I have a few answers to several questions on these forums and wished I saw some of the replies here a few days ago.
I started fishing for old craft after doing the 'veteran of the wraithgate' quest but before I finished the chain so I could fish phased and not deal with the horde players / guards. Anyhow I also saw the bug with the croc in the city and tried that.
The result. 50 crocs and no crafty of which after a while I stopped tossing the croc. After 900 fish still no crafty. I became concerned even though I have heard the average is about 1500 fish not using the previous croc bug that blizzard might have made it impossible to catch crafty while phased. There were actually two of us fishing so the total fish count was near 2K with no reward. We both opened tickets to a GM to avoid 2 weeks of fishing for no reason. Anyhow the GM response is that the phased event will have no effect on the ability to fish or catch special fish.
Conclusion. The croc quest bug is fixed but alliance or horde for that matter can fish in phase for as long as they want and in theory should catch it at some point. I'll update this forum if I am successful in that endevor before I have to bail and complete the chain quest to finish the elder achievement.