frozen Sea casts :)
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3585/3459687139_3d67e54c98.jpg
My guild was doing a Naxx 10 run at the time and the achievement message caused quite a reaction :)
Of course I've made about 3000 casts going after Ironjaw with no luck so far. I'm going to switch and try for the sewer rat next.
Drrum, April 2009:
Here's a screenshot of my friend Shunai (Stormrage) and her sweet new noggenfogger-downsized Sea Turtle! Her pet turtle "Speedy" is on a Papa Hummel's Pet Biscuit. That's me in my new chef whites, on my trusty old Saltwater Snapjaw mount, wearing Baby Spice. No Sea Turtle for me yet, but I'll post picks when I fish one up!
http://www.fly-by-night.net/wow/3turtles.jpg
Drrum, April 2009:
Drrum wrote:
No Sea Turtle for me yet, but I'll post picks when I fish one up!
Annnnnd...
Less than 10 minutes after posting this, I welcomed my very own Sea Turtle to my stables. Caught off the western coast of Howling Fjord, after many hundreds of casts. Here we are on our first underwater ride:
http://www.fly-by-night.net/wow/myturtle.jpg
trotil, April 2009:
I was wondering if anyone caught this turtle in a river or a lake, cause judging by the name, i'd think it's only from sea fish schools, and even tho the only information i could find was that it can drop from any school, i couldn't find anyone actually finding it in inland fishing spots.(Or they just didn't say so in their post).
Any feedback, anyone?
Sea Turtle Problem
Sevira, April 2009:
the main problem I have is not that i have over 3k fished objects and yet no turtle
the problem is that I don't know if the turtle is really only fishable in schools
in the english patchnotes it says "fishing pools"
in every achievement-description where blizz talks about interaction with schools they call them "nodes" or "schools"in the german version they text implies that you can fish the turtle in every open water where you can fish
additionally a friend of mine just got the turtle today and told me he was fishing in open water
so, what to believe now?
all I see on the internet is people claiming they got the turtle from schools
but actually getting it from a school doesn't mean you won't get it from open water as well, right?
I mean, is this just a bad translation in the german version or could it possibly be that hundred of people just missunderstood something?my english is a bit rusted and therefore I'm totally unsure if I just misunderstood something in the german and/or english patchnotes or if they just misstranslated it
I mean, did anyone hear from someone else getting the turtle from open water?
Nonzor, April 2009:
I've talked to a few people on my server who have gotten the Sea Turtle, and we all got it from fishing in a pool/school/node - that is, a specific, sparkling place that is named when you mouse over it. It's my understanding that it comes only from the pools.
Best of luck!
el, April 2009:
Open water Sea Turtle catches...
- One-off claims are difficult to confirm. For example, there is no combat log record of where fish came from. And there are a plethora of freak events that can lead to such claims, such as a pool respawning where someone was fishing: It is statistically very unlikely to happen, but with enough people fishing, it will occur.
- "Pools" is easy to mis-translate, because a pool could also be read as a body of water, like a lake. "Pools" isn't a Blizzard word. They would normally refers to "schools of fish", although they've used other words in the past, like "shoals". I use "pools" here because so many of these "fishing nodes" aren't schools of fish at all - Pure Water, Floating Wreckage. Node is a programming term, which I try and avoid using here.
- Some GMs have also been reported as saying the turtle can be caught from any water in Northrend. I'm surprised they are giving game-play information out. Unfortunately most GMs simply read documentation, so are prone to the same misunderstandings as translators.
In contrast:
- The English patch notes, and the achievement, very clearly state "pools". Those tend to be written by developers/designers, so are likely to be more reliable.
- One of the reasons most anglers are reporting pool catches is because the patch notes, achievements, guides, and the experience of everyone else they know says "pools", so that's the only place they are trying. But there is also a lot of open-water fishing happening. Most of the daily quest catches are not fished from pools. Millions of open-water catches: If there was anything unusual in the water, we would have heard about it by now.
So...
I cannot rule out the possibility that the Sea Turtle can be caught from open water. But "weight of evidence" is strongly towards pool catches. That said, I'm very interested in detailed confirmation of open-water catches.
Added a bit on the word "pool":
From a US dictionary:
- a (1): a small and rather deep body of usually fresh water (2): a quiet place in a stream (3): a body of water forming above a dam b: something resembling a pool (a pool of light)
- a small body of standing liquid
- a continuous area of porous sedimentary rock that yields petroleum or gas
- swimming pool [recreational]
Curiously, that source cites an old-Germanic word " pfuol" in the etymology.
None of those definitions can apply to seas, or large bodies of water. And therefore "Northrend fishing pools" are not the same as "fishable open water in Northrend".
el, May 2009:
"The word from on high is thus: 'The Turtle mount should, currently, only be found in pools throughout Northrend.' ... There has been some genuine confusion on this topic, largely due to reports of players receiving the Turtle Mount from something other than a pool. Hopefully, this alleviates some of that confusion. We're also looking into the legitimacy of claims to have acquired the mount, from other bodies of water."
Spoonzilla, June 2009:
I was looking up this achievement on WoWhead (http://www.wowhead.com/?achievement=3218) and ManBearPgg linked a chat with a GM, who confirmed that this mount can be caught in open water.
Chat: http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/431/seaturtlegmchat.jpg
Celwinde, June 2009:
Spoonzilla, I've been given misinformation from GMs before.
There was a level 80 white tiger mob in Skettis at one point. He was an elite rare mob that spawned in the back of the cave where the black tigers are located. When I found out about this mob and went to tame him on my Hunter, I discovered he didn't seem to be in game anymore. After a countless number of tickets were submitted to GMs by many Hunters, we were told by most of them they can't give out game tips and tricks. A few of them confirmed he was still in the game, but may have changed location, and some of them said he was no longer in game.
Suffice it to say, it wasn't too much longer we found out for sure the mob really had been removed from the game without explanation.
So even though it's a GM, take the information they give you with a grain of salt.
Azaguth, June 2009:
an 80 mob in Skettis? Sounds like a fluke...
Isa, June 2009:
I got it out of a pool.
seaborn, June 2009:
This one is a tough subject. You seem to have a Gm saying one thing, other GM's saying another. my opinion is they put this mount in the schools so that the fish bots, as there are many, could not catch the mount. I don't know for a fact that it cant be caught in open water, but if it could, I think we would see a lot of the fish bots talking about how they got it in open water.
Xi, June 2009:
The thing is, I know someone who fished it up from open water, and that person is trustworthy. If it's only supposed to appear in schools, then maybe the item is bugged. I've seen several posts online of people claiming to have fished it out of open water, too. I've no reason not to believe them.
Thing is, people only really fish in schools, so most of the reports of people finding it are obviously going to be from schools.
Bogath, June 2009:
I've spoken to a GM about this issue, he told me that "you need to be fishing in schools and the drop rate is the same everywhere".
AND he told me the drop chance is about 0.01%.Screenshot:
http://s619.photobucket.com/albums/tt273/bogath/Turtle%20Mount/?action=view¤t=GM1.jpgXi, June 2009:
So that's 1/10000?
How many fish will I need to catch in order to have a 90% chance of getting it?/10% chance of not getting it, or however it works.
Gummo, June 2009:
To have a 90% chance of catching it from the word go, assuming it's a 1/10,000 chance per cast, you'd need 23,025 catches.
Chance of missing on every cast:
(9999/10000)^23024 = .100006996776643337166645285289
(9999/10000)^23025 = .099996996076965672832928620761For a 50% shot, you'd need 6,932 casts.
Xi, June 2009:
Wow. 0.01% doesn't seem quite right, then? Quite a few people have the turtle, most seem to get it before 5000 catches. I would guess 0.02% is more likely.
justBrando, June 2009:
I think its listed under the guide, but a great point is that the Dalaran fishing dailies require players to normally fish in open water. Considering the incredible number of people who do this, we would have known by now if the mount could be caught in open water.
Where i caught my turtle and my story...
Czehvren, July 2009:
Hello,
Well let me get right to the point and say, i caught the sea turtle at level 67! I have been fishing in northrend sense i was 48 as well as outland... I couldnt wait to get to Outland really as it is my favortite place to be , just tonight i dinged 70 and did the fishing quests from old man barlo and the kind lady in dalaran! And off to catch Mr. Pinchy in just a sec.So far i have collected around 6k gold sense lvl 48-70 when i picked up fishing and cooking, and traveled the world of azeroth outland and northrend in search of bigger fish! but sense i was to low and my agro range was large for monsters, i had to find the perfect spot...
The spots i found and first the spot where i caught the sea turtle is in grizzly hills just off the outpost where the taunkon or taunken live , there is a little lake i beleive its called ashwood lake? im not sure but its where you go to kiss the frogs for the argent tournie, i fish there a lot for glacial salmon , and surprisingly the pools spawn within 6min of despawning so, what i would do is i would arrive and have 3-4 pools spawnd fish from them all till none were left and within 6min of the last one another pool would spawn... so thats where i caught her! I swear i told my guildies every cast i think its going to be the sea turtle! Dream it also , 20 min didnt even pass by when i closed my eyes and thought of the turtle.. I was completely shocked, blown out of my mind, what i would do is place my cursor over the bobber close my eyes and hope i hear that achivement sound, i did this in the session i caught the fish , kinda freaky all that "law of attraction" stuff hehe...
I didnt really read to much about the turtle before i caught it , fishing an cooking was a way for me to make money an i have been! so places where i fished at 48-67 where agro was a problem in northrend and outland...
Golden darter in terrokar forrest the small lake outside shatt, catch is 24-29% open water if i remeber correctly , great seller, takes lots of patience
Nettlefish in the rivers heart in scholazar, lake threshers would taunt me if i got to close to the water i could fish from every pool except one without getting in combat.
Glacial slamon ashwood lake easy for horde to get to with FP being right next to it just one level 72-73 wolf my fav place to fish!
Yes the frozen sea is good tons of tons of pools but could never sell the fish
This is getting longwell now adays its been 2 days sense ive had my mount i use it every time im in org going across the mail and the ah, across pools , and to show off.
Im happy to be a accomplished angler and share my tips an thoughts on this site, and i hope to talk to you all and share my tips as well as hearing on what you have to sayNever give up!
darkelf56, July 2009:
Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing such an interesting story. Believe it or not...I needed that!
Dark Elf
Manginae, July 2009:
Well on my 870th somethin cast to try to get the dark herring I snagged him in Howling Fjord the northern most lake by the horde camp. Anyways still havnt gotton the herring :_( so no salty.
Trendara, November 2009:
I caught mine early Saturday morning. I was under 450lvl, and went to Sholazar Basin for Nettlefish. I spent a good deal of time fishing there, both to level up and stock up. I have been trying to get the Giant Rat for weeks. 5 minutes after reaching level 450, I got my turtle! I was so shocked I woke up my husband, who spent the whole day turning me into a turkey while trying to catch one :).
rakoth, December 2009:
I caught mine a few minutes ago while fishing a Deep Sea Monsterbelly pool. I had just finished the Blood is Thicker quest and decided to fish a couple of pools to bring my skill level to 415 (I always like to level up by multiples of five for some reason). A few casts later and I had it. Lucky day.
Gwardraal, December 2009:
I got it by pure luck. I was doing the Dalaran fishing daily with the Bloodtooth Frenzies - I fished up my five, and then I noticed a non-blood pool in the lake and decided to throw a line - next thing I know I'm getting the achievement ding!
Christhina, December 2009:
I'd just completed the Ghostfish daily in Sholazar Basin.
Well, I'd actually fished up the Ghostfish, and right clicked it, so I had completed the quest, and was just about to hearth back to Dalaran to turn in the quest when a little voice nagged my brain... "You've not much else to do tonight, fish some more".
I stopped a moment and considered - for sure, it was true, there was little else demanding my attention in game that evening.
So, at a leisurely pace, I fished my way south, hopping from pool to pool, out into Borean Tundra, and eventually to the coast.
Still I continued, heading east toward Dragonblight and Howling Fjord. Fished up a myriad of different fish types, some useful, some not so useful.
I was on the coast of Dragonblight, nearing Grizzly Hills border, and fishing the umpteenth node for the evening, idly wondering why I was even doing this, when suddenly the screen went bright, up came an achievement, and in my shocked and addled brain I slowly came to the realisation that I'd just landed a Sea Turtle.
I guess I realised then why the little voice told me to go fishing that evening.
Sea Turtle text
Azaguth, June 2009:
Apparently that's not a new thing, as there is a post in the wowhead comments about it from the beta, 3.0.9...what I'm wondering is, is it correct in game, and wowhead is just wrong?
Aliandro, June 2009:
'not quickly', as in no increase in ground speed at all. Ground speed is 100% or normal run speed, swimming speed is about 108% of normal run speed. As for speed, glyphed aquatic form is faster and being mounted and using any of the walk on water effects is much faster.
Azaguth, June 2009:
I do understand what was meant by the mistype.
I rephrased my question just before you posted.
el, June 2009:
The spell (that you read once you have learnt to ride the mount) says "quickly". The item you catch certainly used to say "quiclky" (you can see it here). I don't have a spare unlearnt turtle to check. It is possible the typing error remains in-game. I can sympathize with Blizzard on this - I read my own text endlessly, and still find errors years later.
Aliandro, June 2009:
Oh, you were talking about the typo. Sorry, hadn't realized that.
I really think the turtle should go at least as fast as water walking land mounts or even a bit faster.
And More...
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- 3.1- Fishing mount » (4 comments)
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- Just a quick thanks.... » (2 comments)
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