Fishing

Intro:

Hello: a couple small things about fishing, It's a secondary profession so it is not lvl capped. Fishing is a great skill to make some early cash and combined with cooking you have easy access to ingredients to make, for instance, boiled clams that give a spirit/stamina bonus over 15 mins. The loot is useful for early tailors and leatherworkers that haven't come across a skinner yet as well; i caught loads of leather and cloth. On a higher fishing lvl you will be able to catch locked chests that contain nice magical items but you need a Rogue or a fairly high Blacksmith to open these chests with lockpicking/skeleton keys. There is a little melee benefit as well: your fishing skill works towards your melee rating (this is not capped to your lvl) so with a high damage fishing pole (one exists for a lvl 5 - strong fishingpole) you can whack monsters a lot higher then your own lvl to gain quick exp while hitting them with almost every hit.

List of catches by fishing hole
List of fishing holes by catch

Getting Started: Apprentice

Fishermen can be found in many low level areas to teach you Apprentise Fishing (locations, including links to maps at thottbot). Nearby there should also be a fishing vendor, who will sell you a pole (required) and some lures (recommended, at least at first). Purchase the basic pole and the lowest level lures. There should be water nearby, so go ahead and pick a spot on the shore right by the water. Now, equip your pole like a 2h weapon. Pressing 'P' will allow you to put your new 'Fishing' icon on your toolbar. Since you're currently a terrible fisher, right-click on your lure, then click on your equipped pole. Lures are limited in duration, so don't apply it until you're ready to get down to some serious fishing. Near the water's edge, pressing the fishing icon on your toolbar will cause to you cast. A timer will begin counting down, but you'll want to be watching the bobber - I put my cursur on it immediately. When you see it bob and splash, right-click ('open') on the bobber and your fish/loot will be there - unless it gets away. Take your reward and repeat.

Continuing Your Career: Journeyman

Your skill will raise quickly at first, and you'll soon outgrow your humble newbie hole. Journeymen Trainers are common as well. Be sure and purchase a "Strong" fishing pole if you haven't already, and look for a more difficult area. The difficulty and reward of different fishing areas is proportional to the level of the mobs around it - you'll also learn to gage difficulty based on the level of loot you're pulling in and the number of failed fishing attempts. For the Horde, Orgrimmar or the Ratchet docks are great places to skill up to 150. Continue to use appropiate lures if you're getting too many failures - I find, however, that one rarely need use anything more expensive than nightcrawlers.

Angling for Fun and Profit: Expert

Thottbot and various knowledge bases tell what trainers will teach you 'Expert' fishing - they are wrong, based on outdated info - ignore it!. Getting 'Expert' in secondary professions requires the purchase of a book, and fishing is no exception. Again, there is no level requirement, people may tell you you need level 20, but as of beta this was not the case. Old Man Hemming in Booty Bay sells an expert fishing book for 1g - he's on the south side, somewhat near the bank. On the Horde side, most people will catch the boat to Booty Bay after skilling up Journeyman in Ratchet - if you're short on cash for the book, just fish around the Bay until you have your 1g. Then don't leave, Booty Bay is one of the best fishing holes for raising expert fishing. At first you'll need to use lures to avoid too many escapees. Here you'll be pulling up crates and locked chests - these can be picked by any rogue with 90 lockpicking (perhaps less). Your skill increase will slow down, but you'll be catching more valuable items, like bolts of silk, engineering parts, and level 30+ items. Many feel that this is where the fisherman really hits his stride - in fact, one can fish very successfully in lvl 50+ zones with 225(+55) skill (strong pole + lure).

Zen and Art of Fishing: Artisan

Not too much is known of the arcane ways of the Artisan Fisherman. This coveted title is obtained through questing, and hence may be the only skill level with a level requirement. From the rumors and speculation department, this lvl 45 quest may hold the key to true angling mastery.

Tips

Clear out your inventory in a local bank before fishing - you'll fill it easily in a fishing session and this will cut downtime and increase cashflow.

Cosmos has a neat feature that allows you to cast by simply right-clicking when you have a pole equipped. Another feature will automatically recast when you right-click on the bobber to get your loot - combined, these are a great convenience.