El's Extreme Anglin' - World of Warcraft Fishing Guide // Fish Finder // Skill

This page lists zones/areas by the fishing skill required to fish in them. It shows the lowest skilled zone/area that each fish may be caught in. Not all fish can be caught in all zones, so read about the fish in detail before trying to catch it.

Skill

**: Fish names highlight the lowest-skill area the fish can be caught. Quest-only fish and infrequent catches are not shown. Not all fish listed can be caught from all areas listed - check the fish or area links for details.

~: Approximate value (value cannot be confirmed for low skills).

Comments

These remarks have been written about this subject by El's readers in the forums. Hopefully you will find them useful.

Topic: No love for the fisherman (or fisherworman)

1. By Torgon, on 11 February 2008:

   So a friend had asked me to start a new character with them, and having nothing better to do, I accepted. After the typical starting quests i found myself at lvl 12 in Ratchet with a fishing pole and some time to burn. I used some bait and quickly hit 75, few to Org and trained, flew back and got 150. Rather pleased with myself (and having a few gold from selling oily blackmouth's in the AH when i was in ORG) I hopped on the boat to Booty bay to grab my copy of "The Bass and you"...and was very sad to learn that apparently I could not read...

   Even though I could cook and bandage above 150 (both which require books to learn) and skin/mine/gather herbs above 150 at my level, I could not fish above 150. Anyone know the reasoning behind this?

   While i understand the higher the required level to fish, the more dangerous the location, this should be a risk/reward choice I should be able to make on my own.

   What's your opinion of being forced to level to increase your fishing level cap, while other "secondary" professions (and several primary ones) do not have this restriction?

2. By el, on 12 February 2008:

   From memory (and we're going back years here), the level restriction on fishing skill was added to prevent level 1 alts fishing in high level areas like Azshara.

   Originally there were no pools of fish, so anyone that could travel to a zone could find a safe place to catch fish from open water. A level 1 character, that had simply spent a day (often semi-AFK) raising their fishing skill, could make the same money from selling high-level fish as the level 45+ characters the zone was designed for. But the level 45+ characters had invested a lot more time levelling.

   In contrast, herbs, mining and skinning almost always require a character that is close to the level the zone was designed for: Sure, you might be able to find the odd node or corpse you can reach without aggroing, but a level 1 alt has reduced choice, and so is not as efficient at resource gathering as higher-level characters.

3. By Torgon, on 12 February 2008:

   Yes, but now that there are pools, I think it would make sense to take the restriction off of the book at least. Just my 2cp.

4. By Hockeyhacker97, on 01 January 2009:

   Well the level rest on it was only for a short time till they took it back off... If you look at all the professions youll see the following

   The 3 gathering skills had no restriction, if you could get to an item to farm you could know it, the reason for this was because if your level 1 you arnt going to be able to get to anything that requires 300+ to do, your not going to be able to solo level 60 mobs to skin, all the herbs and ores are also protected by these same mobs, so unless your raiding with an AoE party to keep you alive you arn't going to be able to farm things higher then normal levels anyways.

   All skills that are not the 3 gathering skills (skin/mine/herb) have a required level 5 for 1-75... level 10 for 76-150... and then theres some variation on 151-225, then 35 for 226-300 and some variation on 301-375

   Cooking/Fishing/First Aid - no requirement for 151-225 (fishing got changed back to this)
   The main reson Fishing temporarily had a level restriction was to try to detour level 19 twinks from farming the fishing hat on Sundays by making it so that they had to use a lure to not miss the fish... they then found out this didn't detour them at all since the lures are only a few silver while they are spending tons of gold on enchants and gear so the silver made no difference.

   All main proffesions - level 20 for 151-225 (proffesions not gatherings)

   226-300- 35 for all main proffesions and 35+quest at 35 for all secondary proffesions

   301-375 for all main proffesions level 50, for all secondary level 45.

   But as for why it was temporarily different it was just to detour people from farming the fishing hat for a 19 twink, which if they really wanted to do that they should just put a level 20 req on the quests to get the fishing gear.

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Topic: Fishing skill req for great sea?

1. By matty555, on 23 February 2008:

   Hi im level 12 and my fishing skill is 112 and im fishing at longshore at the moment next to the great sea and i was wondering at what skill level can i fidh there?

   Thanks.

2. By el, on 23 February 2008:

   The skill required and fish caught from the seas are the same as the zone you are closest to (source). There was a long-standing bug with the ocean west of Silithus. Technically this has no coastal water, so no coastal fish. The ocean there contained freshwater fish.

   Oh, and so to answer the question: the area is like Westfall, so should require 75 skill to stop fish getting away.

3. By matty555, on 23 February 2008:

   Oh so i need 75 skill to fish in the great sea? i now have 126 and i cant.

4. By el, on 23 February 2008:

   That's interesting. Perhaps your part of the Great Sea is linked to Stranglethorn Vale to the south? Most of that area requires 130 to cast, 225 to stop get-aways. Gain a few points more of skill and let us know!

• Reply to this topic »

Topic: new 2.4 change, no level requirement for The Bass And You

1. By Gummo, on 06 March 2008:

   The latest PTR patch notes have removed the level 20 requirement to read The Bass And You to raise your maximum fishing to 225.

   PS: El, I tried to later add the tag "fishing level limits restrictions" to match the tag in an earlier thread about level 20 and The Bass And You, but using the "add tag" field truncated my tag, so it didn't match. I think the field width should be wider, it's about 30 or so right now.

2. By el, on 06 March 2008:

   Those level 19 twinks-to-be will be saving on lures now...

   It is interesting to see how people use tags. As coded, they were designed for words or short phrases, but I'm inclined to agree that 30 characters isn't enough. When I get a chance I'll see if it can be easily increased (without breaking the underlying BBPress code).

3. By Torgon, on 11 March 2008:

   Hmmmm, makes me think maybe the Dev's are reading the forums here (or maybe it's just a coincidence).

   http://www.elsanglin.com/forums/topic/no-love-for-the-fisherman-or-fisherworman

• Reply to this topic »

Topic: Zangarmarsh

1. By Fiamma, on 04 May 2008:

   On the info page for Zangarmarsh, it states that the skill required to cast is 305... I cast there with 300 base fishing skill, with 95 fishing worth of lures (so 395 fishing) but it can't be the lures enabling me as with this same skill I cannot fish in Terokkar Forest (Requires 355 to cast) Is the page incorrect or is there something I am not taking into account?

   - Fia

2. By el, on 04 May 2008:

   Parts of Terokkar Forest require 405 to cast. At a guess, you're trying to fish Silmyr Lake.

3. By Fiamma, on 05 May 2008:

   Yep, that's right, I'm a nub. Lol, thanks a bunch El, does this mean that with my skill and lures, I can FINALLY cast in Bay of Storms?

4. By Oberweiss, on 05 May 2008:

   On the Azshara page, this is what it says of Bay of Storms:

   Skill Required: 330 to cast, 425 to stop fish getting away.

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Topic: Maximized Fishing Skill

1. By Noodleguitar, on 02 December 2008:

   I just got my Eternium Line the last Extravaganza, which was the last thing I needed to max out my fishing skill :D. It's now, with only gear and base skill, 502. I think this is the max that can be achieved with current available gear.

   To get it I have equipped:
   - Arcanite Fishing Pole (+35)
   |
   ----> Eternium Line (+5)
   - Lucky Fishing Hat (+5)
   - Nat Pagle's Extreme Anglin' Boots (+5)
   - Gloves Enchanted (+2)

   + 450 Base Skill.

   If you count in buffs, you can get to a max of 662:
   - Underbelly Elixer -> Tuskarr (+50)
   - Captain Rumsey's Lager (+10)
   - One of the best lures (+100)

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