This article is part of our Countdown to Cataclysm series, preparing you for Cataclysm launch one day at a time.

Deathwing may be ravaging the countryside and tearing through the sky, striking fear into the hearts of the denizens of Azeroth, but his malice can never shake the iron will of Azeroth's brave fishermen. Rod and lure in hand, these salty heroes fuel our fish feasts, ride our turtles, and regale us with stories of Old Crafty and Old Ironjaw. Flip your Titanium Seal of Dalaran and hope it lands on adventure ...

Fishing in Cataclysm has been made easier and more fun, with the addition of new fishing dailies in your faction's home city. Not only do these new dailies give you a new bag of goodies, but they now award fishing skill points for fishing. Those of you veteran anglers know the drill -- your trade is a buff food bonanza, allowing you to cook up some of the best food in the game to give your group and raid the advantage they need.

I've always been a fishing fan, since the early days of World of Warcraft. Here's a quick rundown of some of the new fishing content for Cataclysm.

The new skill, Illustrious Grand Master Fishing, enables players to raise their fishing skill to 525.

New fish

Cataclysm is adding in a bunch of new fish in the new level 80 to 85 zones. While the world has been torn asunder, Azeroth's native sea creatures have survived Deathwing's fires, and things haven't changed other than some zone levels and fish caught there. Here are the new fish you'll be catching in each zone:

Regular fish

• Algaefin Rockfish Twilight Highlands, Tol Barad, Vashj'ir
• Blackbelly Mudfish Uldum
• Deepsea Sagefish Twilight Highlands, Uldum, Tol Barad, Vashj'ir
• Fathom Eel Tol Barad, Uldum, Vashj'ir
• Highland Guppy Twilight Highlands
• Lavascale Catfish Deepholm, Uldum
• Mountain Trout Mount Hyjal
• Striped Lurker Mount Hyjal, Twilight Highlands

Miscellaneous fish

• Albino Cavefish Alchemists use the Albino Cavefish to create Deepstone Oil, so find an alchemist buyer for your extra Cavefish stock.

Fishermen are now able to fish up Volatile Fire and Volatile Water, two of the new component materials for most crafted items and recipes. Volatile water is a somewhat common catch in Cataclysm fishing pools, and Volatile Fire is fished up from Pools of Fire in the lava areas of Twilight Highlands and Mount Hyjal.

New achievements

A bunch of new fishing achievements have been added in Cataclysm for the dedicated fisherman.

Personal Achievements

• The Limnologist Catch all of the freshwater inland fish in World of Warcraft.
• The Oceanographer Catch all of the saltwater coastal fish in World of Warcraft.
• Fish or Cut Bait Complete all five of your factions new Azeroth fishing dailies.

Guild Achievements

• That's a Lot of Bait Catch 10,000 fish from fishing pools; rewards the ability to purchase the recipe for Seafood Magnifique Feast, Cataclysm's fish feast and best group/raid food buff.
• We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat Catch 50,000 fish from fishing pools.
• Like Shooting Fish in A Barrel Catch 100,000 fish from fishing pools.

Dailies

Five new fishing dailies have been added to Stormwind and Orgrimmar, awarding anglers a skill point to fishing and a Bag of Shiny Things. Sadly, these new bags do not contain the new fishing poles introduced in the Dalaran fishing daily, but they have the chance to contain a Strand Crawler companion pet and the Weather-Beaten Fishing Hat.

New Alliance fishing dailies

All Alliance fishing dailies are given out by Catherine Leland in Stormwind.

• Big Gulp Find a precious locket by fishing up monkfish in the Valley of Heroes in Stormwind and filet it open.
• Diggin' For Worms Use an Overgrown Earthworm near Lake Olivia to catch a Crystal Bass from Olivia's Pond.
• Hitting a Walleye Catch 8 Hardended Walleye in Stormwind Lake.
• Rock Lobster Collect 6 Rock Lobsters from lobster cages below the Stormwind Docks.
• Thunder Falls Catch 4 Violent Perch from Thunder Falls.

New Horde fishing dailies

All Horde fishing dailies are given out by Razgar in Orgrimmar.

• A Furious Catch Head to the Southfury river and catch a Giant Furious Pike.
• A Golden Opportunity Using Razgar's Filet Knife, find a Drowned Thunderlizard in Thunder Ridge and cut off its tail. Then, use the tail to eletrocute 3 Golden Stonefish and bring them back to Razgar.
• A Staggering Effort Kill a Stag north of Orgrimmar and use its eye as bait to catch a Sandy Carp in the Valley of Wisdom.
• Clammy Hands Loot 10 Monstrous Clam Meat from big clams out east of Durotar.
• No Dumping Allowed Fish up 6 Toxic Puddlefish in the goblin area of Orgrimmar.

Fishing and cooking are best friends -- El's Anglin' has the best guides working up both your fishing and cooking skills at the same time, for both factions. Complementary to the fishing dailies are the new cooking dailies, allowing players to collect Chef's Awards to purchase seafood cooking recipes. Alliance chefs can pick up their dailies from Robby Flay in Stormwind and Horde chefs can grab their dailies from Shazdar in Orgrimmar.

The holy grail of fishing: Seafood Magnifique

Here's the cream of the crop for all you fisherman out there. The materials for a Seafood Magnifique feast should fetch a pretty decent price on the auction house, for those people out there who don't want to spend that time catching it up themselves. Save your leftovers, and you'll be sure to find a buyer on the auction house.

Fishing is fun, profitable, and can provide lots of fun achievements and miscellaneous cool things. As one of those professions that has gone through many changes in both function and use, fishing is a fun alternative to crafting professions, while still remaining a valuable skill to have. Don't let its potentially daunting nature get you down; take fishing slow, use it in conjunction with other skills, and have a great time becoming one of the greatest anglers Azeroth has ever seen. Salty salute!

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World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion (available Dec. 7, 2010), from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.

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