Tips for leveling Fishing past 225 at level 70
by Robin Torres 
Apr 15th 2008 at 1:00PM
So here I am at level 70, back in the land where your mom is that easy and Chuck Norris is that cool: The Barrens. I'm not here to save the Crossroads from ganking Allies and I'm not here to run noobs through Wailing Caverns (so stop asking). I'm here to fish.
Fishing is the one secondary skill I didn't work on because, well, it's boring. But now that you can make tons of cash with the new Fishing Dailies, I'm leveling up fish-catching skills. The problem is that once you get to 225, and finish that annoying quest with Nat Pagle, fishing gets even more boring than it was before. No matter where you fish, each skillup is farther apart and you have to hang out in places that are far below your level if you don't want to miss a lot.
The first thing I did was search WoW Insider, because that usually does the trick and I found a great guide to Fishing and Cooking, but the advice for leveling to 300 says "may god have mercy on your soul because Blizzard won't." Not a good sign. I also found a link to El's Extreme Anglin' which is a fantastic fishing site, but I couldn't find any advice for making the trip from 225 any less painful. So I asked The Spousal Unit who has won the Fishing Extravaganza more than once and after some experimentation on my own, I'm well on my way past 265 and making a lot of cash at the same time.
My tips are after the jump.
Fishing is the one secondary skill I didn't work on because, well, it's boring. But now that you can make tons of cash with the new Fishing Dailies, I'm leveling up fish-catching skills. The problem is that once you get to 225, and finish that annoying quest with Nat Pagle, fishing gets even more boring than it was before. No matter where you fish, each skillup is farther apart and you have to hang out in places that are far below your level if you don't want to miss a lot.
The first thing I did was search WoW Insider, because that usually does the trick and I found a great guide to Fishing and Cooking, but the advice for leveling to 300 says "may god have mercy on your soul because Blizzard won't." Not a good sign. I also found a link to El's Extreme Anglin' which is a fantastic fishing site, but I couldn't find any advice for making the trip from 225 any less painful. So I asked The Spousal Unit who has won the Fishing Extravaganza more than once and after some experimentation on my own, I'm well on my way past 265 and making a lot of cash at the same time.
My tips are after the jump.
- Keep it simple: You can level all the way from 1 to 300 in the beginner lakes in the newbie zones, so there's no need to challenge yourself and put up with misses.
- Do the Fishing Daily Quests: The Crocolisks in the City quest can be done with a really low fishing skill and you get a nice supply of +100 lures to use. The Shrimping Ain't Easy quest is in Zangarmarsh and can be done with 225 skill and a +100 lure with not too many misses. Both of these quests will level your fishing without it being a total bore.
- Cook your catch: Cooked fish vendors for quite a bit more than raw fish, so you definitely want to cook it up before you sell. Also, if you are leveling up in Zangarmarsh, Blackened Sporefish is used by raiders and casual questers alike, so cook them up and deposit them in your guild bank.
Why Deviate Fish? Because, if you have the recipe for Savory Deviate Delight, you can cook them up and sell them on the AH for up to 20 gold a stack. And really, who doesn't want to look like a pirate?
Do you have any other tips to level your fishing to 300? Or, more importantly: Ninjas or Pirates?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Buuty Apr 15th 2008 1:05PM
Dammit, now the whole server will be in WC with me, lowering the market price of Deviate Fish. Foiled once again WoW Insider!
Prauche Apr 15th 2008 1:08PM
Amen. Get ready to see the market for Deviate Fish crash.
Arturis Apr 15th 2008 3:07PM
The Deviate Fish market on my server crashed the moment I started fishing them. Literally. They were selling for 8-10g a stack, so I went out and fished up a few stacks with my hunter alt, returned to the AH and found them down at 1-2g a stack. Her bank, to this day, is still full of odd looking blue fish and salty, salty tears.
Nick S Apr 15th 2008 1:06PM
sell your deviate delights on the neutral auction house.
fish when you're waiting for raids, bg's, etc - that's how i got to 375.
Nick S Apr 15th 2008 1:07PM
oh, and if you fish up the mats to level cooking from about 280-300, you'll make pretty good gold. not as good as before the new recipes... but still pretty good.
Travis Littlechilds Apr 15th 2008 1:09PM
I've found the best time for fishing is just after your Kara/Gruul's/Mag etc PuG has gone into raid setup (no questing) but while you're still looking for 3/5/10 more to be ready to go.
innajunglestylee Apr 15th 2008 1:08PM
For some obscure reason, I chose to level fishing on my alt. But when leveling fishing on my raiding main, i have almost exlcusivey gone for the Barrens. Deviates don't sell for as much as Sporefish or Crawdads, but sending a stack of Delights to a buddy always makes them smile.
Charlie Apr 15th 2008 1:15PM
Thanks for the tips!
My main has been stuck at 225 cooking (still need to do the quest) and about 265 fishing for a good year now. Never got around to doing it. I never even though about grabbing the daily quests, i figured you have to be max to do em or something.
I'll prolly go do that whenever i get the time. Granted, i spend all my time doing SSO dailies now, but oh well. Oo.
Darin Apr 15th 2008 1:23PM
I lvl'd fishing just cuz I hate having a skill thats at 1. I agree after 225 I was getting pretty bored. The thing that kept me going was the moeny i was making off the fish I got. Most profitable pre-Outlands was the Darkclaw Lobster averaging 15-20g a stack.
Dewey Apr 15th 2008 1:26PM
I got my skill up by fishing in the pond in Org while I waited in BG queues. If you're grinding up PvP gear, you'll be surprised how useful a minute or two fishing between each AV can be.
Khanmora Apr 15th 2008 1:28PM
I have 3 characters with max fishing and leveling it is not really the most fun ever. BUT, I always have what I need and don't have to depend on other people for it and it does sell really well.
I wanted to add also that the monstrous felblood fishing quest can be done at the Pools of Aggonar in HFP and you only 225 plus a lure to fish there.
AlmtyBob Apr 15th 2008 1:29PM
Here's a reminder to those of you who don't care about selling the stuff you get before maxing it out. You can skill all the way up to 350 in Stormwind/Orgimmar. The amount of catches you need is exactly the same. The only difference is the fish you get only sell for a few copper. When I find myself idling around while talking on vent or whatever or I'll head over to SW and knock out a few points.
Todd Apr 15th 2008 1:31PM
My wife has done all of my fishing levelling. I'll just bring her someplace that has fish I want and she'll just keep going. I'm at 319 currently I think, and I only started fishing 9 days ago (I wanted to make deviate delights which I later found out were useless for a shapeshifting druid).
Pingmeister Apr 15th 2008 1:35PM
Barely anyone on my server so I don't mind screwing up these sites for everyone else: There are a few places where lots of floating wreckage shows up on a regular basis. Fishing these yields some pretty good loot, with the greens selling pretty well on the AH.
Feralas Coast (level 50)
Coast South of Theramore (level 35)
Stranglethorn South of Grom Gol (level 40)
I enjoy leveling up my Fishing on Crates!
Todd Apr 15th 2008 1:43PM
I saw 4 of them right outside of Southshore last night. Also these spots give you the crate that has the find fish book which really helps out when you are looking for certain fish.
Juan Carlos Apr 15th 2008 1:39PM
Once you *can* fish Furious Crawdads, the grind gets less tedious because you can fish for Mr. Pinchy. Even before you get to that point, fishing for Darters can be very profitable. Just take it in small bursts, make it a point to do the fishing quest EVERY day and boom, you'll make a small fortune and level fishing up.
Carrie Apr 15th 2008 1:40PM
I won the fishing tournament 3 weeks in a row once :O
Schadenfreude Apr 15th 2008 1:40PM
I've leveled up fishing on three characters so far and I want to chew off my own fingers. But yes, fishing up deviate fish is the secret to blunting the sting a bit.
You can also do the Monstrous Felblood Snapper fishing daily if you're not at 375 yet since Hellfire Peninsula doesn't seem to have a minimum skill.
Arc Apr 15th 2008 1:50PM
I began to write a guide for my guildmates on fishing. I managed to get from 1 to 375 in a day. In STV i manage to catch a book which gave me the fish finding passive skill so I could see schools of fish on my minimap.
Just use aquadynamic fish attractors all the time and u have no problem skilling up.
1-75 in SW every fish
75-100 in SS every second to third fish
100-125 in Refuge Point every fourth fish
125-150 in Booty Bay every fifth fish
10-225 in Western Plaguelands every fifth/sixth fish
After that head out to Karazhan (+spell dmg fish) or Zangamarsh (+stam Fish), or Allerian Stronghold (+heals fish). Zang has loads of extra goodies that u catch too.
Salaami Apr 15th 2008 1:42PM
Nooo... Fishing is fun! I have even manage to get "find fish" ability to be even more pro-fisher.
Until around ~300 everything goes pretty easily. Just watch how birds flye, sun shine and noobs wipe etc. And eyes! battleground queue times are good time for fishing. You can, as I manage, to get [The 1 Ring].