This page lists zones/areas by the fishing skill required to fish in them without catching junk. It shows the lowest skilled zone/area that each fish may be caught in. Not all fish can be caught in all zones, so read about the fish in detail before trying to catch it.
Skill
| No-junk skill | Areas | Lowest skilled area where these fish can commonly be caught** |
|---|---|---|
| 25 | ||
| 75 | ||
| 100 | - | |
| 150 | ||
| 225 | ||
| 300 | ||
| 375 | ||
| 400 | ||
| 425 | ||
| 450 | ||
| 475 | ||
| 490 | - | |
| 500 | ||
| 525 | ||
| 550 | - | |
| 575 |
**: Fish names highlight the lowest-skill area the fish can be caught. Quest-only fish and infrequent catches are not shown. Not all fish listed can be caught from all areas listed - check the fish or area links for details.
Areas with unknown skill requirement are not listed.
Below are anglers' comments about Skill.
3.3--no trash in fishing pools?
GormanGhaste, October 2009:
I haven't seen anyone mention this on this site yet, so I'll link the source:
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=11155811788&sid=1&pageNo=1#0
"Don't forget, in patch 3.3.0 you never catch trash from fishing pools, regardless of skill. "
What does this mean? And why would anyone need to skill up fishing, if pool fishing was always successful?
el, October 2009:
I assume it means that with skill 1 you can successfully catch fish from any pool anywhere - even places like The Frozen Sea.
Update: It's true. Skill 1-6: 5 Glassfin Minnow from a Glassfin Minnow School. 0 Trash. The next 5 casts into open water all yielded junk.
This means the new Kalu'ak Fishing Derby requires fishing skill 1. Also opens up some interesting new options for leveling fishing - a direct choice between speed and gaining valuable fish.
Robodin, October 2009:
There goes the fishing market, if any schmuck with 1 fishing skill can fish up mats for whatever food they need :/
Trigot, October 2009:
This is horrible its just another easy button to lame out the game. Its no longer going to be anything to be proud of because its somthing a lvl 1 can go and do with no fishing skill.
DarkMime64, October 2009:
So we level fishing now for... what purpose exactly?
I'm assuming, then, that a character with 1 skill in Cooking can make a Fish Feast, too.
And someone with 1 skill in First Aid can make Frostweave Bandages.No? Oh..
el, October 2009:
DarkMime64 wrote:
So we level fishing now for... what purpose exactly?
To be able to equip that Arcanite Fishing Pole, which gives a +40 bonus to skill, which you need to... erm, hold on. There are still fish that cannot be caught from pools - the Dalaran fountain, Old Azeroth fish used to level cooking, etc. But it's hard to answer your question.
I'd rephrase the question: Why have fishing skill at all?
Gizel, October 2009:
el wrote:
DarkMime64 wrote:
So we level fishing now for... what purpose exactly?
To be able to equip that Arcanite Fishing Pole, which gives a +40 bonus to skill, which you need to... erm, hold on. There are still fish that cannot be caught from pools - the Dalaran fountain, Old Azeroth fish used to level cooking, etc. But it's hard to answer your question.
I'd rephrase the question: Why have fishing skill at all?Djakar.
mikado, October 2009:
Was fishing very hard to begin with? Did it need all the past and future nerfs it's received? Don't get me wrong, I am excited about the tournament, but making it so that anyone can participate just by clicking "learn fishing"? I think that's a bit much. I don't see the point of this change.
Next up: mine titanium with lvl1 mining skill and herb in Storm Peaks with lvl1 herbalism skill. But no, these are primary professions and too many folks would throw a fit if that happened. But fishing is just some trash secondary profession and noone will care, amirite?
averiy, October 2009:
The three fish required for a fish feast can be pool caught, it's true, but the most efficient way to catch them is in Wintergrasp, where they are caught from open water in a near equal ratio, so that you don't have many fish of any one kind left over. This you cannot do without fishing skill.
Kamaria, October 2009:
This is all so depressing
:(wyrmsmom, October 2009:
/agree
Utopia, October 2009:
Sadly it seems we anglers are becoming another victim of the dumbing-down in the name of accessibility which is sweeping through wow......
Feiwong, October 2009:
Guys...
I've opened a suggestion thread complaining about this change... so if anyone wants to support it, please do
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=20677232908&postId=206753341510&sid=1#2
Best regards,
Gustavoel, October 2009:
Here are some more discussions on the official forums:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=20677230833
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=11155812409Pool fishing involves moving around, looking for specific things in the water. Pools are the closest we currently have to the Cataclysm method of fishing mentioned at BlizzCon (hooking specific fish you can see swimming). Encouraging pool fishing in this patch makes a lot of sense. In fact, it may be an attempt to demonstrate that a more interactive method of fishing can be popular. Although people here tend to mostly fish from pools, over all players open water is much more popular. So trying to make the least popular aspect of fishing more popular might be logical overall, even if we see things differently.
Of course leveling fishing skill (and specifically leveling alongside cooking) appears (same source) to account for a significant proportion of fishing activity. There's a risk of simply making the whole cycle pointless: Nobody needs to level fishing skill, so nobody fishes. Rationally, you'd counter that by arguing that if people didn't want to fish, they would not have levelled fishing skill. However Joanna Average WoW player transpires to be surprisingly irrational. "That 1/450 bar needs to be filled!" "One day I'll want to farm Mr. Pinchy..." I'm sure we've all been there, even if we find a reason to justify our actions. A superficial (or worse, pure economist) understanding of that irrationality is a dangerous thing.
Traditionally the role of fishing skill has been to test patience. Patience is the main requirement for fishing. And requiring 10 or 15 hours of fishing before an angler can catch the good stuff, is what separated "us from them". It's also classic EverQuest-style grinding, that used to be common in WoW: Do the same thing over-and-over, before you can do what you actually wanted to do.
Patch 3.1 started to dilute the test of patience. 3.3 dilutes it so far we're struggling to see a purpose.
The basic problem for fishing (and all WoW professions) is that there was never a hard part that followed the "pointless grind" of skilling-up. So removing the need for skill means that everyone can do it immediately. Consequently, there's nothing exclusive or special for anglers who are prepared to put a lot of work into the profession.
Or is there? Ah, but there is! At least for fishing. Take a step back and look at this forum. Or perhaps earlier in the year, when things were busier: The most popular topics are about catching the Sea Turtle, Pinchy, One that Got Away. Listen to the furvor with which people defend (or are annoyed by) the Salty title. All things that are a serious test of patience, and provide the angler with something to care about, something exclusive that is valued among those they play with.
Now, there are all kind of issues with this form of non-monetary, individualistic consumerism. And I suspect we'll eventually laugh at the paradox of how Blizzard's attempt to counter inequalities that exist outside of the game (by blocking Real Money Trading), has actually created one of the most unequal communities within the game (by trying to prevent the trade of anything perceived to have value). But that's a philosophical discussion for another time. We are where we are. And right now we're in a land where titles, mounts, and other apparently useless things have the greatest sense of value.
Why not go further? No computer-incremented skills whatsoever. Instead (if fishing still is a test of human patience) add far more apparently useless, but rare, things that take patience to acquire. (Rare doesn't imply strictly random - rare but less variable - for example a Sea Turtle might take 4,000-5,000 casts, not 1-~25,000 casts - excessive variability causes frustration as the mind either can't understand the pattern, or feels the pattern is unfair.) Or perhaps associate fishing with something other than patience.
There are lots of possibilities following this line of thought: But perhaps the value of fishing shouldn't be thought of in terms of the ability to catch buff food. Increasingly, the real prestige is a Turtle-mounted Salty with a Crawdad in tow. Or similar.
Durth, October 2009:
Having paid for 2 epic flyers and a mechano hog just by selling food Im not to excited about this. On the other hand though its not like its really that easy to fish for this stuff without being attacked at lower levels. A level 1fishing glacial salmon pools is going to get hit by a bear or the opposing faction at the lumber mill. Lloot crazed divers are at the sculpin lake in Borean Tundra. Nettlefish ahve all sorts of animals runnnig around their pools. Im just not sure how this will all shake out. I dont like professions being easy. Going through the bs to get them leveled was the only thing keeping the market at a certain level. A lot of people just wouldnt bother but now its always getting easier and easier. Plus it makes me feel old and grumpy :p
Durth, October 2009:
Oh I forgot to mention the 5 tab Guild bank and all the gold spent tipping other people for enchants and gemming and such. Some people laugh when you put cooking in trade but I think most os us here know better.
Gned, November 2009:
I'm feeling pretty abused over the new fishing changes. Mostly because my invested time and efforts are at least partially meaningless now.
Leny, November 2009:
I find this to be a horrible idea..... two things that kind of set me out in my guild was my habit for paying huge amounts for non-combat pets and fishing
No love for the fisherman (or fisherworman)
Torgon, February 2008:
So a friend had asked me to start a new character with them, and having nothing better to do, I accepted. After the typical starting quests i found myself at lvl 12 in Ratchet with a fishing pole and some time to burn. I used some bait and quickly hit 75, few to Org and trained, flew back and got 150. Rather pleased with myself (and having a few gold from selling oily blackmouth's in the AH when i was in ORG) I hopped on the boat to Booty bay to grab my copy of "The Bass and you"...and was very sad to learn that apparently I could not read...
Even though I could cook and bandage above 150 (both which require books to learn) and skin/mine/gather herbs above 150 at my level, I could not fish above 150. Anyone know the reasoning behind this?
While i understand the higher the required level to fish, the more dangerous the location, this should be a risk/reward choice I should be able to make on my own.
What's your opinion of being forced to level to increase your fishing level cap, while other "secondary" professions (and several primary ones) do not have this restriction?
el, February 2008:
From memory (and we're going back years here), the level restriction on fishing skill was added to prevent level 1 alts fishing in high level areas like Azshara.
Originally there were no pools of fish, so anyone that could travel to a zone could find a safe place to catch fish from open water. A level 1 character, that had simply spent a day (often semi-AFK) raising their fishing skill, could make the same money from selling high-level fish as the level 45+ characters the zone was designed for. But the level 45+ characters had invested a lot more time levelling.
In contrast, herbs, mining and skinning almost always require a character that is close to the level the zone was designed for: Sure, you might be able to find the odd node or corpse you can reach without aggroing, but a level 1 alt has reduced choice, and so is not as efficient at resource gathering as higher-level characters.
Torgon, February 2008:
Yes, but now that there are pools, I think it would make sense to take the restriction off of the book at least. Just my 2cp.
Hockeyhacker97, January 2009:
Well the level rest on it was only for a short time till they took it back off... If you look at all the professions youll see the following
The 3 gathering skills had no restriction, if you could get to an item to farm you could know it, the reason for this was because if your level 1 you arnt going to be able to get to anything that requires 300+ to do, your not going to be able to solo level 60 mobs to skin, all the herbs and ores are also protected by these same mobs, so unless your raiding with an AoE party to keep you alive you arn't going to be able to farm things higher then normal levels anyways.
All skills that are not the 3 gathering skills (skin/mine/herb) have a required level 5 for 1-75... level 10 for 76-150... and then theres some variation on 151-225, then 35 for 226-300 and some variation on 301-375
Cooking/Fishing/First Aid - no requirement for 151-225 (fishing got changed back to this)
The main reson Fishing temporarily had a level restriction was to try to detour level 19 twinks from farming the fishing hat on Sundays by making it so that they had to use a lure to not miss the fish... they then found out this didn't detour them at all since the lures are only a few silver while they are spending tons of gold on enchants and gear so the silver made no difference.All main proffesions - level 20 for 151-225 (proffesions not gatherings)
226-300- 35 for all main proffesions and 35+quest at 35 for all secondary proffesions
301-375 for all main proffesions level 50, for all secondary level 45.
But as for why it was temporarily different it was just to detour people from farming the fishing hat for a 19 twink, which if they really wanted to do that they should just put a level 20 req on the quests to get the fishing gear.
Fishing skill req for great sea?
matty555, February 2008:
Hi im level 12 and my fishing skill is 112 and im fishing at longshore at the moment next to the great sea and i was wondering at what skill level can i fidh there?
Thanks.
el, February 2008:
The skill required and fish caught from the seas are the same as the zone you are closest to (source). There was a long-standing bug with the ocean west of Silithus. Technically this has no coastal water, so no coastal fish. The ocean there contained freshwater fish.
Oh, and so to answer the question: the area is like Westfall, so should require 75 skill to stop fish getting away.
matty555, February 2008:
Oh so i need 75 skill to fish in the great sea? i now have 126 and i cant.
el, February 2008:
That's interesting. Perhaps your part of the Great Sea is linked to Stranglethorn Vale to the south? Most of that area requires 130 to cast, 225 to stop get-aways. Gain a few points more of skill and let us know!
Zangarmarsh
Fiamma, May 2008:
On the info page for Zangarmarsh, it states that the skill required to cast is 305... I cast there with 300 base fishing skill, with 95 fishing worth of lures (so 395 fishing) but it can't be the lures enabling me as with this same skill I cannot fish in Terokkar Forest (Requires 355 to cast) Is the page incorrect or is there something I am not taking into account?
- Fia
el, May 2008:
Parts of Terokkar Forest require 405 to cast. At a guess, you're trying to fish Silmyr Lake.
Fiamma, May 2008:
Yep, that's right, I'm a nub. Lol, thanks a bunch El, does this mean that with my skill and lures, I can FINALLY cast in Bay of Storms?
new 2.4 change, no level requirement for The Bass And You
Gummo, March 2008:
The latest PTR patch notes have removed the level 20 requirement to read The Bass And You to raise your maximum fishing to 225.
PS: El, I tried to later add the tag "fishing level limits restrictions" to match the tag in an earlier thread about level 20 and The Bass And You, but using the "add tag" field truncated my tag, so it didn't match. I think the field width should be wider, it's about 30 or so right now.
el, March 2008:
Those level 19 twinks-to-be will be saving on lures now...
It is interesting to see how people use tags. As coded, they were designed for words or short phrases, but I'm inclined to agree that 30 characters isn't enough. When I get a chance I'll see if it can be easily increased (without breaking the underlying BBPress code).
Torgon, March 2008:
Hmmmm, makes me think maybe the Dev's are reading the forums here (or maybe it's just a coincidence).
http://www.elsanglin.com/forums/topic/no-love-for-the-fisherman-or-fisherworman
Get Aways
Talathan, March 2009:
I've heard that Blizz will be changing the way fishing works in 3.1. This change is supposedly going to change the calculation used to determine get aways.
Now, I'm aware that currently it's necessary to have a skill that's 95 higher than the minimum skill required to cast in order to assure that there are no get aways.
As I said in a previous post, I spent some time fishing in Grizzly Hills. It has a required skill of 380, and with pole and line I have 473. Granted, it's not the 475 necessary - but awful close. What surprised me was that in about 200 casts I got 18 get aways. That's just under 10%! And I was just 2 skill points away from a guaranteed ZERO.
It's not so much that this bothered me (ok, it does... but...), it made me wonder what the current formula that Blizz uses to figure the odds of losing a fish. Does anyone know?
el, March 2009:
Talathan, March 2009:
Thank you for the info. I haven't had enough coffee yet today to tell whether the catch rate with 473 is going to improve or get worse under the new system.
Fishing in WotLK
nonameform, July 2009:
Looking back at how fishing skill had serious impact on your chance to catch something, I question why Blizzard has included BoP one hour lures that grant you +100 skill (Glow Worm). Sure they might be very useful for leveling your fishing, but when you're at 450 skill you might as well want to vendor them. At least I did so with some of my lures, but then I decided to save them, in case Blizzard makes them normal lures some time in the future and I will be able to sell them at AH/transfer them to my alts.
In vanilla WoW days you had to have maximum fishing skill and had to use best fishing gear and lures available, so you could fish in Bay of Storms for money. In TBC you had to be well geared too to be able to catch fishes in Terokkar's lakes. Now in WotLK you need a maximum skill and a 75 lure to be able to catch all fishes you need for Fish Feast. Zones that require you to have more than 525 skill don't actually provide better fishes. How many of you actually made more than one Gigantic Feast?
I only need to win STV Extravaganza now for my title (got as close as 39 fishes so far) and I'm wondering what I will do after that. Sure it might be fun for some people to win the contest twice for both the trinket and the pole, but I don't feel like doing it twice and making it harder for other people to get the title. Compared to the Undying title I have, Salty requires much more work and patience, as losing the contest several weeks in a row when you thought that you are about to win it, is really sad. Well, at least I can spend the rest of the contest time to fish for money and possible rare catches (got only one High Test Eternium Fishing Line so far, so saving it for an Arcanite Fishing Pole I hope to win someday).
Overall fishing in WotLK seems uninteresting. Yes, I can make money by selling Fish Feast, as I have about 1k+ Northern Spices on my main char, but I want some excitement from the profession. I got all possible achievements, except for the one mentioned above and I want more. Maybe some really hard stuff like catching all those fishes, that got away. That would keep me busy for some time or catching 100k fishes, which isn't hard, but sure takes more time to get, than 1k for the title. I still have to see fishing rings and some of the rarer TBC fishing drops, such as crocs (make it an achievement too, come on), but all in all every time I think about fishing in WotLK, I get excited and then in a second I tell myself "Wait, there is nothing interesting to do actually."
I'm not an angler, just a fisherman, a sissy by someone's standards as I didn't bother to level my fishing skill to maximum until WotLK arrived, but after that it became a way to pass time in game without mindless killing or farming reputation or whatever.
nonameform, August 2009:
I wonder what makes people fish in a school that's already being fished from? In the last few months I've met several people who preferred to fish from "my" school while there were other schools around. While I do understand that sort of behavior during Extravaganza (only before winner is announced), I don't understand what makes people think that it's OK to share a school with someone. If I see someone fishing in a school, I just leave it to them and move to the next one. If there are no schools, I just wait for a new spawn and go to it.
For me fishing from "someone's" school is as disgraceful as collecting herb/ore while someone fights a mob near it. I've even seen people from my own faction doing that sort of things to me, which is a real shame. I think of them as of spoiled kids, who just believe that everything belongs to them and that it's OK to make other people do half of the job for you. I bet they belong to the same group of people who never tips.
Today while farming mats for 60 fish feasts for my guild, I've met three people who just couldn't resist the urge to fish from the same schools as I did, even though there were schools 10-15 yards away from it. With all those new people getting into the fishing, I certainly find it less enjoyable to fish with every passing day. Even though my Badapples list consists mostly of people who ninja loot, play their class poorly or just plain stupid people, it grows longer because I've started adding people who didn't tip or did something disgraceful in my opinion. I just wish Blizzard never bothered to make any changes to fishing at all. Compared to TBC, I see people fishing much more now, which actually makes it less exciting for me. Might as well just go to fish in Azeroth for all the rare fishes, just to be less annoyed of how crowded some pools are.
Hordriss, August 2009:
Sad to say, I agree with the above poster - I'm also pretty much giving up on fishing in Northrend due to the sheer number of 'fishing griefers' (standing/mounting on bobbers, fishing from 'claimed' schools, etc.). I appreciate that Blizz want more people to fish, but for me, they're taken most of the fun out of it. And as for the ever-present gankers and gangs on mammoths at the Extravaganza... that's the only achievement missing from my title but even that isn't enough to motivate me to go back there.
Leveling fishing
caspian, April 2009:
I was talking with my Dad today about leveling his fishing. He was saying he was finally going to do it because he had heard that, with the 3.1 patch, if you fish in areas that are "Fishing Skill Appropriate" you will gain skill points faster.
So while it would be nice for him to level his fishing so I don't have to catch his Dragon Fin for him anymore I don't think what he heard is correct.
I have not been able to find any evidence of this at all. I have been through the patch notes and forums here and on the main WoW boards with nothing close to that being stated.
Has anyone here heard of that or, more importantly seen any evidence of it?
I think it is likely that he is reading this statement from the patch notes and seeing what he wants to see.
Every catch has the potential for fishing skill gains
That in conjunction with the fact that every cast is a catch and the shortened timer is what will speed up leveling fishing but that where you fish has nothing to do with how fast you level.
el, April 2009:
I tested this on the Public Test Realms, by leveling up in a low-skill and high-skill area... and I did not find any difference in the average number of catches required to gain a skill point. It is possible it changed late during testing, but I have no evidence of that.
Keep in mind that skill-ups are somewhat random, so beware of anyone that tells you "in one place it took 3 catches to gain a skill point, and in another place it took 5". That randomness happens everywhere. You need a lot of catches to average the randomness out.
Maximized Fishing Skill
Noodleguitar, December 2008:
I just got my Eternium Line the last Extravaganza, which was the last thing I needed to max out my fishing skill :D. It's now, with only gear and base skill, 502. I think this is the max that can be achieved with current available gear.
To get it I have equipped:
- Arcanite Fishing Pole (+35)
|
----> Eternium Line (+5)
- Lucky Fishing Hat (+5)
- Nat Pagle's Extreme Anglin' Boots (+5)
- Gloves Enchanted (+2)+ 450 Base Skill.
If you count in buffs, you can get to a max of 662:
- Underbelly Elixer -> Tuskarr (+50)
- Captain Rumsey's Lager (+10)
- One of the best lures (+100)
Barrens Fishing Skill
el, August 2009:
I noticed that between skill 75 and 100 I was still catching some junk in the Lushwater Oasis, in The Barrens. The last junk catch was at skill 94. I think the skill required to fish without junk is 100.
It was always hard to confirm these low-level skill requirements, and it's been harder since patch 3.1. I wonder if this was always different, or a recent change? And whether some of the other similar zones (currently listed at 75 skill) are slightly higher?
