This chapter contains in-depth, technical discussion of some of the more advanced aspects of fishing. Topics are:
Changes: Wrath of the Lich King
- WotLK Fishing Essentials - Short guide to everything you really need to know about fishing in Wrath of the Lich King.
- Introduction to Northrend - Explore the continent of Northrend: Locations and how to get there.
- Fishing in Wrath of the Lich King - Overview of changes to fishing in Wrath of the Lich King, including training, locations and equipment.
- WotLK Fish - New fish and catches in WotLK.
- WotLK Pools - New and changed pools/schools in WotLK.
- Dalaran Fishing - Complete guide to fishing in Dalaran. Including Giant Sewer Rats, Rusty Prison Keys and fountain coins.
- Dalaran Cooking Quests - How to complete the Dalaran daily cooking quests.
Changes: The Burning Crusade
- 2.4 Changes - Patch 2.4's changes to fishing, including daily quests and Isle of Quel'Danas.
- 2.3 Changes - Patch 2.3's changes to fishing, including the pool Tracking Journal.
- 2.1 Faster Fishing - Summarises and clarifies the changes to fishing speed with patch 2.1.
- The Burning Crusade - Fishing changes in the first expansion.
Fishing Mechanics and Analysis
- Zone Base Fishing Skill - This topic attempts to answer the question, what fishing skill will I need to fish in a certain zone?
- The Role of Skill - This topic considers the role skill plays in fishing, including how skill changes the proportion of fish that "get away".
- Gazetteer - This topic develops a simple gazetteer that shows which fish may be caught in which zones.
- Variation by Time - This topic explores how catch rates for fish vary by time of day.
- Pool Appearance - This topic examines how pools of fish appear, and suggests some basic rules and timings.
- Pool Contents - This topic describes the contents of pools and trunks found in Azeroth.
- Random Catches - This topic uses data gathered from the daily fishing quests to explain the random nature of fish catches.
Catching Specific Fish
- Catching Deviate Fish - How to catch Deviate Fish, which may be cooked to make Savory Deviate Delight.
- Catching Djakar - How to catch Djakar, the rare fish rumoured to be caught before one can gain the key to the Black Temple. 1 April 2007.
- Catching Furious Crawdad and Mr. Pinchy - How to catch Furious Crawdad, and Mr. Pinchy, who may grant you a rare Magical Crawdad pet (The Burning Crusade only).
- Catching Stonescale Eels - This topic answers the question, where is the best place to catch a Stonescale Eel?
- Catching Winter Squid - This topic explains the best place and time to catch Winter Squid.
- Fishing Elemental Water - How to fish Patches of Elemental Water, found in Azshara.
- Fishing Pure Water - How to fish pools of Pure Water in Nagrand for Mote of Water, which combine to make Primal Water (The Burning Crusade only).
Information to help catch other fish can be found in the Fish Finder.
Other Advanced Topics
- Hard to Find Areas - Maps and instructions to help locate "hard to find" named areas within zones, contained within the Fish Finder.
- Poll - Results of polls conducted among El's readers.
- News - News related to fish and fishing.
Randoms in Fishing - A Warning
The mechanics of fishing and the catches from fishing are somewhat random. Experience may teach us that a certain fish can be caught in a certain area. But how long each cast will take to bite, and which type of fish will be caught first, are all influenced by chance.
This behaviour is important. It feeds the creation of unproven theories about the mechanics of fishing: Given enough "luck" I might easily convince myself that a certain fish is more likely to be caught when I face north, or when holding the pole in my left hand rather than my right. Differentiating luck from a genuine pattern can be difficult.
Gnomish engineers, keen to understand why their inventions explode unexpectedly, resolve this with numbers: The more times a certain pattern is observed, the more confident they become that the pattern is probably correct. Unfortunately collecting data on fishing is very time consuming. And the number of variables affecting fishing is immense - location, skill, time of day, and fish type, to name a few.
So, while I have tried to make the analysis here as robust as possible, most results are still "statistically" rather weak. Read with caution.
