• Catch Tiny Carp minipets. Very rarely.
• Fish of the Day pool migrations in Pandaria.
• Pagle fish are at least twice as common.
• Excess Golden Carp replace junk in Pandaria.

For a description of all changes and additions, read Patch 5.2.

Context: An Explanation of Catch Tiers

Old Azeroth's open water catches are grouped into tiers. The Gazetteer identifies 6 specific Zone Groups - sets of zones with the same set of catches. Each Zone Group has separate coastal and inland catches. Two of those groups define their catch further, into four 6-hour time segments. Many named fish appear in more than one zone group, typically with different catch rates in each group. Each Zone Group has the same Zone Base Fishing Skill. There are a few exceptions to this pattern, like Northern Barrens' Deviate Fish, but generally Old Azeroth's open water catch adheres to these 6 tiered Zone Groups.

The new lands found in The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria are organised slightly differently: Each expansion has one or two common trash fish, such as Golden Carp, which can typically be caught in every zone in their respective expansion's waters. In addition to the common fish, individual zones, or sets of zones, have different more valuable fish in their open water. There is a strong correlation between these groups of catches and base fishing skill of their waters, as in Old Azeroth. There are exceptions, and a few quirks, such as Northrend's coastal fish only appearing in coastal waters named something other than the zone name. But generally expansion waters adhere to this principle.

Now, it happens that (almost) all coastal waters in each expansion contain precisely the same fish. So for coastal waters we can construct a simple 10-tier structure of catches, where the first 6 tiers are Old Azerothian Zone Groups, followed by a tier for each expansion. Only the most common catches are listed below:

1. Zone Group 1: Raw Slitherskin Mackerel
2. Zone Group 2: Raw Rainbow Fin Albacore and Raw Slitherskin Mackerel
3. Zone Group 3: Oily Blackmouth and Raw Rainbow Fin Albacore
4. Zone Group 4: Raw Rockscale Cod and Raw Spotted Yellowtail
5. Zone Group 5: Raw Glossy Mightfish and Raw Spotted Yellowtail
6. Zone Group 6: Darkclaw Lobster, and Raw Summer Bass or Winter Squid
7. The Burning Crusade: Giant Sunfish
8. Wrath of the Lich King: Imperial Manta Ray, Moonglow Cuttlefish and Rockfin Grouper
9. Cataclysm: Deepsea Sagefish and Murglesnout
10. Mists of Pandaria: Giant Mantis Shrimp, Golden Carp and Reef Octopus

Outland has no coastal water, but Isle of Quel'Danas (added in the final patch of The Burning Crusade) does have coastal waters and fish.

Application: What's Happening on Darkmoon Island

When fishing open coastal water around Darkmoon Island, your personal fishing skill determines which tier of fish catches the water contains. The first 6 "Old Azeroth" tiers increment every 50 skill points (until 300), with each of the final 4 "expansion" tiers covering 75 skill points. All the coastal fish contained within the groups outlined above are possible to catch at their respective tiers, but only the most common catches are listed in the table below.

Further notes and observations:

• Only your personal fishing skill is relevant. As far as can be tested, Poles, Gear and Lures cannot be used to alter the catch tier. Trained rank is not relevant, only skill. For example, if your skill is 300, but you have not yet learned Master rank, you will still catch fish from the (300-375) Burning Crusade tier. However, the maximum possible tier does appear to be capped by your account's expansion: For example, a Cataclysm account cannot exceed the 450-525 tier, even at 525 skill (thanks techempage).
• Between skill 1 and 25 there is a chance of catching junk. The chance of catching junk decreases as your skill rises up to 25, suggesting that the water is set with a base skill of 25 - in spite of all the other changes which alter the role of skill.
• There is no overlap or gradual transition between tiers. The catch is strictly determined by the skill/tier combinations listed above. Fishing at the maximum skill in a tier will give the next tier's fish, except when fishing at 600 skill (since there is no tier after Mists of Pandaria - yet). The fish caught that takes you from one tier to the next (such as from 299 to 300 skill) cannot be looted: A catch from the lower tier will appear in the loot window, but attempting to retrieve the fish gives the error, "You can't loot that item now." The catch (loot) table has presumably changed from the point in time at which the catch was generated, to the point in time that catch should be possible to loot, exposing a logic flaw in the loot process.
• The Sea Pony may still be caught. I caught a Sea Pony from the Zone Group 6 tier, and caught it alongside another common fish catch. This suggests that the Sea Pony is not part of the core catch (loot) table for the tier, but is part of a secondary bonus (low chance or perhaps conditional) catch table set only for Darkmoon Island. Similarly, no Mimic Octopus were caught during 400 catches into Mists of Pandaria-tier waters at 600 skill. That implies Pagle fish are only part of a secondary catch table belonging to Pandaria, and not part of the base tier 10 catch table.

Implication: Another Change to the Role of Skill?

Some aspects of this new Darkmoon approach to the role of skill are incomplete or buggy. The change only appears to apply to Darkmoon Island, a rather private location for most of each month. All that suggests the programming and design is still evolving, and/or that we might never see this change on live realms.

If applied universally, the approach is flawed: There is no way to reduce an angler's personal fishing skill, but highly skilled anglers might sometimes want to catch lower-tier fish. One possibility is that the system will only apply up to a zone's native tier. For example, Outland waters would never yield anything higher than the Outland tier, so anglers could always return to Outland if they needed to catch Outland fish.

The main advantage of the change would be that new anglers could catch a wide variety of fish as they improved their fishing skill, without moving between different zones. Catching 1,500+ Golden Carp by developing skill in Pandaria is ruthlessly efficient, but exceptionally boring! Unfortunately while the Darkmoon system makes that training process more interesting, it doesn't fit with MoP's changes to Cooking, which allow new (high level) cooks to train their Cooking skill from 1 to 600 without using ingredients from previous expansions.

So perhaps any major re-working of pre-MoP fish catches also requires an overhaul of pre-MoP Cooking? There are no tangible changes to Cooking on test realms yet, but there are some oddities emerging: For example, over the last week characters' Cooking skill has been reset to 1. That could be an innocent bug, or it could point to something else being tested in private. Crafty, isn't it?

Update: When asked what the odds of a "revamp for fishing" were, designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street replied, "Odds are high, but not for 5.2." However, major changes to fishing were first discussed almost 5 years ago, so it may still be too early to gamble on something big in patch 5.3.

"Rare [Pagle] fish catches are essentially twice as good."

Update: On average, 4.4% of catches from both open water and pools in Pandaria will have a Pagle fish attached. Slightly better than twice, especially as this feels much less variable than the 1 or 2% in patch 5.1. Detailed catch analysis below:

There are 6 different groups of waters Pagle fish may be caught from: Each of the 3 fish may be caught from pools or open water. One specific type of water was tested to represent each of these 6 different groups. At least a thousand regular (non-Pagle) fish were caught during each test. The results are shown in the table below.

Note that Pagle fish are now caught alongside a regular catch. So in the first case, 1,018 regular fish were caught from Swarm of Panicked Paddlefish, and 45 of those were caught with a bonus Flying Tiger Gourami. Some Pool migartion pools were tested, but other observations suggest their contents are precisely the same as normal pool types, such as Krasarang Paddlefish School. Since Pagle fish are unique, every Pagle fish caught was immediately thrown back in, allowing further Pagle fish to appear. Unique fish would not appear if the same named fish was already in one's inventory. All open water testing was done with sufficient skill to avoid catching extra Carp (formerly junk).

Proportion of "Pagle Fish" by Water

Pagle Fish		Sample Water	Pagle Fish Catch	Total Regular Catch	Percentage of Regular Catch with Pagle Fish
Total/Average			275	6235	4.4%
	Flying Tiger Gourami	Pool (Swarm of Panicked Paddlefish)	45	1018	4.4%
		Open Inland Water (Townlong Steppes)	46	1017	4.5%
	Mimic Octopus	Pool (Reef Octopus Swarm)	43	1035	4.2%
		Open Coastal Water (Krasarang Wilds)	53	1103	4.8%
	Spinefish Alpha	Pool (Sha-Touched Spinefish)	45	1050	4.3%
		Open Sha-Touched Water (Kun-Lai Summit)	43	1012	4.2%

All the catch percentages shown above are between 4 and 5%. There is no evidence that any one Pagle fish is more common than any other.

There is a very slight bias towards open water catches: 4.5% average from all open water, vs 4.3% from all pools. This could be a statistical glitch. However, the pool data was gathered with an Ancient Pandaren Fishing Charm active, and it is possible that the Charm only affects the regular catch.

For example, with the Charm active, 20% of the regular catch will be 2 fish, rather than one. So when fishing pools, our Charmed loot window will have opened about 170 (a sixth) fewer times during each test than when fishing open water: 170 of those pool lootings contained two catches, rather than one, so we reach our thousand target with fewer loot windows.

• If the Charm also added 20% to the chance of catching a Pagle fish, this would make almost no difference to the proprtion of Pagle fish caught. Almost, because there would theoretically be a tiny chance of 2 Pagle fish appearing at the same time, which can't happen because they are unique.
• If the Charm only adds 20% to the regular catch, overall our pool sample would be 133 Pagle fish against about 2,585 possible lootings: 5.1%, which is considerably higher than the 4.5% open water figure we are trying to match.

So the Ancient Pandaren Fishing Charm probably does not explain the small difference in catch rates between open water and pools. And the Charm may indeed increase the chance of catching a Pagle fish from any one successful cast, although perhaps not by enough to offset the extra time spent moving and casting into pools. Probably and maybe because the sample sizes are too small to be sure. The theory that the Ancient Pandaren Fishing Charm adds to the chance of catching a Pagle fish is important, because it suggests that even rarer catches are influenced by the Charm. A 20% bonus when trying to catch a Tiny Red Carp or Sea Turtle could save a lot of time!

In practical terms, all this suggests that all sources of Pagle fish have identical catch rates. Charmed fishing of densely packed pools (such as those found during pool migrations) will be comparable to fishing open water with sufficient skill. The choice is yours.

Below is a detailed description of these migrations. For the latest information, including Ben's stories, see Fish of the Day.

"'Tis strange how I don't know where I already am. But not half as confusing as when I find myself." - El, on first discovering Salty El at Shado-Pan Monastery.

Introduction

Fish of the Day are clusters of pools around one specific location in Pandaria. As the name suggests, one active Fish of the Day migration may be found somewhere in Pandaria each day. Days start and end at 03:00 (PST for US realms, CET for EU realms, and Australian EST for Oceanic realms). The location of each day's active migration will vary between realms, seemingly at random.

Ben of the Booming Voice (illustrated, who is fishing just east of Halfhill in Valley of the Four Winds) will tell you what and where today's Fish of the Day is. If you ask Ben, he will also mark the current Fish of the Day migration on your map with a red cross.

There are 9 possible Fish of the Day locations, listed and mapped below. Each location has unique pool types, but there are some features common to all migrations:

• Many rapidly re-spawning normal-sized pools, containing the same fish as one of the existing Pandarian pools.
• A single "large"-named pool with a wider diameter, fished to summon a hostile elite Krakkanon.
• A set of travelling Anglers including myself, and sometimes other people who "interact" with the pools.

Pools elsewhere in a zone with a Fish of the Day migration appear to continue to spawn as normal - except the zone's regular pools will not spawn at the location of the migration.

Main "Rapid Respawn" Pools

Each Fish of the Day migration features vast numbers of pools with the same name and contents. The contents (catch type and volume) of these pools are the same as existing Pandarian pools, even where their name is different. For example, Sha-Touched Spinefish are identical to Spinefish School. The benefit of fishing Fish of the Day pools is their proximity to one-another and their respawn rate: Fish of the Day pools can be fished continually, without much movement between pool spawning locations.

The Ancient Pandaren Fishing Charm bonus still applies to Fish of the Day pools. The vast number of pools in a migration means that not all pools can be fished by standing on the land. Water walking (or a raft) is an advantage at most locations, but likely only needed to sustain fishing Swarm of Panicked Paddlefish at Krasari Falls, where the majority of pools are away from the shore.

Large "Krakkanon" Pools

Single active "Large" Krakkanon pool may be found at each active Fish of the Day location. Large pools take up to 45 minutes to spawn after the start of a new Fish of the Day. Once a Krakkanon has been summoned a second large pool may appear nearby, allowing further Krakkanon to be summoned. The respawn rate of Large pools is much slower than the main pool type.

Large pools contain far more catches than main rapidly respawning pools: Typically almost a hundred fish! Once the pool is emptied a Krakkanon (formerly called an Engorged Sea Monster) appears.

The Krakkanon (illustrated) is a level 90 elite with 20 million health. The Krakkanon will not aggro until attacked. It is not automatically "tapped" by the angler that summons it. The Krakkanon must be fought in the water where it spawns, although ranged attackers can safely engage the creature from the shore. Its main attack is Gurrggggle, which fires a water jet. The Krakkanon should be possible for most classes to solo: The Krakkanon's attack is quite weak (apparently never more than 30K damage at once), but you will probably need to be able to heal yourself during the fight, since the Krakkanon's health is so high the fight will last about 10 minutes.

Dead Krakkanon always drop 20 of the regular fish found in the pool the creature was summoned from. In addition, they may yield:

• A rare fish that grants Nat Pagle's Friendship, for example Flying Tiger Gourami. The fish type found is that which may also be caught by fishing the pool.
• Nat's Fishing Journal, which trains 50 fishing skill, bound to account. Nat's Fishing Journal will drop for anglers who do not have the reputation to buy the journal from Nat.

The chance of gaining Nat's Fishing Journal is reasonably high - probably 25-50%. The Journal can be used by either the angler or any of their employees ("alts" on the same account). The only other source for Nat's Journal is Nat himself - and you'll need to be at least half-way towards Best Friends with him to buy it at a cost of almost 1,000g. For entirely new anglers, fishing these Large Krakkanon pools could be a viable way to raise your fishing skill.

Migration Visitors

Fish of the Day migrations attract different people: All migrations attract a set of Anglers, including: Salty El (illustrated, alongside, er, me); Anglers Dry, In Bo Den, Johnny Rotten, Lin Snowclaw (with pet Lulu) and Scottie; Fisherman Crow, and Old Salty Sullivan (with pet Shelby). These Anglers simply fish, and cannot be attacked or talked to. Perhaps I'm still trying to catch an elusive Tiny Carp?

Some Fish of the Day migrations also include a person or creature that visually replenishes or interacts with nearby pools. None of their events seem to make any difference to the fish caught from affected pools - at least, not yet.

Specific Fish of the Day locations are described below:

Binan Village Coast (Kun-Lai Summit)

This location's red cross marker is in the middle of Inkgill Mere, between Binan Village and the Inkgill Ritual Island, south-eastern Kun-Lai Summit. Pools are:

• Sha-Touched Spinefish - Catches are identical to Spinefish School.
• Large Pool of Sha-Touched Spinefish - Krakkanon's home.

The standard set of Anglers (Salty El, etc) may be found fishing here.

Blessing of the Inkgill allows anglers without a special water-walking ability or raft to fish while standing on the water.

Enchanted Woods of the Lost (The Jade Forest)

The Fish of the Day pools appears in two ponds half-way along the river west of Sri-La Village in The Jade Forest. Pools are:

• Glowing Jade Lungfish - Catches are identical to Jade Lungfish School, although I have also caught a Tiny Green Carp from Glowing Jade Lungfish pools.
• Large Pool of Glowing Jade Lungfish - Krakkanon's home.

The standard set of Anglers (Salty El, etc) may be found fishing here. Neutral Spirit Darters fly above, who occasionally feed pools with magic dust. This briefly causes the pool to sparkle, but there is no evidence it enhances the catch.

Fields of Niuzao (Townlong Steppes)

The Fields of Niuzao are close to Niuzao Temple, on one of the large islands in Townlong Steppes. Pools are:

• Crowded Redbelly Mandarin - Catches are identical to Redbelly Mandarin School. In spite of their name, Crowded Redbelly Mandarin contain the same volume of fish - 3 to 5 from each pool.
• Large Pool of Crowded Redbelly Mandarin - Krakkanon's home.

The standard set of Anglers (Salty El, etc) may be found fishing here. In addition, Brother Shallowpond (illustrated) walks counter-clockwise round the lake. The Grummle is accompanied by his Yak, Fishbreath. Occasionally, he will stop and throw a bottle into a nearby pool, saying one of:

• "These fish jump up and down like a bouncing luckydo!"
• "It is very sad that fish have no trails of mountains to climb. If I bring them more fish friends will they be happy?"
• "The smell of good fortune is upon this lake... or is that just Fishbreath?"

Brother Shallowpond's efforts do not appear to improve the catch.

Gokk'lok Shallows

This Fish of the Day migration appears in coastal waters near the mouth of the river separating Dread Wastes and Townlong Steppes. Fish of the Day pools and visitors may take up to a minute to appear once you arrive at the location. Pools are:

• Tangled Mantis Shrimp Cluster - Catches are identical to Giant Mantis Shrimp Swarm.
• Large Tangled Mantis Shrimp Cluster - Krakkanon's home.

The standard set of Anglers (Salty El, etc) may be found fishing here. In addition Shrimp Stuffed Shark (hostile, level 90) and Shrimp Stuffed Seagull (neutral, level 90) patrol the area. These creatures often eat from, and empty, nearby Tangled Mantis Shrimp Cluster.

Krasari Falls (Krasarang Wilds)

This Fish of the Day migration appears at the base of Krasari Falls, just east of Fallsong Village, on the north-west side of Krasarang Wilds. Pools are:

• Swarm of Panicked Paddlefish - Catches are identical to Krasarang Paddlefish School.
• Large Swarm of Panicked Paddlefish - Krakkanon's home.

The standard set of Anglers (Salty El, etc) may be found fishing here, but the water is occupied by a set of Goblins: Wizak Blastbait and his 4 Blastbait Cronies ride around on Stolen Rafts, throwing dynamite at some of the pools of fish (illustrated). This is clearly panicking the fish!

This is the second cameo appearance of dynamite fishing in MoP (the first were in The Anglers Fishing Quests). The original semi-accidental inclusion of dynamite fishing was during WotLK.

Dynamite fishing is still not available to individual anglers: Using the Goblin Fishing Pole on a Swarm of Panicked Paddlefish did nothing to change the pool or its contents.

Mad Qao-Pao (Vale of Eternal Blossoms)

Mad Qao-Pao paces up and down the shore of the Vale of Eternal Blossoms' Summer Fields, next to The Emperor's Burden - Part 8. Pools are:

• Glimmering Jewel Danio Pool - Catches are identical to Jewel Danio School.
• Large Pool of Glimmering Jewel Danio Pool - Krakkanon's home.

The standard set of Anglers (Salty El, etc) may be found fishing here, alongside Mad Qao-Pao. Qao-Pao is a wealthy Pandaren, who is completely blinged out in gold (illustrated). He keeps on making wishes, but he can't decide what he wants, for example:

"Oh wait, I have a better one!" ... "I want a panther encrusted in the world's finest jewels! Wait, doesn't one of my friends already have one of those?" ... "No no no, that's not what I want."

When Mad Qao-Pao makes a wish he throws a coin into a nearby pool. This doesn't appear to make any difference to the pool catch.

Perhaps poor Qao-Pao should stop and read the artefact he passes twice a minute? "...Seeing that all things were connected in an eternal whole, and that his beloved land was more than just the Pandaren Empire, Shaohao at last understood..."

The Mad Qao-Pao pool migration embodies many contemporary Azerothian themes, not least the relentless accumulation of gold and "stuff". Qao-Pao's coin-throwing and wish-making might also finally resolve what happened to Tan Strongpole's (beta) attempt to fish from the Shrine of the Seven Stars' fountain, in the style of Dalaran's fountain.

Unrelated, but interesting: Both with and without an active pool migration, a pair of Blacktalon (Servants of the Black Prince) operatives can be found surveying the same area of water. "Blacktalon Agent examines the waters of the Vale closely." Comments include this exchange:

"Do you think the Pandaren realized what they were sitting on here?" ... "Maybe they've known all along. Maybe that's why they've stayed hidden."

But it seems that these agents have actually been around since the release of Mists of Pandaria, creeping up on unsuspecting anglers when they least expect it... (thanks Eleanor)

Master Snowdrift's Pagoda (Kun-Lai Summit)

Fish of the Day pools occupy the large circular lake on the northern side of Shado-Pan Monastery, in Kun-Lai Summit. Pools are:

• Tiger Gourami Slush - Catches are identical to Tiger Gourami School.
• Large Pool of Tiger Gourami Slush - Krakkanon's home.

Most pools can be fished by standing on chunks of ice in the lake, so there is no need for water-walking or rafts.

The standard set of Anglers (Salty El, etc) fish here, alongside Shado-Pan Snowdrift Trainees. The Trainees occasionally cast blue bolts towards nearby pools.

Sri-La Village (The Jade Forest)

Sri-La Village's Fish of the Day migration occurs in coastal waters in front of the village. The village is found on the north-east coast of The Jade Forest, very close to the Enchanted Woods of the Lost location. Pools are:

• Reef Octopus Swarm - Unusually, these pools are not renamed from the normal pool type, but they are far more plentiful.
• Large Swarm of Migrated Reef Octopus - Krakkanon's home.

The standard set of Anglers (Salty El, etc) may be found fishing here. Many Reef Octopus creatures wander around the beaches and piers of Sri-La Village during the pool migration.

Stormstout Brewery (Valley of the Four Winds)

This Fish of the Day migration is outside of the Brewery, in Valley of the Four Winds. Pools are:

• Brew Frenzied Emperor Salmon - Catches are identical to Emperor Salmon School.
• Large Pool of Brew Frenzied Emperor Salmon - Krakkanon's home.

The standard set of Anglers (Salty El, etc) fish here, alongside Hozen. Hozen Beercatchers wander along the piers. A Hozen Fishnibbler swims around the pools, occasionally spouting gibberish, such as:

"Ookin' slicky just oocked me in the nib tickler!"

Maybe these Hozen should learn to fish with a pole, like the rest of us?