El's Extreme Anglin' - World of Warcraft Fishing Guide // Training // Fishing and Cooking 300-525 from Pools

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  This page continues the guide to leveling fishing and cooking skills together, by catching fish from pools. This guide starts at 300 cooking skill. New cooks should first read either the Alliance or Horde starting guides. Anglers who wish to continue fishing from open water should read Fishing and Cooking 1-525 Part 2. On this page:

  • Introduction
  • Outland
  • Northrend
  • Cataclysm
  • Reference: Recipes
  • Learn More

Introduction

This page continues the separate Alliance and Horde Fishing and Cooking 1-525 guides. It assumes you have reached cooking skill 300. Since junk is never caught from pools, it does not matter what your fishing skill is at the start. It is not possible to level cooking from 1-300 catching only fish from pools (the only easily available recipes are Smoked Sagefish and Sagefish Delight, which do not cover the full range of cooking skill). Pool anglers/cooks must initially follow the first part of the guide, and fish in open water.

Above cooking skill 300 it is easy to level cooking by catching fish from pools. This method will level cooking to 525 much faster than fishing, which may be useful if you plan to fish more after leveling cooking. Pool catches will also contribute to the guild achievement, That's A Lot of Bait. There's a small chance of catching a Sea Turtle from Northrend and Cataclysm-level pools.

This method is only appropriate for higher-level anglers who have fast mounts (preferably flying mounts). Pool fishing requires a lot of travel and sometimes hostile creatures have to be killed before pools can be fished.

Pools are much easier to spot once you can track them on the map. I recommend gaining a Weather-Beaten Journal before starting to fish pools for cooking. The Journal is primarily found by fishing wreckage pools, that are not required to level cooking.

Outland

Recipes are bought - either by visiting the vendor in Outland, or via the auction house:

• Alliance:
  • Recipe: Blackened Sporefish - sold by Juno Dufrain in Cenarion Refuge, Zangarmarsh.
  • Recipe: Feltail Delight - sold by Doba (Cooking Supplies) in Orebor Harborage, Zangarmarsh. Requires neutral reputation with Kurenai.
  • Recipe: Golden Fish Sticks - sold by Innkeeper Biribi in Allerian Stronghold, Terokkar Forest.
  • Recipe: Grilled Mudfish and Recipe: Poached Bluefish - sold by Uriku in Telaar, Nagrand. Requires neutral reputation with Kurenai.
• Horde:
  • Recipe: Blackened Sporefish - sold by Juno Dufrain in Cenarion Refuge, Zangarmarsh.
  • Recipe: Feltail Delight - sold by Zurai in Swamprat Post, Zangarmarsh.
  • Recipe: Golden Fish Sticks - sold by Rungor (Trade Goods) in Stonebreaker Hold, Terokkar Forest.
  • Recipe: Grilled Mudfish and Recipe: Poached Bluefish - sold by Nula the Butcher in Garadar, Nagrand. Requires neutral reputation with The Mag'har.

Anglers without Kurenai/Mag'har reputation can ask someone else to buy the recipes, or complete the early quests for these factions to gain neutral standing. If the recipes cannot be gained, the open water method should be used to level through Outland.

Start by fishing pools in Zangarmarsh - a mixture of Brackish Mixed School and Sporefish School. You need enough Spotted Feltail to reach at least skill 310 by cooking Feltail Delight, and enough Zangarian Sporefish to reach skill 320 by cooking Blackened Sporefish. Both recipes remain orange until 320 cooking skill, so ideally you only need 10 of each fish. If you have any Baked Salmon to cook first (from the Blasted Lands stage), even fewer Spotted Feltail will be required. Keep the Golden Darter you catch. These will be cooked at the end of the Outland stage.

At 320 cooking skill, move to Nagrand and fish a mixture of Bluefish School and Mudfish School. You need enough Figluster's Mudfish and Icefin Bluefish combined to reach about 345 skill, by cooking a mix of Grilled Mudfish and Poached Bluefish. Both recipes remain orange until 340 cooking skill, so only about 30 fish will be required in total.

Finally cook the Golden Darter (caught earlier) into Golden Fish Sticks. You must reach cooking skill 375. If not, extra Golden Darter can be caught from School of Darter in Terokkar Forest.

Northrend

To reach 450 cooking you should gain some Epicurean's Awards and Northern Spices:

1. 3 Epicurean's Awards cooking awards, to buy Recipe: Imperial Manta Steak. Epicurean's Awards are gained from completing Old Azeroth and Dalaran Cooking Quests, or by turning in a Waterlogged Recipe. Waterlogged Recipes are sometimes gained via the Northrend Daily Fishing Quests.
2. About 50 Northern Spices, to cook Imperial Manta Steak. The easiest source is the auction house. They can also be found in the reward from Dalaran Cooking Quests (Small Spice Bag) or purchased with Epicurean's Awards (10 spice per award).

In Northrend, almost every pool (except Deep Sea Monsterbelly School, Glassfin Minnow School and Moonglow Cuttlefish School) contains a fish that can be cooked with 2 different recipes:

• Basic recipe: Taught by trainers at cooking skill 350. The recipe "goes green" at 382, and grey at 415. Each dish requires only one pool-caught fish. For example, Pickled Fangtooth.
• Advanced recipe: Purchased with 3 Epicurean's Awards, learned after cooking skill 400. Advanced recipes are sold in your faction's Dalaran inn - from Derek Odds (Alliance) or Misensi (Horde). The recipe remains "orange" until cooking skill 425, and yellow until 450. Each dish requires both one pool-caught fish and one Northern Spices. For example, Spicy Fried Herring.

This pattern creates a lot of options, almost all equally good.

First catch fish from pools that can be cooked into basic recipes. A range of different fish can be caught, because there is no (Epicurean's Award) limit on the number of recipes that may be learned. Suitable pools can be found in Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, Grizzly Hills, Howling Fjord, and Sholazar Basin. Cook these fish from 350 cooking skill until about 410. If Northern Spices are plentiful, cooking can stop at 400 skill. You will need to catch and cook about 100 fish in total.

Then select one advanced recipe (unless you have plenty of Epicurean's Awards), and fish only pools containing the fish required to cook that dish. Cook the advanced recipe until 450 cooking skill. For example, you might buy Recipe: Imperial Manta Steak, and then fish Imperial Manta Ray School from around the coast of Northrend. Note that Snapper Extreme cannot be pool-fished (there are no Bonescale Snapper pools). Avoid Cuttlesteak, because it will be hard to continually pool-fish (without also fishing Moonglow Cuttlefish School). Any other advanced recipe is suitable. Approximately 50 fish will be required.

Cataclysm

All fish-based Cataclysm dishes are cooked with recipes that are purchased with Epicurean's Awards. Epicurean's Awards are gained by completing Old Azeroth and Dalaran daily cooking quests. Without Awards you will be able to catch fish, but not cook them. This part of the guide assumes 3 recipes are purchased. These are purchased from Bario Matalli (in Stormwind City) for Alliance, Shazdar (in Orgrimmar) for Horde:

• Recipe: Broiled Mountain Trout
• Recipe: Pickled Guppy
• Recipe: Blackbelly Sushi, Recipe: Delicious Sagefish Tail, Recipe: Mushroom Sauce Mudfish, Recipe: Severed Sagefish Head, or Recipe: Skewered Eel (choice of one will determine location, described below)

Fish are then caught and cooked from 3 different Cataclysm zones, in order:

1. Mountain Trout School, Mount Hyjal. Cook Broiled Mountain Trout from cooking skill 450 to 475. About 35 fish will be required.
2. Highland Guppy School, inland Twilight Highlands. Cook Pickled Guppy from cooking skill 475 to 500. About 45 fish will be required. These pools may be hard to find (due to over-fishing and cherry picking), but there is no other pool-based option to reach cooking skill 500.
3. Choice of Deepsea Sagefish School (coastal Twilight Highlands), Blackbelly Mudfish School (inland Uldum), or Fathom Eel Swarm (coastal Uldum recommended). Cook Blackbelly Sushi, Delicious Sagefish Tail, Mushroom Sauce Mudfish, Severed Sagefish Head or Skewered Eel from cooking skill 500 to 525. These recipes turn grey at 525, so the final few cooking skill-ups may require a lot of fish - expect to catch at least 50.

300-525 cooking via pools requires about 400 fish catches. If you have followed the guide since Part 1, your fishing skill will now be just below 450. Developing Your Fishing Skill contains suggestions for increasing your fishing skill to 525.

Reference: Recipes

The cooking recipes used are listed below for quick reference. Only one set of Northrend recipes is shown, as an example. Almost every Northrend recipe may be used, as described above.

The cooking skill each recipe "changes color" is shown. Recipes are normally orange when learned. Orange recipes will always grant a skill point when you cook the dish. Yellow recipes have a high chance of a skill-up, green a low chance. Once the recipe has "turned grey", there is no chance of gaining skill from cooking it.

Note: [Example] - Many suitable recipes are available for Northrend cooking, with the same skill-up profile.

Learn More

• Pools and Schools - Describes how to fish pools such as schools or floating debris, where to find pools, and how to efficiently fish them.
• The Burning Crusade - Fishing changes in the first expansion.
• Wrath of the Lich King - Fishing changes in Wrath of the Lich King, the second expansion to World of Warcraft.
• Cataclysm - Preview of fishing changes in Cataclysm.
• Dalaran Cooking Quests - How to complete the Dalaran daily cooking quests.
• Cooking Skill - List of cooked fish foods by cooking skill.
• Cooking Trainers - Full list on the official site.
• Fishing Trainers - Full list on the official site.