The bad omen from my first cast came back to haunt me -- I had shuffled my Fishing hotbar around, so I had my Goblin's Rocket Jump too close to my Fishing button. On my first cast, I landed in the ocean, and spent 10-15 seconds swimming back. I thought to myself, "I should probably change that."
At that point, having botched my first cast, I gave up on winning. Fish on, though, right? I still don't have the hat, boots, or line on that character.
And yet, 13 minutes in, there I was on my way to my 5th STV Fishing Derby win. The fish were biting like mad, and there wasn't another soul around as far as the eye could see. I still had my doubts on winning. though -- I was already at 35 Tastyfish, but I also had 15 trash fish -- Blackmouths, Snappers, and even a handful of Eels. I had even started constructing a nice centerpiece for my dining room table from all the Stranglekelp in my bag.
While the fish were biting, I was also pulling up anything and everything else.
Somehow...40. Nobody's been crowned yet? What what? Hearth!
As soon as I popped, I saw a Worgen Druid about 3 feet ahead of me, running like crazy. I took off, and scrambled to hit my Swiftness Potion, so I could zoom past him.
And that's when I realized I was flying, zooming past not just Mr. Druid, but also right past Riggle Bassbait, and...right past the rest of the platform we were all on. I had only been in the water for about a second before the Druid won.
My tip to you -- after you've got your hotbar set up, try to fat-finger the keys a bit, and see if anything's amiss. And if you do find something off, change it right away, instead of thinking "I should probably change that." Yeah, the tip is standard for raiding hotbar setups, but I had never once pondered it for fishing.
I guess the silver lining in all of this is that after looking at the Druid's profile, it had been 14 months since his last Salty achievement, and the contest was the last one he needed. That's probably a little more important than just some fool who wants his 5th Arcanite Pole.
