Requirements

El at Sri-La Village

The title "Salty" is one of the most exclusive titles in Azeroth. Salty is given to each angler that completes the achievement "Accomplished Angler". This requires you to complete most of the original (WotLK-era) fishing achievements.

The Accomplished Angler is an account-wide meta-achievement, so any one of your employees ((characters on the same account)) can complete each of the individual achievements within the meta-achievement. For example, different anglers can complete The Fishing Diplomat and The Scavenger. However progress is not shared within each individual achievement: For example, the same angler must fish in both Orgrimmar and Stormwind to complete The Fishing Diplomat.

To attempt to become Salty, you will need:

You will also need high fishing skill to complete Salty. Fortunately you can start working towards Salty at fishing skill 1.... and probably reach skill 600 before you gain the title!

The table below shows the lowest recommended fishing skill to start and complete achievements. This is the skill you need to stop catching junk (in the easiest water available). Except where shown **, gear, lures and other equipment can be used to increase your personal fishing skill. You will never catch junk from pools, so pool-based achievements can be completed with fishing skill 1.

Fishing Skill for Salty Achievements
Recommended Fishing SkillAchievements
To StartTo Complete
11Master Angler of Azeroth, Mr. Pinchy's Magical Crawdad Box, Northrend Angler, The Old Gnome and the Sea, Outland Angler, The Scavenger
7575The Fishing Diplomat
75490Old Man Barlowned
100**100**Fish Don't Leave Footprints (to learn Find Fish)
450**450**Grand Master Fisherman
525525The Coin Master

** - Personal skill required, cannot include bonuses from gear or lures.

Strategy

Magical Crawdad

It does not matter which order you complete the achievements in. However, some achievements are restricted by time, so you should start working on them as soon as possible:

I also recommend you start on One That Didn't Get Away early. It may be "just one fish to catch", but expect to catch over 10,000 fish before the rare fish bites: It can take a very long time to complete!

All the achievements can be completed alone, however you will need to be in a raid group to enter the dungeon for The Lurker Above. Friends can also help win Master Angler of Azeroth, but are not essential. None of the achievements are shared among a group - each angler needs to catch their own fish.

If you have just started fishing, I recommend you start trying to complete One That Didn't Get Away and Master Angler of Azeroth. These are often time-consuming, but do not require a high fishing skill. If both your cooking and fishing skills are low, I recommend leveling both together: Cooking opens up another set of achievements, including the "Chef" title.

Passive Achievements

These achievements are likely to be completed while attempting other achievements. Do not waste time actively finishing these achievements - you will probably get them while fishing for something else:

Pool Achievements

There are several achievements directly related to pool fishing. For a more detailed guide, read Pool Achievements:

Other Achievements

Detailed guides have been written for the remaining Salty achievements, which you should browse through:

Before the Cataclysm, The Deadliest Catch was required to become Salty. The Deadliest Catch is no longer part of the Accomplished Angler achievement.
Good luck becoming Salty! The remaining pages of this chapter are guides to completing individual achievements.

Learn More

Comments about Salty

Below are readers' comments about "Salty":

Extravaganza in Salty achievement?

  1. fredje222, November 2008:

    There are a lot of posts about this on offical wow-forums so i thought i'd make one here too.

    A lot of people want the STV-achievement deleted from the Salty-title because its totally not what fishing is all about. And they are totally right in my opinion
    And no, i'm not lazy. I have caught Ironjaw, Crafty, Mr Pinchy twice and doing the [The One That Didn't Get Away] now.

    But the thing is: 52 sundays a year, let's say about 40 times that you can actually join and about 50-100 people joining every week (on my server).
    That means if you join every week you should win after about 2 years and all fishers that caught one or more rare fish know that you can be lucky which can make you win in one try or very unlucky which could make you fish for 4 years without ever wining.
    Other people have to work on sunday-afternoons and can never win the Salty title, and dont give me that shit: 'yea but people that want raid-achievements have to be online on raid-times too' because if you dont like the raiding-hours of your guild, just join another one that has good times.
    And NO (again) the problem is NOT that these people dont want to use a lot of time for the achievements.

    All other fishing achievements can be done by just fishing alot and in prolly a month (thats a long time) you can catch all the other rare fish(wotlk not included, dont know the catch rates).

    My idea's are:
    Make the Stv-tournament happen more then once per week, because its just silly that it's only on one hour and only 52 times per year.

    or

    Delete the stv-tournament from the Salty-title and make a seperate title like: Master Angler, or something.

    If people say that it's too easy now: add Crafty, Ironjaw, Giant Rat.

    No, i didn't win the tournament yet.

    Please, tell me your opinion about this.

    Ps: all the threads on official forums have been totally ignored, just as my gm post about it.

  2. Vicenti, November 2008:

    I read the posts on the official forums recently, it’s no wonder they’ve been ignored. The couple I read consisted of the OP making a fair and reasonable statement regarding the inclusion of the Extravaganza in the Salty title, followed by about 10 people totally flaming them with boo hoo type posts. It kinda reminded me of being on the forums of an EA FPS game. I guess anyone who agreed with the OP just didn’t bother posting, as it seemed a waste of effort.

    My view on this, having considered it for sometime and having changed my mind back and forth several times, is that it probably shouldn’t be included in the requirements for the Salty title. The reason for this is unlike other similar new titles that are up for grabs, inclusion of the Extravaganza makes this one is limited available, due to there only being one winner of the Extravaganza per week. It is also limited access, as not everyone can play on a Sunday, or at least not enough Sundays to have a reasonable chance of success.

    Sure the achievements that give a title should be difficult, if they weren’t having the title would be almost pointless, however, I can’t see why the fishing title should be limited availability if others are not.

    As the OP suggests, to compensate for the removal of the Extravaganza, there are other difficult (yet accessible to all) achievements that could be added.

  3. GormanGhaste, November 2008:

    One of the things I've always liked about fishing in-game is its relaxing nature. I only went to the fishing contest until I had all the rare fish.

    I think winning the contest should have its own title, and be removed from the fishing meta-achievement.

  1. Illuthas, November 2008:

    You will flame me for this,but i think its a test to use tactics and speed for fishing. Just fishing while talking in guildchat or watching tv while fishing for a rare fish is part fishing,but the real achievement of "Salty" should only be given to the people that fished in both aspects of fishing,not just clicking your fishing button and then clicking the dobber.
    And yes,i won the fishing contest twice but i didnt want "The one that didnt get away" to be removed too before i had my fish. The title should be unique,and not something everyone can get with a day of fishing. (of course its impossilbe but its just a figure of speech ;) )

  2. fredje222, November 2008:

    yes its true, but even if you use evry tactic in the world you can still be unlucky and fish for it like a couple of years and NEVER win, that's just ridicilous...

    if you say that fishers should also know the thrill of hardass fishing? make it daily

  3. heraklen, November 2008:

    I'm a strong believer of what fredje says , the extravaganza have some serious flaws and the biggest one is that its just once a week.
    Also its a competition who can be tipped into your favor or destroyed by various methods we all have read about in other threads on this forum.
    If you play on a PVP server makes it even easier for people to disrupt the competition.

    Its not that its an EASY task to get the achievement done even without the extravaganza.

  4. Noodleguitar, November 2008:

    I kind of like the way it is now, with the Extravaganza victory counting as a requirement. I do understand why people are upset about it, because (especially on high populated servers) I can imagine it can be a hard job to get a first win. Though I still think it's good to have some sort of competetive requirement for the title to make it more exclusive.

    If they do take it out of the requirements, at least give a justified award for those who did win the Extravaganza, after all the discussion is about it being such a hard thing to accomplish. Maybe something in the sense of a title like "Salty Master Angler [name]" or something (otherwise you have to choose between Master Angler and Salty... hard pick :))

  5. anniefish, November 2008:

    I, too, have waffled on whether I think it should be included in the title of "Salty" and I will say, there are some fair arguments for and against. I'm still on the fence.

    The one thing that sets this apart from other titles, and seeming to be the biggest bone of contention, is the frequency and availability of being able to win the STV contest. Many other achievements can be attempted daily or more frequent. This is one that can only be done on a specific day, once a week. That makes it unique, but certainly unattainable for those unable to fish the contest due to work, etc. I don't think that makes it comparable to other titles.

    Personally, I would like to see a sub-title of sorts in addition to the "Salty" title to not necessarily make it easier, but more of a goal for those of us that love to fish and love attaining new levels.

  6. Merly, November 2008:

    Those peeps going "it's only on for 52 times a year" lets play "how long has it been running for" seriously, you train, you study, you win (eventually) it's as simple as that.

    Keep it in, it's a challenge in lets face it a rather unchallenging achievement if you have enough time, everything else is just a matter of time.

  7. Nemu, November 2008:

    It's a challenge, sure, but it IS unfair to those of us who work on odd days/at odd times.

    I work 3rd shift, and in 3½ years of playing WoW, I've had ONE chance of participating in the event, and on a PvP server at that.

    I don't see why having the event 2 or 3 times a week will kill anyone nor will it make it a welfare event/title.

    (Heck, I'm a Bloodsail Admiral and I cannot TELL you how frustrating it is to go from seeing 10-or-so players with the title at Day One to seeing it almost as frequently as I see that stupid Jenkins title....)

  8. Merly, November 2008:

    For those of you who can't make it I do simpathise but as I've said if you want the ultimate title you have to have something thats more than just "stand and fish for <insert many hours here> or it's as you put it as lame as that stupid Jenkins title and any muppet can get that one.

    The salty title shows you're litterally at one with the fishes, it's a shame some people won't be able to get it but the opportunity is there to remove the biggest fishing challenge in the game from the title would be a slap in the face of all those who have worked their ass off to get it.

  9. Vicenti, November 2008:

    I won’t dispute the fact there should be an ultimate title for fisherman, however, I don’t think this achievement is the place for it.

    The ultimate achievement for the fisherman is indeed winning the Extravaganza and this, I believe, due to its rarity, should be a candidate for it’s own title. Leave salty for the masses, it still takes and enormous amount of fishing to achieve, especially if they were to add and couple more requirements in there. Give the Extravaganza it’s own title.

    I like Noodleguitar’s idea, maybe completing the achievement could give the title ‘salty’ then if you win the Extravaganza on top of that you become ‘Extra Salty’, lol.

  10. fredje222, November 2008:

    that's a very good idea Vincenti
    give a title for: all the fishes + extravaganza (like master angler)
    and another one for just all the fishes, and some more if you want to but just make those fishies fishable all days of the year :p (like salty) or any other title idea's but thats not the point :p

    and Merly said:
    Keep it in, it's a challenge in lets face it a rather unchallenging achievement if you have enough time, everything else is just a matter of time.

    then you can say that ALL other achievements are just unchallenging because you do have unlimited time for all other achievements in a year, infinent people can win any title but only 52 can win a fishing title, do you think that's fair?(except the Halloween ones and stuff but you have enough time to get those)(and the raiding ones but if you raid enough you can enter a really good guild and also get those)

    like: Loremaster title, i have seen only a couple with the title but if you just do it long enough you'll get it and as much people that want it can get it. but i wouldn't call it unchallenging :p

  11. Kahless, November 2008:

    An achievement that anyone can get with ease is worthless.
    Leaving the tourney requirement makes it difficult and uncommon and therefore worth having.
    Take away the tourney requirement and it's just another holiday title that everyone will have.
    Leave it the way it is.

  12. Bettis, November 2008:

    Here is how I feel.

    I have the fishing extravaganza done but even if I didn't I would want it kept in. Anything worth its name has to take work.

    And for the people who say "But it is only once a week and I don't have time or the schedule to do it". Well, I would love the achievements for the really big raids but I will never be able to join a HIGH-END raid guild due to time restrictions so I will never get those or any achievement related to them. I have a wife and 2 kids who would leave me if I devoted time to the game required (not that I want to since I enjoy them more than the game) to do end game raiding. So should Blizzard change the achievements to make them so EVERYONE can get them? No, they are the way they are and I can accept that.

    I worked my schedule to allow me to fish on Sundays at the time of the contest for a few times and worked my ass off by doing my homework and also scouting it out, etc. I still didn't win my first dozen plus times (not sure what attempt made it).

    But I wanted it so I made it happen. That's life.

    Sorry but some things may be out of your reach...but only if you let them be.

  13. fredje222, November 2008:

    Kahless wrote:

    An achievement that anyone can get with ease is worthless.
    Leaving the tourney requirement makes it difficult and uncommon and therefore worth having.
    Take away the tourney requirement and it's just another holiday title that everyone will have.
    Leave it the way it is.

    i'm very sure that it wont be a title that evryone has because its still is freaking hard to get, do you know the droprate on mr pinchy and one that didn't got away? it will still be a rare title and why not make two titles as i said before??

  14. Mitzy, November 2008:

    Saying that the Extravaganza is luck based is

    a) not entirely true. There are certain things that one can do to win the tournament, for example using speed buffs and water walking potions. Another (infamous) method is to hire another players to distract other fishers. Yeah, that isn't fair, but nevertheless possible.

    b) nothing special. I mean, even if it was luck based, there would be others of its kind. For example, I never achieved "the Hallowed " title, because Hallowed Helm refused to be found from treat bags, and HHM wasn't any better.

    Another point I would like to make is that there are other titles that are not available to all players. For example the arena titles. I quoted one post in another topic, stating that there could be less Salty titles than Gladiator titles. It was based on rather rough estimates. However, if we think about it, the numbers don't actually matter: there will be a certain amount of Gladiators and Saltys at a given time and some people won't get them.

  15. Whisper, November 2008:

    Yes it could be removed from the meta achievement, but having worked on this extravaganza several weeks to make up a tactic, I feel like this tournament is the ultimate fishing achievement, and thus should award a title itself

    And about luck, I feel like this tournament is something like 50% luck

    just look at the facts :

    a) Sometimes your hook doesn't want to hit the pool, even if you placed well, some precious seconds lost

    b) whether the fish bites after 10 secondes of fishing or 20 makes a huge difference

    c) One week before I won it, I fished 39 fish in 15mn, I was lucky with the schoolfishes, got lucky repops, and yet, for I caught 17 trash fish (stonescales, firefin, that plant) I had absolutely no chance to win, the schoolfishes having approximately 80% tastyfish

    Having an escort squad might be a good idea, but even if you gank your opposite faction, you're helping your whole faction and not only you, so it's not the best idea, using friends for defending yourself and scouting is nice

    Anyway, for the record, i'm pretty happy there's a little luck involved, for druids and hunters have a huge advantage, and shamans having an even more one now that they can waterwalk while mounted, it would be almost impossible to win for other classes if it was straightforward

    That tournament is about tactics and perseverance mainly, even with bad luck involved, persevere and you'll win, putting it inside the Salty meta achievement adds more rarity and recognition in the achievement, I mean, going to X Zone and fish a 0.0000001% rare fish is a nobrainer, winning the extravaganza is more what a fishing achievement should be

  16. Mushroom, November 2008:

    As someone who has worked the same job for years and years, always on Sunday, always during the tournament, I'm a little bummed that despite having fished on many characters over the last 4 years of playing, I wont ever be able to qualify for the Salty title. That's my two cents, I'm not saying the competition needs to be removed from the requirement entirely, but it *is* a little frustrating that unless I quit my job I'm not gonna get that title.

  17. Sauce, November 2008:

    I can understand the frustration of people who have time conflicts during the competition, but ultimately I think you would be hugely weakening the achievement by removing the contest from the title requirements. One of the main reasons why I was drawn to this title is the fact that it is very unique, that and I like getting drunk IRL and fishing in game. I'm willing to guess that the number of people with this title will be few and far between, unlike many of the other achievement titles. I thought Bloodsail Admiral was a unique title until I started seeing tons of people with it, and that's only just an example of one of the many titles that's overused.

    The salty title carries a lot of weight, I mean, lets take a look (quoted from Darkroot, Wowhead):

    Gain 350 Fishing and buy "Grand Master" level.
    Fish every school type in Outland and Northrend.
    Fish every junk node type in the game.
    Fish in Orgrimmar+Stormwind.
    Win the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza (Retroactive if you have the reward in your inventory).
    Have/have used the Magical Crawdad Box from Terokkar.
    Catch a rare fish (Max Weight/Weapon).
    Do all 5 fishing dailies from Barlo.
    Fish up Gahz'ranka in ZG.
    Fish up The Lurker Below in SSC.
    Learn Find Fish via a Weather Beaten Journal.
    Fish up every coin from the Dalaran Fountain.
    Catch 1,000 fish total (NOTE: You will probably get this from doing all of the above :P)

    All I can say is whoever can do all this is a badass. I mean, seriously, damnnnnnnnnn. This list is not only huge, but also all-inclusive of what fishing is about in this game. This title will test not only your patience, but also your level of skill. That's what it should mean to carry the salty title. If you get rid of the extravaganza, you really aren't testing skill anymore. Yes, you could give the extravaganza its own title, but that's pretty weak; titles that require only one act or quest or whatever are incredibly lame (Jenkins).

    My final peeve: who exactly are the people that are complaining about the competition as part of the achievement? I understand people who can't participate in the competition, they have a valid point, but not being able to win is not an excuse, try harder. Blizzard did something right by making the title accessible to only the hardcore fishermen. I was never in an end-game raiding guild, so I've potentially missed out on content/achievements. Hell, I can't get the ZA bear now that it's removed from the game, but that's ok, because such and such in T6 gear wants to get all the achievements/titles/mounts/pets for jollies so they should have an easy time getting what most of us have perfected in this game.

    In summary, this achievement is a great way from distinguishing the men from the boys and I know that many of us will cause heads to turn when going through Dalaran with Salty up. A note to Blizzard: please don't weaken a title that many of us begged to have put in the game.

  18. 140 more comments. Continue reading or reply »

Northrend Pools Distribution Map

  1. Mightfish, January 2010:

    Northrend Pools Distribution Map [new link]

    Distribution Map Zone Shortcuts (only work with 1024x768)

    Northrend's fishing pools distribution map.

    Let you can easily understand location and number of pools
    Let you more easily to gain the Kalu'ak Fishing Derby!

    Distribution map only can display approximate location or number of pools, because fishing pools appears location and number is random.

    Distribution map size:2581x1363
    Note: You can click or mouseover on pools icon, to get information for the fishing pools.

  2. el, January 2010:

    Looks interesting, Mightfish. Unfortunately, the download gives a 403 Forbidden error at the moment.

  3. Mightfish, January 2010:

    I have fix this error.

  1. Balazar, January 2010:

    I note the link takes to you a web page, and the download link on the web page is to a .rar file. Perhaps I'm a tad bit paranoid, but I would prefer a straight up image file.

  2. Mightfish, January 2010:

    Balazar wrote:

    I note the link takes to you a web page, and the download link on the web page is to a .rar file. Perhaps I'm a tad bit paranoid, but I would prefer a straight up image file.

    Thank you for your comments.
    Now, you can direct view a picture.

  3. Mightfish, January 2010:

    Updated to version 1.1 !

  4. Christhina, February 2010:

    This is actually very handy, and a good record to show new anglers (and handy for us older, more forgetful types like me) :)

    Mightfish - I wonder only one thing - the links above appear to take me to the same map that is the entire continent of Northrend, and this map is populated with fishing pools where they spawn in each zone.

    Am I missing a reason for the separate links? The map always seems to open "focussed" on Borean Tundra (though I can scroll easily enough to the other zones, of course) - I'm just hoping I'm not missing something, hence I thought I'd ask :)

    Either way, this is well done, and thank you for sharing your hard work with us all :)

  5. Mightfish, February 2010:

    Christhina wrote:

    Am I missing a reason for the separate links? The map always seems to open "focussed" on Borean Tundra (though I can scroll easily enough to the other zones, of course) - I'm just hoping I'm not missing something, hence I thought I'd ask :)

    Thank you for your support !
    This function seems simple, but the design is very difficulties.
    Sorry, i do not have the ability to solve this problem.

  6. Al, February 2010:

    Thanks for this contribution to fishing knowledge, Mightfish.

  7. Basill, February 2010:

    OMG.......

    ..Traitor......

    WTF.....

    ^ø^

    You are now handing out all our well kept secrets... my god what have you done...
    *Equips a fishingpole with razorblades attached and starts hunting newbies looking at maps while fishing*

    On a serious note..

    Job well done, maps looks nice and not overfilled with useless information.
    big thumbs up for the work, love the links to Els site..Cuz I gotta admit..other fishing sites dont reach El´s site to the socks and are not worthy...

    Not so serious note..

    a troll blog..... ;( why not an ally toon..(cuz they kinda rocks)

    ;)

  8. jtb, January 2011:

    I am getting a 404 error when i try to access these, are they no longer posted?

  9. Christhina, January 2011:

    JTB, I am now getting the same.

    Sadly, it seems the map (which was very well done), along with our friend Mightfish, seems to have disappeared :(

  10. Mightfish, May 2011:

    re-uploaded?
    https://sites.google.com/site/wowfishpool/distribution/distribution.jpg?attredirects=0

  11. Reply to this topic »

The journey to "Salty"

  1. Balsymcgee, January 2009:

    First of all, thank you for providing the most informative site on WoW fishing. I've been using it since I bought my first pole in Stormwind.

    Second, I just recently decided to try to attain the "Salty" title. As you all well know, this is a task that takes severe dedication and a bit of luck. So I decided to make a blog detailing how it works out for me. I started with a few of the easy achievements already under my belt, and a good bit of progress on one or two of the more time consuming achievements - I'm two gold coins shy of Coinmaster, and I have Old Crafty in my bag (not caught by the Baby Crocolisk bug method).

    Anyway, if you're interested, I'll keep it updated, and post my data here that I've collected with Fishing Buddy.

    The blogsite is: http://saltybals.blogspot.com/

    LOL! This title would just be too perfect for me. Feel free to post comments, copy\paste, add data to whatever DB you have going, etc. It's all free public info for all to use and benefit from, for what it's worth. I hope nobody minds if I quote from here from time to time. If there's an issue with that, let me know and I'll cut it out.

    Cheers, and thanks again for the best collection of WoW fishing information available.

  2. Leny, January 2009:

    Keep going on the coins, it took me 6 hours of fishing... almost 1k catches in the fountian

  3. Balsymcgee, January 2009:

    I just got coinmaster. The last two coins actually didn't take me very long (maybe 30-45 min?). I don't have any good data to post about it, because I already had all but two when I installed Fishing Buddy.

    I was going to get some of the easier achievements out of the way, so I was working on Outland Angler, but I got distracted by the Highland Mixed Schools, so I'm going to work on Mr. Pinchy for a little while. I'll let you know if I get lucky.

    Edit: 2 casts later & I landed Mr. Pinchy!! Blessing on the first wish :P

  1. el, January 2009:

    I love this stuff! I've been considering for a few months adding a "personal diary" feature to El's Anglin', so that everyone in the community can record their latest catches/achievements in their own words, encourage other people, and so on.

    The last coin generally takes the longest: As you fish for coins, the balance of probabilities shifts towards gaining a coin you already have...

  2. Balsymcgee, January 2009:

    Crap. I just erased my long, well thought out post.

    Anyway, I just wanted to say that my second wish from Mr. Pinchy granted me the Magical Crawdad pet. Yay! I haven't made my third wish yet, but the CD is up, so I'll post the results when I get home.

    I am currently three achievements away from being "Salty". They are:

    1. The Lurker Above (I just haven't tried very hard to complete this one yet)
    2. Old Man Barlowned (need two more dailies)
    3. Master Angler (Wish me luck tomorrow!)

    I've also been trying to catch Old Ironjaw in my down time. I'm currently at just under 1400 casts and nothing so far. That's ok - I'd rather use up any good luck I have left for winning the Extravaganza! I'll post my Ironjaw data in the relevant thread once I catch him.

    Thanks for the plug, El! I hope it can give someone (maybe even more than one? lol) some insight as to what it takes to get the fancy title, as it's definitely "a journey."

    As always, thanks for the helpful advice, and good luck!

  3. darkbean, January 2009:

    I have a small question, that i've been asking a lot of people that fish around my server. How can you know for sure who was the first "Salty" on a server ? Apart from watching the guys' achievements and look at the date of when he got his title ? I've asked a couple of GMs if they could tell me if i got it first or anything, but they said that h-they did not have access to that kind of information... the GM stuff you know...
    So I was there a server announcement for the server first "Salty" ? Because so far noone could give me an answer...

    Thanks in advance :)

    Salty Darkbean
    <Believe>
    Kael'Thas - EU

  4. el, January 2009:

    There was no announcement of the first "Salty" (only the first to 450 fishing skill). The date is published on armory profiles, so - in theory - a script could be run to download details of every character, and record all the Salties on your realm, with the date the title was awarded. The dates will be accurate, because Salty could not be achieved before WotLK launched. However several people may have gained Salty on the same day, so you may never know who was the first.

  5. Belleflop, January 2009:

    This would be cool to see who was the first salty on each server.

  6. darkbean, January 2009:

    Thanks very much, I had been waiting for a good answer. I guess the french GMs aren't much into fishing... it's a shame...

  7. Warsinger, January 2009:

    For me, the hardest part in getting the Salty-title was getting the "One that didn't get away"-achievment. I did it right when the 3.0.1 patch was released, and from what I've heard, the droprates have been shooting up into the skies since the expansion was released. Anyway, it took me about 7 hours to get the 15 pound Mud Snapper. Mr. Pinchy took me about 5 hours to get, but then again I was lucky and got the Magical Crawdad on my first wish. Then of course, the coin master took some time too. It was a bit more motivating though fishing up the coins though, it's rather much more fun to show much progress you've made in the achievments-page, instead of staring yourself blind at all the Longjaw Mud Snappers in you backpack.

  8. Balsymcgee, January 2009:

    Fished up Lurker today. That just leaves 1 more daily and the Extravaganza for my Salty title. Still working on Ironjaw and the sewer rat, though. The Extravaganza's gonna be tough, I think :P

  9. Balsonju, February 2009:

    I won getting Salty Bals.
    Best title ever. Hardest part of getting it for me was The One that Got away but then again I'm on a very low pop server so winning the Extravaganza wasn't all that difficult. I wish you luck getting salty but i warn you, be prepared for a thousand whispers saying "best name ever."

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A brief overview of getting to Salty

  1. Laizhensil, December 2008:

    Just the other night, I finally completed all the requirements to be Salty and received my title. It took a lot of forum scouring and a lot of reading to gather the right information, so I figured I'd post a short log of all that I did and how I did it, to help others on their way.

    Of course, I would attribute almost all of my success to El, whose site is just the definitive source of fishing information for WoW players, bar none. Thanks El!

    I'll go through the achievements briefly, one at a time, and tell how I finished them.

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    Northrend Angler - Fish 10 nodes in Northrend

    (copied from Thottbot, credit to kitkibbles)

    *Fangtooth Herring* - fresh waters in Howling Fjord

    *Musselback Sculpin* fresh water in Borean Tundra (I got mine in Lake Hum'uya located directly south east of Amber ledge).

    *Borean Man O' War* Off the coast in Borean Tundra (I got mine at the shrine of scales located just off the southwest coast of riplash strand).

    *Imperial Manta Ray* off the coast in Borean Tundra (I got mine at riplash strand but there are tons in dragonblight at Moa'ki Harbor as well).

    *Nettlefish* freshwater in Sholazar Basin... these fish are like fleas and can be found in all lakes and rivers there. I got mine in the seabreach flow just east of nesingwary base camp.

    *Dragonfin Angelfish* Lake Indu'le just north of moa'ki harbor in dragonblight. I didn't see them anywhere else but they could be in other freshwater locations too of course.

    *Glassfin Minnow* freshwater in crystalsong forest. They were everywhere in the river that runs through the area.

    *Glacial Salmon* freshwater in Grizzly Hills. I got mine in the river located just south of Zeb'halak.

    *Deep Sea Monsterbelly* salt water off the icebergs south of Unu'pe in the frozen sea, Borean tundra.

    *Moonglow Cuttlefish* salt water off the icebergs south of Unu'pe in the frozen sea, Borean tundra.

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    Master Angler of Stranglethorn

    Ah, the dreaded fishing contest. This was my last achievement for Salty. I won after 2 serious attempts. This is exactly what I did-

    - Hearthstone to Booty Bay Inn
    - I fished the area directly south of Grom'gol. There is a water fall which separates the land. I started on the side furthest from Grom'gol. I fished exclusively in the first 6 nodes and only the first 6 nodes. When there were no nodes (which only happened once) I sat and waited for them to reappear.
    - I used water walking potions to fish the nodes which were across the waterfall break in the coast.
    - I caught 7 Oily Blackmouths, 1 Stranglekelp and 1 Firefin and still won the competition.
    - I won in exactly 20 minutes and 41 seconds.
    - The area only had 3-5 other fishermen when I was there. When there were 2 people at a node, I'd skip it and move to the next node, always staying between my 6 designated nodes. If there was not a fishing node with less than 2 people, I would run back and forth waiting for the next one to spawn.
    - I used a macro to track the amount of Tastyfish I had. It was this...

    #showtooltip Speckled Tastyfish

    - The first time I tried, I caught 9 Oily Blackmouths and was quite angry at Blizzard for implementing a RNG in an already very luck driven competition. I lost at 19m 55s, with 31 fish. :)
    ------------------------------

    The One That Didn't Get Away

    - I fished in Thunderbull Lake in Mulgore for the 15 pound Mudfish. It took me 1310 casts. I thought about going for the Herring, but it seemed like a hassle, because I wasn't sure if it dropped only from the Herring nodes or from the actual open sea.
    - I parked myself in front of the TV at home, picked out three good movies, and started fishing.
    - I set my cast to hotkey 1.
    - I would press 1, place the mouse icon over the bobber, then proceed to watch my show. With the sound turned up, and no one else fishing, I could just reach down instinctively and right-click to pick up the fish. I would then repeat the process.
    - I had Auto-Loot on and didn't worry about casting too fast, because the 15 pound mudfish is NOT BoP, so it does not require you to accept it.

    -------------------------------

    Mr. Pinchy

    - I do the daily fishing quest in Terrokar anyway, so whenever I would do that, I would empty out all the Highland Mixed Schools in the area. This means the lake by the alliance town, the lake by the horde town, and the bigger lake up in Skettis. 3-5 nodes in both the Horde and Alliance rivers, and 7-10 in the Skettis area.
    - They spawn rather slow, so after cleaning out the nodes I would find something else to do for 2 hours then come back.
    - I caught Mr. Pinchy the first time in just 31 casts (very luck, I know). But this resulted in 2 Benevolent Mr. Pinchys and 1 Pinchy Blessing, so I had to do it again.
    - I caught him again after about 600 casts. The first prize was a gift-box, and the second was the pet.
    - I made sure that I paid attention while fishing, because he is BoP, so you need to click accept.

    ---------------------------------

    I smell a Giant Rat

    - In the underbelly of the sewer, on the pier next to the Inn, is where I fished for this guy.
    - It took me about 1000 casts.
    - He is BoP too, so watch out and don't go too fast.
    - My best advice for not burning yourself out on fishing is to start chatting in /1 or /2 or in /g.

    ---------------------------------

    Deadliest Catch

    - I solo'd this as a 74 Frost Mage.
    - First, you need to be in a raid group, so have a friend or stranger group with you, start a raid group, then head in on your own.
    - Advise the person you are grouped with that he or she will be unable to complete any non-raid quests while you are doing this. (Took us forever to figure out why my girlfriend could not pick up mushrooms for the cooking daily in Dalaran hehe)
    - You must enter ZG twice- First to pick up the jugs of ale which are at Nat Pagle's fishing site on the north side of the big lake which Hakkar is in the middle of.
    - Then you must take them to Nat Pagle in Dustwallow Marsh and he'll give you what you need to fish up this guy.
    - Then you need to fish the mudskunk nodes which are in the exact same place in ZG. (I fished the mudskunks the first time I went so I could just go straight to the boss the second time)
    - Once you have the mudskunks and the lure from Nat Pagle, you can go to Nat Pagle's fishing site in ZG and fish up the boss and get the achievement.
    - Fishing up the boss is all you need to do. No need to try to solo him ;)
    - Once I fished him up, I Invisibilitied and ran out. Done.

    ----------------------------------------

    The Scavenger

    (credit to jamras on thottbot)

    Steam Pump Flotsam: Zangarmarsh, all over the lakes
    Schooner Wreckage: Southshore, near dock and along coast line
    Floating Wreckage: Tanaris, coast
    Bloodsail Wreckage: STV, coast south of Grom'Gol
    Waterlogged Wreckage: STV, Lake Nazferiti and along river

    ----------------------------------------

    The Coin Master

    This is accomplished by fishing the entire collection of coins out of the tiny fountain in Dalaran.

    - Copper is the easiest to catch, Silver second and Gold hardest.
    - Only Gold coins can be thrown back into the pool to increase your chances of getting more coins.
    - The buff from tossing gold coins lasts only 2 minutes, which seems to go by VERY quickly. Make sure you don't mis-click or go afk while you have the buff.
    - I finished Silver before Copper, then Gold last. The last Gold coin I needed was Thrall's.
    - There is a fishing vendor right next to the fountain who has lures for you to use.
    - You CAN fish the same coin out of the fountain more than once. In fact, I had a stack of about 10 Danath's copper coin when I was done. I sold the dupes to the vendor.
    - I had many instances of "Your cast didn't land in fishable water".
    - It took approximately 500 casts to acquire the whole collection. This can obviously be reduced or increased by the random number generator, but you can help yourself by using Gold Coins effectively.

    -----------------------------------------

    Outland Angler

    Not much to tell here, it's pretty easy.

    (credit to rozlyn on Thottbot)

    Brackish Mixed School - Terokkar and Zangarmarsh
    Bluefish School - Nagrand
    Mudfish School - Nagrand
    School of Darter - Terokkar Forest
    Highland Mixed School - Skettis
    Sporefish School - Zangarmarsh

    ----------------------------------------

    Old Man Barlowned

    Very simple-

    There is a daily fishing quest in Terrokar. Each day the fishing quest is randomly chooses one of five fishing quests for you to do. Keep doing this quest every day and eventually you will get all 5.

    -----------------------------------------

    The Lurker Above

    Fish up the Lurker Below in Serpentshrine Cavern

    - This is definitely soloable.
    - I followed this guide:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2GPZwpkwPg

    Credit to TheZemalf (YouTube)

    ----------------------------------------

    Catch 1000 Fish

    - Pretty straight forward.
    - With the time you'll spend fishing for coins, the rat and The one that didn't get away, you will MORE than hit this. (It took me about 7500 fish to finish the achievement panel for fishing)
    - Don't go out of your way to accomplish this, just let it happen on it's own while doing other achievements.

    -----------------------------------------

    The Old Gnome in the Sea

    - Another fishing achievement which will come automatically by doing other achievements.

    -----------------------------------------

    Fish Don't Leave Footprints

    Acquire the Fish Tracking ability

    - By fishing out of "wreckage" nodes, you will often get boxes of level relevant profession loot. (Light Leather, Bolts of Mageweave, etc.)
    - In these boxes there is a small chance to get the book which teaches you this ability.
    - Run along the western coast of Stranglethorn Vale and you should at least find one or two wreckage nodes. Fish these until you get crates.
    - Wreckage nodes are easy to spot, because they're not your normal, swirling water nodes. They actually have boxes and pieces of lumber floating in them.

    --------------------------------------

    And that's how I got to Salty :)

    I hope this has been helpful in answering some of those ambiguous questions one runs into after forum crawling for the easiest way to finish an achievement.

    On a side note-

    I did Old Ironjaw and Old Crafty as well.

    - Old Craft was very easy. Simply get the Baby Crocolisk quest and go to Orgrimmar. When the loot box comes up, ignore it and keep fishing. After a dozen or so casts, you'll get Old Crafty.

    - Old Ironjaw was the hardest fishing achievement I've done, to date. I play Horde, so I had to hide out in the Forlorn Cavern for 4000 casts. I got attacked and camped at least a dozen times. If you are Horde and you are going for Old Ironjaw, I'll give you these pointers:

    Do not wear any items with Durability. Rings and Trinkets and Necklaces are okay, but don't destroy your armor by getting killed a bunch of times.

    First, go to the back of the Forlorn Cavern. If you get attacked, move to the Lava in the middle of Ironforge (just behind the northernmost cog on the bridge in the exact middle of IF). You'll get attacked in both places, but at least you can escape some camping.

    Do NOT fight back. This will only aggravate the Alliance more, and they'll end up camping your body. You are much less fun to antagonize if all you do is stand still and die. Plus, if you attack any NPCs, there will be a yellow message broadcast to all of Ironforge alerting them to your presence, so don't rock the boat.

    It helps to fish during off hours (early morning and midday).

    Make SURE you watch your screen and don't habituate yourself to casting over and over. Old Ironjaw is BoP, so you MUST accept him once the window pops up, and you don't want to have to do another 5000 casts because you were fishing too fast.

  2. Yoco, December 2008:

    Very nice overview! Thanks!

  3. Illuthas, December 2008:

    Very nice,though Giant Sewer rat isnt in the achievement :p

  1. Dagnie, December 2008:

    Congratulations, and thank you for writing all this out! Very nice post combining all the info that is scattered over multiple websites :)

  2. sendmejunk77, December 2008:

    I can report that the bug still works for fishing up Old Crafty as of 12/21/08. I used it in combination with the Wraith Gate free pass to Org. I justified it in that I'd fished around 400 times, w/o the baby crockolisk quest before giving this a shot. If you dont have the baby crock quest, you can leave Org and wait a few days until the daily quest pops up. You'll have to run into Org but only the first few guards will try to attack. Once inside they go back to leaving you alone, you can fish up your crock, old crafty, and finish the epic quest. Nice!

  3. Untoucheable, December 2008:

    Old Crafty
    I would also like to add that I came across tis quest for alliance (even though im horde) that will allow alliance to easily get into orgrimmar without hassle of guards or players.

    http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=13369

    This quest ports you to orgrimmar under amnesty to talk to thrall, its basically a separate orgrimmar so no players to worry about. Go there with this quest and the crocs in the city daily and you got yourself an easy 10 achievement points.

  4. Zemalf, December 2008:

    Very nice guide for those going for Salty (got mine yesterday, finishing with One That Didn't Get Away). And thanks for the credit for my The Lurker Above vid :)

  5. rolanda, January 2010:

    I took my level 15 Draenei shaman to Iron forge and got Old Ironjaw in 25 casts. I was very surprised and exited, and when I went to brag to one of my WoW friends they said, what is Old Ironjaw? XD

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