Fishing Leveling Guide 1-375

Like other professions, your skill in fishing is expressed as a number. Skill is 1 when you first train, but you can improve this to 375. You improve your fishing by successfully catching something.

The only factor that determines skill is the number of successful catches. It doesn't matter where or when or what you fish, so long as you catch something.

For about your first 90 catches each catch will increase your skill by one. As you become more advanced it will take more and more catches to advance another point.

The table below shows the approximate number of successful catches required
to increase your fishing skill by a point. The process is random: The number
of catches per skill increase is not constant. Use the table as a guide only.
Some people have told me that the more intelligent the individual, the faster
their skill will rise. I have not seen any evidence for this, and I have compared
a highly intelligent gnome with a somewhat less intelligent dwarf.






Above 300, each skill gain takes at least 10 catches, but the precise number
varies: Between 300 and 340, an average of 10.5 catches per skill point; 340-375
an average of 11.5 catches per skill point. About 2,100 catches are required
to train from skill 1 to 375, of which 800 are between 300 and 375.

Assuming an average catch rate of 3.5 fish a minute (for the dwarves, that's
7 whole fish every 2 minutes), 1 to 375 will take 10 hours of continuous fishing
to learn. But I don't recommend you learn it all at once.

Why improve skill?

So why develop your fishing skills? There is one reason: Higher skill is required
to fish in areas with "better" fish. That's all.

Higher fishing skill does not specifically:
make you fish quicker
reduce the proportion of casts that do not bite
increase the probability of catching "better" fish in a given area

it just allows you to fish in areas where better fish are more likely to be
caught.
The Fishing skill only determines whether you catch a fish, it does not determine
what the fish is or how fast it is caught.
Locations:
Each area has a base skill requirement to fish in. If you do not meet this
requirement, you can't even cast a line ((you will be told that you don't have
sufficient skill to fish there when you first try and cast)). However, having
sufficient skill to cast a line is not the only limitation. If your skill is
less than about base skill requirement plus 95, you will find a proportion of
your fish "get away" - the bobber splashes, but no fish are hooked.



Assume that if you are only about 45 or 50 skill points above the base skill
requirement, around half your fish will get away. A fish that gets away gains
you nothing: Neither the fish, nor an improved skill. Fish that get away increase
the average amount of time for each catch. If you are catching something particularly
valuable, you may be prepared to accept a proportion will get away. Normally
avoid fish "getting away".

Rules governing fish location:

There are a few basic rules which determine the location and availability of most fish. These are true most of the time:

Within one zone, different types of fish can be caught in inland water areas to those in coastal areas. Normally every part of that zone's coast will give the same types of fish. It doesn't matter where you stand. The same is true for inland water areas. There are some exceptions to this rule. For example, in Azshara, the Bay of Storms (including Scalebeard's Cave and Hetaera's Clutch) differs from other coastal regions of Azshara.

The ease of eating the fish ((the minimum level required to eat it)) broadly reflects the prevailing level of the monsters and quests in the area it is caught in. For example, starting zones are teeming with Raw Brilliant Smallfish, which almost anyone can eat ((level 5)), but you won't see a Furious Crawdad ((level 60)) until you fish in the hardest waters of Outland.

There is a split between freshwater and saltwater fish. Most fish are found either on the coast, or inland, but not both. For example, Raw Whitescale Salmon are only found inland, while Stonescale Eel are only found on the coast. A few fish may be found both on the coast and inland, such as the Darkshore Grouper and Oily Blackmouth.

More valuable fish are often found in at least one zone with a higher base skill requirement and one zone with a lower base skill requirement. The catch rate in the higher-skill zone may be greater than the catch rate in the lower-skill zone. For example, it is possible to catch Stonescale Eels off the coast of Feralas or Tanaris. But the best location for Stonescale Eels is Azshara, where the skill requirement is very high

Catches of certain fish vary by time of day or season. The variation by time of day (known by experts as the "6 hour rule") is discussed in depth in the Variation by Time topic. Be aware that just because a source such as Thott's book says you can fish Raw Sunscale Salmon in the pools and rivers of the Hinterlands, does not necessarily mean they can be fished at 03:00. There are also two known seasonal fish - Winter Squid and Raw Summer Bass which switch at the spring and autumn (fall) equinoxes. Squid can never be caught during the summer. Bass can never be caught during the winter.


And you thought fishing was just a case of casting your line and waiting for a
fish to bite... right? To quote a wise gnome, "Easy to learn, hard to master."[img][/img][list][*]