El's Extreme Anglin' - World of Warcraft Fishing Guide // Advanced Topics // WotLK // Wrath of the Lich King Pools

• 

  This page describes the new and changed pools/schools in WotLK. On this page:

  • Northrend Pools
  • Northrend Pool Contents
  • Northrend Pool Spawning
  • Old Azeroth
  • Learn More

Northrend Pools

Northrend's pools look the same as those found elsewhere. They are fished in the same way. The table below shows Northrend's pools and the locations they are found in.

Northrend has no pools of wreckage.

There are also 2 quest-only pools: School of Northern Salmon and School of Tasty Reef Fish. These cannot be fished using a fishing pole: Use the net provided by the quest.

Pool of Blood can be created in Borean Tundra without a quest, but their only use is for the Dalaran daily fishing quest, Blood is Thicker.

Northrend Pool Contents

Pools almost entirely contain the main catch listed above. They rarely contain other items:

• Crystallized Water - Northrend's Mote of Water. Combine 10 to make one Eternal Water. Eternal Water is used in many "Northrend" profession recipes.
• Reinforced Crate - Contains either 3-4 Borean Leather Scraps, 2-3 Cobalt Ore, or 2-3 Frostweave Cloth. These materials are also commonly used in "Northrend" profession recipes.

The table below shows the proportion of catches from each pool type that were the main catch.

The pattern is very similar for all schools in Northrend, roughly:

• 90% Main Catch,
• 5% Crystallized Water,
• 5% Reinforced Crate.

Each school contains 3, 4, or 5 catches when fresh. The average number of catches per pool is 4.

Each main catch from a pool can also be caught from open water. Open water catch rates are 20-30%, compared to 90% from pools. It considerably more efficient to fish from pools if you want one particular fish, and are prepared to move between pools regularly.

Northrend Pool Spawning

Northrend's pools respawn (reappear) following the traditional pattern, but with one important difference: Each pool may respawn about 10 minutes after it was last fished (rather than 60 minutes in The Burning Crusade). The 10 minute value is approximate: It varies between around 8 and 14 minutes.

Zones with few pool-spawning locations (such as Glassfin Minnow School in Crystalsong Forest, and Dragonfin Angelfish School in Dragonblight) can be fished for pools continually by up to 2 anglers (using flying mounts to travel). This means pools in Northrend should be easier to find than some of those in Outland.

Old Azeroth

Several changes have been made to schools of fish in old Azeroth.

Pools of wreckage are now called by different names, based on their contents (trunk type is listed below):

• Floating Debris Pool - Tightly Sealed Trunk.
• Schooner Wreckage Pool - Watertight Trunk.
• Waterlogged Wreckage Pool - Iron Bound Trunk.
• Bloodsail Wreckage Pool - Mithril Bound Trunk (The Cape of Stranglethorn only).
• Floating Wreckage Pool - Mithril Bound Trunk.

Firefin Snapper School and Oily Blackmouth School are prefixed with "Lesser" (Oily Blackmouth only), "Sparse", no prefix, "Abundant", and "Teeming". School of Sagefish can also be found in a "Lesser" variety. The names imply that Teeming schools should be "better" than Sparse schools. However, initial tests show no dramatic changes in catch rates from current pools. The feature may not yet be fully implemented.

The table below lists locations for the newly named pools.

Greater Sagefish School, Oil Spill, Patch of Elemental Water, and Stonescale Eel Swarm have not changed.

Oily Blackmouth School (all variations) and Brackish Mixed School make a sound: An oily swoosh.

Gummo reports that level VI scrolls (requiring level 70) are now found in Inscribed Scrollcase from Outland pools.

Learn More

• Fish Finder - Pools - Full listing of pools locations.
• Pools and Schools - Describes how to fish pools such as schools or floating debris, where to find pools, and how to efficiently fish them.
• Northrend Fishing Pools Distribution Map - Mightfish's map of most Northrend pools.
• Also in Wrath of the Lich King: Wrath of the Lich King Essentials, Introduction to Northrend, Wrath of the Lich King Fishing Changes, Wrath of the Lich King Fish, Dalaran Fishing, Dalaran Cooking Quests, and 3.1 Changes.

Comments about Wrath of the Lich King Pools

Below are readers' comments about "Wrath of the Lich King Pools":

WOTLK Fishing is in!

1. Thalen, August 2008:

   Very preliminary, but I discovered today that you can fish in the sewers in Dalaran, first place I've seen in there that didn't tell me there were no fish there.

   I've seen 3 fish so far (pygmy suckerfish, glassfin minnow, and bonescale snapper). They're all white text, so you can't eat these for health or anything, but they're probably cookable at some point.

   Looks like my leveling is on hold, I'm off to find more!

   (got quite a few 'fish got away' wearing just my arc pole and the hat/boots, but with the hat lure applied, I was getting pretty much 0 misses, and the fish were coming up 2 at a time).

2. Thalen, August 2008:

   Quick update...it's not much Dalaran, I've been fishing up imperial Manta Rays, Borean Man 'O Wars, and Rockfin Groupers in Valiance Keep (between crippling waves of lag >.<)

3. el, August 2008:

   You can find my observations here. I'd welcome additions, particularly on rare fish (there don't seem to be any yet) and pools (aside from quests, I've only found Nettlefish School, and even then, only a handful of spawn points). I suspect fishing is only about half done.

   Pygmy Suckerfish are usable by Alchemists to create Pygmy Oil (which essentially turns you into a gnome with a scary mask - probably exciting if you aren't a gnome already). Otherwise, I suspect we're going to have to wait for Cooking recipes to appear.

   The 2 obvious bugs at the moment are unnamed coastal areas containing inland fish (just like the TBC Azeroth zones) and some quirks in Dalaran, where if the bobber lands very close to a wall, the skill requirement is minimal and the catch includes Raw Brilliant Smallfish.

   (I'm still slightly bemused by the fact that all the main WoW news sites completely missed the introduction of fishing.)

1. Thalen, August 2008:

   Thanks, missed that post. If I run across anything new I'll let you know :-)

2. smoo, August 2008:

   mmo-champion.com does give some information about fishing, and the changes to fishing. Not every news site ignored it. :)

3. el, August 2008:

   Smoo: Could you link to the precise information please? I watch that site quite carefully (Boubouille and I play the same "beta exploration" mini-game), but I've only seen recent references to the BlizzCast interview.

4. smoo, August 2008:

   Maybe you expect more, but there was the part in the Interview - Jon LeCraft (Profession designer), and some information scattered(?) through the news over the last past days. :)

   But youre right, there was no major newspost regarding the fishing... :)

5. GIGAR, August 2008:

   They should really add some fishing quest that gives XP for lover lvls D:
   It's boring as hell to lvl, fishing is just so much more fun :p

6. el, August 2008:

   Some pools have been added into the latest build: It looks like pools have been added for the less common fish in each zone. So there are schools for Glassfin Minnow and Fangtooth Herring, but not the more common Bonescale Snapper - the same sort of approach used in Outland.

   Plus the trainer in Dalaran is offering Master (previously learnt from the book) and Grand Master (375-450) training (but nothing lower). Grand Master is reported broken on the test forums.

   Unfortunately the server seems to be struggling a little more than usual (and "usual" is pretty dire), both with crashes, disconnects, and a tendency to de-sync in a weird way, all of which makes spotting changes a painfully slow process.

7. el, August 2008:

   Added everything I know so far to the Fish Finder - see pools. I will write it up in more detail later. Tentatively, all the pools have a 100% catch rate of the named fish.

   I get the feeling that these pools are not yet fully implemented or balanced.

8. rakoth, August 2008:

   I assume the max fishing level will be 450. Do you have any idea how many catches per skill level will be need to reach it?

   I thought going from 6 to 10-11 at 300 was a big jump. Hopefully we don't need significantly more.

9. el, August 2008:

   Just under 1,000 catches from 375 to 450, as described here.

   I should add: What I don't know yet is whether 300-375 has been made easier.

   Oh: And I couldn't find a Horde fishing trainer in Borean Tundra. I presume here is one - I've just missed it.

10. Zhivago, August 2008:

    Not really just fishing, but as so many Fishers are Cookers, thought this post from World Of Raids with these new cooking recipes would be helpful:

    WotLK Cooking Recipes

11. el, August 2008:

    Thanks Zhivago. I'd seen a similar list on MMO-Champion earlier yesterday.

    It transpires that there are quite a lot more recipes via the new daily cooking quests in Dalaran. It's a token system, where each daily rewards a single "Dalaran Cooking Award", and you then trade in the awards for recipes and reagents. There are 5 dailies available as I type, but like Jewelcrafting, I'm not sure how much choice there will be on live.

    I'll write this up in full "later", but to give some idea, here are the (unchecked) buffs from the fishing-related token recipes:

    80 Attack Power, 40 Stamina
    40 Critical Rating, 40 Stamina
    16 MP5, 40 Stamina
    46 Spell Power, 40 Stamina
    40 Haste Rating, 40 Stamina
    40 Hit Rating, 40 Stamina
    40 Spirit, 40 Stamina
    40 Agility, 40 Stamina
    40 Strength, 40 Stamina

12. Reply to this topic »

Northrend Pools Distribution Map

1. Mightfish, January 2010:

   Northrend Pools Distribution Map [new link]

   Distribution Map Zone Shortcuts (only work with 1024x768)

   • Borean Tundra
   • Dragonblight
   • The Frozen Sea - south-east coast of Borean Tundra
   • The Frozen Sea - west coast of Howling Fjord
   • The Frozen Sea - south-east coast of Howling Fjord
   • Grizzly Hills
   • Howling Fjord
   • Sholazar Basin
   • Crystalsong Forest

   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 !

   • Added some Musselback Sculpin School
   • You can click or mouseover on pools icon, to get information for the fishing pools.

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 »