This poll is now closed, but please continue discussion.
View final results: Only 9% of El's readers have won the contest. There can only be one winner of the contest each week, so it isn't surprising that relatively few have won. Still, it shows just what a small proportion of anglers will have access to the best fishing pole.
Yes, twice on two characters. (Four times total!)
Looking at the results the pole got me to thinking that it might be useful were I to write up a bit on where some rather nice fishing areas are, and other tactics. (Yes, I've seen the comments on the Extravaganza page.)
Worth noting: When I voted from the link available in the forums, I was re-directed to the pools area elsewhere on the site. I don't know if this is intentional, but will be disconcerting for answering polls and then trying to reply to comments.
There also seems to be no limit to the number of times I can vote.
The polling system pre-dates the forum, so the two don't integrate very well. I removed the voting form from this post, and replaced it with a link. I hope that is less confusing.
The poll does two checks before it counts a vote:
Plus votes are logged, so abuse can be deleted from the results quite effectively.
So there should be some mechanisms in place to stop abuse. Ultimately the best defense is lots of people voting. The results to most of these polls become fairly clear within a hundred votes, and after a thousand the results rarely changed - textbook statistics...
The only slight skews occur when a large number of a certain type of player are drawn here. For example, readers of World of Raids/MMO Champion - essentially the "hardcore raiders" - seemed to be more likely to have caught Mr. Pinchy, causing a slight skew in that poll when those two sites linked here.
Added: Write-ups are most welcome!
I've never even participated. The event usually happens while I'm at church. :(
I'm concentrating on getting my third Mr. Pinchy (still haven't got the pet), so I don't do the event all that often. Still, the times I've tried, it seems like I don't come that close.
Well, got motivated to try again. Got to 33/40 when the winner was announced… better than some previous runs, anyway.
Has anyone won this 'non-mounted'? It seems like that is a HUGE advantage.
I tried it at lvl 30 (Hunter), and got only 24. But I was killed by Mobs twice and chased away probably 4-5 times. I would think that a lvl 30 have little (or no) chance at all.
Unless I were the only one in the contest. :)
I've only tried it mounted.
Come to think of it, last weekend, folks were complaining about having their pools ninja'd. Aside from the ridiculousness of this (in my view, at least) in a competition, anyone have thoughts on if you are better off moving on to a pool with no competition, vs. casting into a pool with another fisherman (or two, or three)?
As a general rule, I will stop if there's only one person there, but won't if there's more. I'm sure the density of competitors influences this - if there's a lot, you may not find a free pool.
However, last weekend it certainly was possible to do so. It always seems like there's such a rush, but when I think about the amount of time it takes to cast (often several times), and then wait for the bobber, I might be better off moving on - assuming the next pool is both not too far away and free.
Obviously the best bet is fishing where others aren't, but that seems unlikely, at least on servers where enough folks show for the contest.
Don't even bother trying without a mount, unless you're on a pvp server and are willing to throw lots of money at the problem.
Here's a brief and unformatted rundown of how to win:
Preparation:
If you're a shaman, buy a buttload of fish oil.
If you can twobox a shaman, buy twice as much.
Bind yourself at the Bootybay inn, near the door as you can manage. Before the contest starts. Be sure your hearth cooldown will be available 15 minutes after the contest begins.
Proceed to typically desolate areas during the fishing contest. My favorite place is the troll island to the northwest, Yojimba.
Equip your riding crop or equivalent. If you lack waterwalking superiority, equip master angler's hook or swiming belt. And your fishing pole, with lures handy.
Mount up. On your fast mount. Be on the lookout for other competitors while you wait for the contest to begin.
Fishing:
Race around the island and empty those fishing holes. Speed is of the essence, you want to catch at least one fish every 30 seconds on average. Yes, expect the contest to be over within 20 minutes. Find your hole, empty your hole, mount up immediately and move on to the next one. The only reason to not mount up is if you have an instant travel form and th next hole is less than 4 seconds away in that travel form. If you come across someone at a fishing hole, keep moving. Unless you can kill them.
If you're operating out of Yojimba, you will circle the island. There will come a time when there are no fishing holes there, head north and follow that stretch of shore looking for more holes. There are about three possibles there. Now, if there are still none there you can head east. I don't do this unless I only need about three more to win, and there are no fishing holes in sight. If you have waterwalking, put it to use.
Do not waste time on holes you cannot reliably hit with your hook.
I keep two empty slots in my main pack, and have a tasty fish in each, so I can tell at a glance how many more fish I need.
Count the fish you pull out of each hole. There can be, I believe, between 3 and 5 successful catches. (Correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a while.) If you've only cast a line once when some bugger slides up to use that hole, mount up and move on. After killing him. If you've caught four fish from that hole and have cast your 5th line before he cast, stay there and finish it. Chances are you'll get that last fish.
Ideally, you want to stand where you can promptly mount after emptying the hole.
As soon as you have your 40th fish, you gate back to BB and turn them in to the goblin. Know what you want ahead of time, you don't know if some bugger is right on your heels with his 40. If you dither, he may win.
PVP:
Bring friends. A couple friends can protect you, your other friends can patrol the rest of the shore harassing other anglers. I did say lots of friends, right? Pay them if you need more friends. They don't have to kill other anglers, just slow them down. When I would run this duty on my shaman, I'd drop a searing totem and keep moving. Pet classes can sick their pets and keep moving, toss dots, etcetera. The goal is to stop the other anglers from getting 1 fish every 30 seconds.
Cross faction PVP:
Money buys friends. Hire people of the other faction to harass everybody but you and your escort. You'll need to provide names, of course.
Dealing with friends who are competing:
Set up your own fishing cabal. You gather people who are interested in winning, you form a group. Draw lots for the order of "winning." The goal of the non-winners in any given week is to slow down other anglers by fishing out of their holes or killing them, or providing protection to the winner. This requires trust, non-winners may be inclined to free-load when they're not actually up to win. In this case, kill them.
You realize, of course, this is like throwing down a gauntlet in front of my lvl 30 Huntress. :)
Nothing like a challenge to get me fired up on a project. I can be a stubborn sob sometimes; perhaps its a 'good' thing the contest only happens once a week.
Well, you might be able to pull it off pending competition. They key is to minimize time between catching tasty fish, as that's one of the few significant variables in your control. (Opposed to duration of a cast, how many catches in a pool, and Speckled Tastyfish versus that other crap you can pull out of said holes.
I have won the contest exactly 17 times, both pre-BC and post-BC, but this last week-end, I failed.
In fact, I caught and instantly recast my line on so many rare fish I couldn't even get enough Tastyfish. Honestly, I got about 15 Rare fish during that tournament, which NONE I have been able to loot.
I have no clue why the heck this happened, but it still did. Once the contest was over, I tried fishing for rares and I didn't get a single one in 100 minutes.
So yeah, no trinket for me. Fishing pole, yes, but no trinket.
I am seriously mad.
AND ANGRY
AND RAWR.
Yes, I've won twice each on two characters.
Kahless on Draenor is a long time fisherman, won both times long ago pre BC.
My new junior horde side fisherman Kirok just started competing recently and won twice in the past month.
Used the same strategy and pattern I used long ago. It all came back to me like instinct.
I'm just trying to get the Lucky Fishing hat now. Last two times I caught zero rare fish.
Haven't won yet. I started trying when I was 47, and currently I'm 62. PVP is horrendous and usually doesn't stop until after a winner is annouced. Which is good in that the last 1.5 hour of fishing for rares is pretty quiet.
Couple things I've noticed on a PvP server. If you are lower then 60, everybody kills you. When you are 60, none of the 70's touch you. I think it is a rare level where you don't earn them honor, and they won't waste their fishing time killing you.
Once hitting 62, and able to gain 70 some honor points, I started getting killed again.
My advice on PvP, level to 70, or stop at 60-61 for a few tournaments. My best overall was a 34/40 when the winner was annouced at 60.
Cheers,
Leibolmai
I have won the fishing contest once.
It was a rainy day in STV. I chose the pole. I started just south of the Horde town (I am Alliance). I'd like to win it again sometime soon just to get the trinket. I'm on the Lightninghoof server.
If I manage to win it, I think I'd go for the trinket first.
Won it this Sunday ^^
Was rather easy even with a bad start (2 pools and only 2 Tastyfishes =/). Finished in 22 minutes.
Got the Fishing Pole, will go for the trinket next week.
I won the tournament this week.
i've been fishing for under 3weeks and have been 375 for almost 2 weeks. i've been lucky i got a mr pinchy the day i hit 375 and another the following day but unlucky because i didnt get the pet.
my first week i had 37 fish when the tournament was won. the second week i won the tourney in 23 minutes.
i'll post more info on how i won the tourney in a couple weeks. first i need to help a friend get his pole and get my trinket.
id like to thank this website for my success as it has been very helpful to me.
take care,
extas
cho'gall US PVP
I havent won this contest , now after more than 5 tries I have given up my attempts.
4 of my tries I have ended up within 10 seconds of the winner , now I cant be arsed to do this chance encounter any more.
Sure , you can shave seconds off by using all the great hints here but in the end only 1 can win each week and since the pools respawn in a semi random pattern + amount of competition dictates who wins.
I'd rather like to see more grinding type of fishing for the best fishing gear , challenges like Mr Pinchy , Old Ironjaw , Old crafty , daily fishing quests are WAAAY more rewarding.
I'm glad Hat , shoes and eternium line is a non timed event to go for. (only missing shoes so far)
I won once in 2005 on a now deleted character from Darkspear (Alliance PvP).
I've also won once on Trinda on Thorium Brotherhood (Horde Normal-RP), back in 2006.
As I am totally into novelty items, I decided to opt for the Hook rather than the rod (both times). Some might say it was foolhardy, but it was definitely worth it. To this day I use it regularly and it is wicked.
I have gone the way of the Bloodsail, so it is doubtful that I will ever win again due to Bruiser interference. However, the rare extravaganza fish are still on my radar (2 and a half years and STILL no rare fish).
It IS 'possible' to win still, just unlikely.
The NPC's for the fishing tourney (as well as Landro Longshot) are all still quite friendly to Bloodsails.
Edit to add: I still make a fair bit of money from the tastyfish turnins as a Bloodsail.
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