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Comment by GustoGA

Yet to drop in BETA but available @ level 85 makes this a challenge (turning it in). Area and Mobs around him are level 89-90.

A short cut to Nat

Go to Jade Forest
Cut across water to the little islands go from on to next until you his large land mass (Congrats you've entered the southern part of The Valley of the Four Winds)
Follow Krasharang beach until it ends into rock/water, you've entered Turtle beach
Cut across water (toward mountain/rock) water is shallow can ride across DO NOT enter deeper water
Hug the mountain/rock "Norsong Spires" keeping on your left and go through the deep water "Narsong Trench" (FAST) can aggro level 90 sharks.
Head towards the huts closest to you (not on the beach)
Nat sitting in the boat under an umbrella

Comment by Lazey

This is one of three quests you can get from fishing quest starters in Pandaria.

Usually I catch the Spinefish Alpha around Inkgill Mere near Binan Village in the Southeast of Kun-Lai Summit.

The other two rare fishes are:

Mimic Octopus and Flying Tiger Gourami. They are unique and you can complete the quests once per day to increase your reputation with Nat Pagle and The Anglers. By now this is the only way to make Nat Pagle your Buddy and get his special faction rewards. After giving away your rare catch of course you can try to get a new one for next days turn in.

You'll also need these 3 rare fishes for Pandarian Angler.

Build 15929: At the moment only Flying Tiger Gourami is working. When trying the other two you only loose your quest starters :-(

Comment by vistohlm

(also posted on the Flying Tiger Gourami and Mimic Octopus pages)

There seems to be a lot of good info about fish locations, so I’m going to give a quick hint that’s given me lots of success.

* * * * * Fish at any specific location for no more than 5 min before moving on to a new location or just taking a break. Chances are if you haven't caught it in 5 min you wont catch it sitting there for an hour. * * * * *

It's a drop rare, you're going to have the same chance to get it no matter how long you fish, so instead of doing nothing but fishing for fishing dailies, go play WoW, the fish will still be there.

The route I use is Inkgill lake (70, 86), The Arboretum (54, 45), Dojani River (63, 31), and anywhere in Angler's Wharf. Sometimes I do them all back to back, sometimes one and then go do something else, but every fish I have caught so far has been within the first 10 casts for that specific 5 min stint.

Hopefully this works for others and helps cut down the time people spend fishing instead of exploring Pandaria!

Comment by guzzerpl

I tried today and I managed to catch all 3 rare fishes. The quest is repeatable however you can return each only once per day. Means you can gain up to 1650 rep (guild perk) with Pat Nagle per day. Don't forget it's all about fishing so don't expect to catch it with few casts, it takes time!

Location for these are:
Flying Tiger Gourami - 62,40 Jade Forest
Spinefish Alpha - 37,23 Dread Wastes
Mimic Octopus - 71,47 Krasarang Wilds

Good Luck!

Comment by knumpcy

Level 88
Inkgill Mere (71,89) Open water
598 (+135 bonus)fishing start 12:37pm
600 fishing end/caught 12:45pm

*Spinefish Alpha*

Casts and loot: 17

Golden Carp x3
Spinefish x6
weeds x2
Scoured Fishbone x5
Desecrated Carcass x1

Equipment used:

Bone Fishing-pole
Lucky Fishing Hat
Nat Pagle's Extreme Anglin Boots
Feathered lure

*Screenshot has been submitted*

Comment by rainsford23

Many fish are found at a higher rate at different times of the day, or different seasons. So I got to thinking about the special fish and tried to figure out if they were easier to catch at different times of the day. I haven't figured out the Flying Tiger Gourami or the Mimic Octopus (though I think one is better caught around 6pm server time).

The Spinefish Alpha seems to be best caught around 1pm server time. I have caught the Spinefish Alpha within 15 casts three days running, and I caught it two previous days (about 4 weeks ago when I last decided to up my Nat Pagle rep.)

This is definitely not definitive, but 3 days running... plus two in the past... I will try to update as I continue testing.

I believe one of the other special fish is best caught around 6pm... not sure about the last one. Maybe 6am? Midnight?

Comment by keikomushi

I finally caught one on Kirin Tor (North America) at 6:30 AM server time just moments ago at Inkgill Mere in a Spinefish pool. I don't know if the later helps or not, but it at least cuts down on catching trash. Anyway, thanks to the people that posted the great locale recommendation.

Comment by combatboots7

If you're anything like me you may run into a situation where you can't remember if you've done this quest today (as it's a daily) or not, or if it was an alt who caught the Spinefish Alpha. I found a quick way to find out without spending time fishing up the Spinefish Alpha just to get the "You have completed that daily quest today." error message.

All you have to do is copy/paste the following into your chat log and hit enter. It will tell you if (and only if) you still need to catch one. If nothing shows up you have already turned in your Spinefish Alpha today.
/run if IsQuestFlaggedCompleted(31444) ~= 1 then print("Go catch a Spinefish Alpha.") end

For the Flying Tiger Gourami use
/run if IsQuestFlaggedCompleted(31443) ~= 1 then print("Go catch a Flying Tiger Gourami.") end

For the Mimic Octopus use
/run if IsQuestFlaggedCompleted(31446) ~= 1 then print("Go catch a Mimic Octopus.") end

Comment by Bluesius

Have I turned in all the different kinds of fish today?

Quickly modified the Nalak/Oondasta macro

/run for k, v in pairs({Flying_Tiger_Gourami = 31443, Mimic_Octopus = 31446, Spine_fishAlpha= 31444}) do print(format("%s: %s", k, IsQuestFlaggedCompleted(v) and "\124cff00ff00Yes\124r" or "\124cffff0000No\124r")) end

Comment by LuckyMonkey

One week prior to 6.0 patch launch, the one and only time I have fished for this quest fish. Info from FishingBuddy for the 39 minute fishing session.

It is worth noting that I used Ancient Pandaren Fishing Charm after about 20 of the casts. I suspect the item does increase the likelihood of drop as I looted the quest fish and a regular Spinefish on the same cast .

39mins
Location: Inkgill Mere, Kun-Lai Summit
(fishing Spinefish pools)
Total Casts: 62
Times Spinefish were looted: 58
Actual count Spinefish looted: 82
(would have been more but I forgot to use item at beginning)
Sealed Crate: 3
Spinefish Alpha: 1

Edited to add location