Fishing Leveling 1-300 Guide - WoW Classic

By Wowhead Updated: 2025/01/05

FishingCookingHerbalismAlchemyFishing Overview in WoW Classic

Fishing goes hand in hand with Cooking; most of the easiest recipes for skilling up need fish. You can level 1-300 Cooking on nothing but fish recipes! It's a cheap way to get excellent food for yourself and your friends.

Fishing is also useful for Alchemy - Oily Blackmouth, Firefin Snapper, and Stonescale Eel are all used to create oils used by Alchemy and other professions such as Tailoring.

Raw (uncooked) fish sells well on the Auction House. Some players want to level up professions quickly but don't have the time or patience for Fishing.

Hunters love Fishing for the ability to feed pets quickly and inexpensively. There are many raw fish pets can consume immediately, so you can drop a pole in nearly any zone to feed your pet on the fly. Bats, Bears, Boar, Carrion Birds, Cats, Crabs, Crocolisks, Turtles, and Wind Serpents can all eat Fish.

You can fish up treasures in pools of wreckage, or even get pearls out of clams!

Fishing PoleHow to Catch Fish in Classic vs. Later WoW VersionsLeveling Classic Fishing from 1-300The best way to level fishing is to do it as you level up.

1-75: Starting Zones. You'll struggle a bit at first, but you can fish up Raw Brilliant Smallfish (inland) or Raw Slitherskin Mackerel (coastal) in every newbie zone. You'll get a lot of fish getting away early, but if can use a Shiny Bauble early, this will help. Raw Brilliant Smallfish sells better than Raw Slitherskin Mackerel if you get extras.

The only newbie zone that's not desirable for leveling Fishing is Tirisfal Glades, since you'll get a lot of unusable and unsellable Sickly Looking Fish. Undead should take the zeppelin to Durotar to fish there instead.

75-150: Major Faction Cities. You'll get a good mix of the three best fish for early Cooking - Raw Brilliant Smallfish, Raw Longjaw Mud Snapper, and Raw Bristle Whisker Catfish. It's a very safe place to fish since you won't get random aggro here.

150-225: Stranglethorn Vale or Dustwallow Marsh.

Better for Horde: In Savage Coast near Grom'gol Base Camp, you can fish off two small islands south and a little east of Grom'gol -- far enough away to avoid Horde guards if you're Alliance. Very convenient for Horde since you can get there easily by zeppelin. You can catch Raw Rockscale Cod, Raw Spotted Yellowtail, Oily Blackmouth, and Firefin Snapper - just make sure you're in the Savage Coast zone, not within Grom'gol Base Camp.

Better for Alliance: Dustwallow Marsh Inland is a good place to start because you'll get a lot of very saleable Raw Bristle Whisker Catfish as well as Raw Mithril Head Trout. Going coastal north of Theramore Isle along a beach with neutral turtles is a quiet, safe spot even for Horde players. You can catch a lot of Raw Rockscale Cod, Raw Spotted Yellowtail, Oily Blackmouth, and Firefin Snapper.

225-300: Tanaris. Most people don't equate a desert with great fishing, but Steamwheedle Port is the exception. This is another quiet spot with lots of good fish -- Raw Spotted Yellowtail, Firefin Snapper, Raw Glossy Mightfish, and Raw Summer Bass or Winter Squid depending on the season. You can stay all the way here to 300, although you can also move to Feralas or Winterspring around 275. There are good spots you can pick there for safe and dependable fishing.

Fishing Trainer Locations in WoW ClassicAlliance Fishing Trainers

Androl Oakhand: Rut'theran Village, Teldrassil, /way 56, 93.6

Arnold Leland: Canal by Trade District, Stormwind, /way 45.8, 58.2

Astaia: Temple Gardens, Darnassus, /way 47.6, 56.6

Brannock: Feathermoon Stronghold, Feralas, /way 32.2, 41.6

Donald Rabonne: Southshore, Hillsbrad Foothills, /way 50.6, 61

Grimnur Stonebrand: Forlorn Cavern, Ironforge, /way 48.4, 6.4

Harold Riggs: Menethil Harbor, Wetlands, /way 8.2, 58.6

Lee Brown: Goldshire, Elwynn Forest, /way 47.6, 62.2

Matthew Hooper: Lakeshire, Redridge Mountains, /way 26.8, 50.4

Paxton Ganter: Brewnall Village, Dun Morogh, /way 35.6, 40.4

Warg Deepwater: Thelsamar, Loch Modan, /way 40.6, 39.6

Myizz Luckycatch: Booty Bay, Stranglethorn Vale, /way 27.6, 77

Horde Fishing Trainers

Armand Cromwell: Magic Quarter, Undercity, /way 80.8, 31.2

Clyde Kellen: Brightwater Lake, Tirisfal Glades, /way 67.2, 51

Kah Mistrunner: Middle Tier, Thunder Bluff, /way 56, 46.8

Katoom the Angler: Revantusk Village, The Hinterlands, /way 80.2, 81.4

Kil'Hiwana: South of Blackfathom Deeps, Ashenvale, /way 10.8, 33.6

Lau'Tiki: South of Sen'jin Village, Durotar, /way 53.2, 81.6

Lui'Mala: Shadowprey Village, Desolace, /way 22.6, 72.6

Lumak: Valley of Honor, Orgrimmar, /way 69.8, 29.6

Uthan Stillwater: Bloodhoof Village, Mulgore, /way 44.6, 60.6

Myizz Luckycatch: Booty Bay, Stranglethorn Vale, /way 27.6, 77

Learning Expert Fishing at 150Expert Fishing - The Bass and YouOld Man HemingOld Man HemingExpert Fishing - The Bass and YouLearning Artisan Fishing - Nat Pagle QuestNat Pagle, Angler ExtremeNat Paglerecommended Nat PagleNat Pagle4 rare fish

Feralas Ahi: Feralas around /way 62, 51, by the Verdantis River southeast of Dire Maul

Misty Reed Mahi Mahi: Swamp of Sorrows around /way 90, 72, on the southeastern shore called Misty Reef Strand

Sar'theris Striker: Desolace around /way 25, 77, at Sar'theris Strand south of Shadowprey Village

Savage Coast Blue Sailfin: Stranglethorn Vale around /way 33, 32, on the Savage Coast to the south of Grom'gol Base Camp

Feralas AhiMisty Reed Mahi MahiSar'theris StrikerSavage Coast Blue SailfinSpecial Fishing ItemsFishing Poles

Pole Name

+Skill

Min. Skill

How to Get

Fishing Pole

purchase from Fishing & Trade Supply merchants for .

Blump Family Fishing Pole

Complete quest The Family and the Fishing Pole in Auberdine from Gubber Blump

Strong Fishing Pole

purchase from Fishing & Trade Supply merchants for

Big Iron Fishing Pole

+20

100

About 5% chance from Shellfish Trap in Desolace

Nat Pagle's Extreme Angler FC-5000

+25

100

Complete Snapjaws, Mon! from Katoom the Angler in The Hinterlands. Horde only

Arcanite Fishing Pole

+35

300

Rewarded from winning the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza

Fishing LuresAquadynamic Fish Attractor

Lure

+Skill

Min. Skill

Cost

How to Get

Shiny Bauble

+25

Fishing & Trade Supply merchants

Nightcrawlers

+50

Fishing & Trade Supply merchants; undead mobs

Aquadynamic Fish Lens

+50

Complete Electropellers from Wizbang Cranktoggle in Auberdine

Bright Baubles

+75

100

Fishing & Trade Supply merchants

Flesh Eating Worm

+75

100

Rare drop from Rotted One in Duskwood

Aquadynamic Fish Attractor

+100

100

Fishing & Trade Supply merchants or Engineers

Other Fishing Skill Enhancers

Item Name

Skill Up

How to Get

Lucky Fishing Hat

+5 when equipped

reward for Rare Fish - Keefer's Angelfish during the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza

Nat Pagle's Extreme Anglin' Boots

+5 when equipped

reward for Rare Fish - Brownell's Blue Striped Racer during the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza

Fishing

Enchant gloves to give +2 Fishing skill when worn.

from Enchanters, Formula: Enchant Gloves - Fishing drops in Hillsbrad Foothills

High Test Eternium Fishing Line

Click to enchant your Fishing Pole permanently. Cannot be moved to a different pole.

reward for Rare Fish - Dezian Queenfish during the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza

Stranglethorn Fishing ExtravaganzaSpecial Pools and Fishing ConditionsFishing Schools & WreckagesFishing

Firefin Snapper School - Hillsbrad Foothills, Wetlands, Stonetalon (Cragpool Lake)

Greater Sagefish School - Alterac Mountains, Stranglethorn Vale

Oily Blackmouth School - Darkshore, Silverpine Forest (lake around Fenris Isle as well as Coastal), The Barrens, Westfall, Loch Modan (the Loch)

School of Deviate Fish - oasis areas in The Barrens & waters inside Wailing Caverns.

Stonescale Eel Swarm - Azshara, Feralas, Tanaris

Floating Wreckage, Floating Debris - found in most 10+ zones, usually coastal but occasionally inland. May include Trunks that contain trade goods, potions, bags, money, and Uncommon items. Rarity and quality are based on the zone they come from.

Fish Caught at Different Seasons and TimesRaw Nightfin SnapperStonescale EelRaw Sunscale Salmon

6am - 12pm: Raw Nightfin Snapper, Stonescale Eel, Raw Sunscale Salmon
12pm - 6pm: Raw Sunscale Salmon
6pm - 12am:Raw Nightfin Snapper, Stonescale Eel, Raw Sunscale Salmon
12am - 6am: Raw Nightfin Snapper, Stonescale Eel

FishingWinter SquidRaw Summer Bass

Comments

Comment by Sindragozer

Great guide Quissy! I can really appreciate how in depth all of your WoWhead guides are, and will def be using them when Classic comes out! 5 stars! :D

Comment by Soko1off

Thanks for the guide!

I would also mention that fishing is the most 'bottable' profession - so if you do fishing for gold, you probably should think twice, because you'd need to compete with an army of fish bots.

The reasons for it are:
1. Low level requirements
2. Easy to make a bot and 3. Hard to track the bot (and ban the account), as it don't need to get inside the game and just watches the screen and clicks on the right pixel.

So go fish for fun or for help in leveling your other professions and farm gold elsewhere. And wait for the news about ban wave, if it ever comes.

Comment by wallrik

Hey Quissy, all the external images are linked insecurely. Can you please update the links to use https?

Comment by Brunhill

No raft or other water mount from Nat Pagle? I think MOP exp is where those came from. A raft would be nice though :-)

Comment by baldie80

I did start fishing in Vanilla when I was level 10 or so, but I quickly gave it up because of all the bag space it feels like it takes up. With the bank or AH being the only places to unload the fish for later, if you are tight for space from gathering or just trying to save vendor trash to level ability ranks fishing can feel like a burden.

Having a bank alt you can mail them to for storage helps, but you will still need to plan for fishing to be a major part of your play session or it will get annoying. Worth it for cooking or gold making, but like any other profession you will need to make time to level it or there’s no point taking it.

Comment by nuljones

Would be great to see a table of minimum requirements by zone - is there one?

Also, I'm fishing in Classic and finding you can level well beyond 75.

Comment by nansuu

"Fishing Profession Guide for WoW Classic"

This is the only Wow Classic guide that is not in the standard format, "ClassicWoW 'guide name here'"

Shouldn't it be called "Classic WoW Fishing Profession Guide" ?

Comment by ahanu

There doesn't appear to be a mention of the Darkwood Fishing Pole.

I've been trying to farm this item but not sure if it is available yet.

Comment by Affiniti

The minimum fishing skill requirement that existed in Vanilla also exists in Classic.

I can't confirm the accuracy of the entire list, but I discovered it when I went to go fishing in Redridge Mountains - and found out that the required skill of 55 from that list is correct :)(##RESPBREAK##)272##DELIM##Uchur##DELIM##

Comment by bipolargirl

I'm curious if the time it takes to gain one point on your fishing skill varies by area. For example, my fishing skill is 200. I'm fishing in Desolace and it seems I get one fishing level for every 5 fish caught. What if I went to a lower level area? Would I get one point per fish? Or less cause it's easier? What if I went to a higher level zone? How does that factor in?

Comment by bipolargirl

Comment by radlance

awful skill range for the zones table, the only thing that is most important in fishing guide. for example dont even try to fish in Stranglethorn Vale starting from 150, the fail rate is murderous

Comment by shinbou

I just wanted to add that the guide suggests to fish in Ironforge 50-75 but for some reason, you are unable to fish in Ironforge. You were able to fish in Forlorn Caverns back in the day but today I came there and it said there are no fish.

Comment by Icesabar

Is there a listed of what fish type will give a greater percentage of skill increase based on your current level? Fishing an area lets say from 150 to 225 is pretty vague. It would be nice to see something like try to fish for Raw Bristle Whisker Catfish 125 - 150 then fish for Raw Mithril Head Trout from 150 - 175, as an example.

Example

Comment by tedh1

Waypoints for the rare fish
/way Feralas 62 51 Feralas Ahi
/way Swamp of Sorrows 90 72 Misty Reed Mahi Mahi
/way Desolace 25 77 Sar'theris Striker
/way Stranglethorn Vale 33 32 Savage Coast Blue Sailfin

Comment by musclefollower

My comments on leveling from 225-300 (in a two night marathon) after getting the Nat Pagle, Angler Extreme quest:

I already had my Nat Pagle's Extreme Angler FC-5000 fishing cane to make it easier, got a stack of 20 x Bright Baubles and thanks to my alt engineer a good stack of 15 x Aquadynamic Fish Attractor ...

Go to FERALAS. Why? Because if you go to The Twin Colossals, there you can lvl from 225 to 260 easily in that little pond on the side of the road where Rexxar disappears, and then just walk a few yards up the road and get to the Jademir Lake area to level the rest up to 300. One advantage there is that in both places you will get Raw Sunscale Salmon and Raw Nightfin Snapper if you pick the 6pm-12am server time range for example, when both fish are available at the same time.

And different to many coasts or rivers, there will be no critters to bother you while you fish like crocs or murlocs... but... beware of the Jademir Dragonkin near the lake if you are low level! They'll kill you in just one hit. I did this with my lvl 59 hunter.

Twin Colossals: I stayed there fishing using the FC-5000 with baubles until I hit 260, because once I moved to the higher level area I needed to maximize the use of the Aquadynamic lures due to their shorter duration. You will get a ton of Raw Redgill, some Oily Blackmouth, and some Raw Mithril Head Trout. I got two Bloated Redgill and from them I got a Aquamarine and a Star Ruby.

Once you hit 260, move to the Jademir Lake, and you must use the Aquadynamic Fish Attractor all the way to at least 280, or it will all be fail, fail, fail every time that you throw the line. Once you hit 280 you will be able to use the baubles. Don't worry if you see many "Your fish got away" in a row (and this will happen for both the baubles and the attractors). The server seems to try to annoy you to see if you quit. Just keep going and it will come back to give you your catch. In this area you will get a lot of Raw Whitescale Salmon, a sporadic Raw Redgill, but you will also get Lightning Eel and Plated Armorfish.

See that these last two fish are not for cooking. SAVE THEM because you need 30 of each for the quests Craftsmans Writ - Lightning Eel and Craftsmans Writ - Plated Armorfish in Eastern Plaguelands. I was lucky that I got more Plated Armorfish than needed while leveling up to 300, and I only got short of 1 eel to complete the 30.

As I hit 300, and after catching over 580 fish, I got (combining both places):

1 x 34 Pound Redgill
1 x 40 Pound Grouper
1 x Superior Mana Potion
2 x Major Healing Potion
2 x Bloated Redgill
26 x Raw Mithril Head Trout
29 Lightning Eel
38 x Oily Blackmouth
82 x Raw Nightfin Snapper
86 x Raw Sunscale Salmon
97 x Raw Whitescale Salmon
167 x Raw Redgill

My cat pet will have fish to eat for a long time :-)

Comment by davedwtho

Why is Old Man Heming described as being "near the docks"? It's Booty Bay, it's all docks. He's actually far from where you get off the boat, down near the auction house and bank.

Comment by KnightTime

Going to share my own experience with the final push from 225 to 300. musclefollower's advice is very sound: you can pick up a lot of valuable fish (Nightfin Snapper and Lightning Eels, notably - Oily Blackmouth and Sunscale Salmon to a lesser degree) to make the return on the time spent worth it. The only issue is trying to fish Jademir Lake too early and getting many "lost fish" casts (425 skill for no "get-aways"). TIME IS MONEY, FRIEND!

Instead, I chose to go to AZSHARA and fish in the coastal waters. Important distinction: Azshara coastal (Southridge Beach/Shattered Strand) has a max level "get-away" of 300, easily mitigated with Bright Baubles and (later) Nightcrawlers or Shiny Baubles (no need to "over-lure" beyond the skill you need - better lures do NOT equal better catches, and excess skill above the get-away cap is simply wasted); the real moneymaker area in Azshara is the Bay of Storms/Hetaera's Clutch/Scalebeard's Cave sub-zone, where 330 skill is needed just to put a hook in the water, and get-aways can occur until 425 skill (like Jademir Lake in Feralas).

By just staying in the easier coastal waters near the beach or just slightly into the bay (but not labeled Bay of Storms above your minimap) for the leveling process, you can rake in a mix of Firefin Snapper, Stonescale Eel, and Winter Squid/Summer Bass (depending on the season). As an added bonus, one of the six Patch of Elemental Water in the zone is fishable with the lower skill requirement (non-Bay of Storms), so I fished next to that spawn point. The patches allow 2-4 casts (including get-aways) with a chance at 1 Essence of Water, 1-3 Elemental Water, or 1-2 Globe of Water per catch, and each patch has its own respawn timer ranging from 1-3 hours.

So, to the results!

It took 618 catches (of the total 1,242 to level from 1-300, so this is literally half of the total effort) to level from 225 to 300 over approximately 4 hours from 0830-1230:

Raw Spotted Yellowtail (265) - vendor at 4c each
Raw Rockscale Cod (49) - vendor at 4c each
Big-mouth Clam (58) - contains Zesty Clam Meat, sold on AH at 10s each
Iridescent Pearl (2), sold on AH at 1g50s each
Black Pearl (1), vendored at 10s each
Golden Pearl (1), sold on AH at 27g each

Raw Glossy Mightfish (45) - vendor at 6c each (personally, I cooked them for +10 stam buff food)
Firefin Snapper (53) - sell on AH at 30s each
Stonescale Eel (62) - sell on AH at 1g75s each
Winter Squid (71) - cook Grilled Squid and sell on AH at 75s each
Reinforced Locked Chest (2) - contains 1 Bolt of Mageweave, 1-2 Thick Leather, or 1-2 Rugged Leather - just chucked 'em

Lastly, I was able to fish three Patches of Elemental Water (13 catches), yielding:

Essence of Water (4) - sold on AH at 15g each
Elemental Water (5) - sold on AH at 3g50s each
Globe of Water (10) - vendored for 4s each

After the vendoring and AH sales, the 4 hours netted roughly 290g. Not shabby at all while leveling fishing skill - and yields will be even better in the Bay of Storms, now that I am max level.

One last general comment about fishing and frequency of skill increase: as a rule of thumb, divide your skill level by 25, then subtract 2 - this will be the number of catches ON AVERAGE that it will take to skill up (minimum of 1 catch, maximum of 10). So, at skill level 100 it will take 2 catches on average (100/25 - 2 = 2); at 250, it will be 8 catches (250/25 - 2 = 8). RNG may get it one or (on rare occasion) two catches earlier, or maybe one catch later.

Comment by Veradas

I just started fishing in the lake surrounding Astranaar and I keep losing the fish one after another. I am using the Blump Family Fishing Pole, both before and after applying a Shiny Bauble. My fishing lvl is 55. What am I doing wrong?

Comment by Reluvathel

Something to keep in mind while fishing: besides pools, there's no competition for fish. Having someone (or a bunch of someones) fishing next to you or fishing from the same body of water does not, in any way, influence the fish (and other paraphernalia) you get. Another thing is that fish are the only unrestricted source of profit in the game. What I mean by this is that fish aren't limited to mob / node spawns or drops. Every successful cast will yield a profit, even if it's just 1 copper. This is probably why fish sell to the vendor for so very little: otherwise, players could get obscenely rich without any interaction with other players. Fishing also doesn't damage your pole (though using it to beat up a random mob that decided to interrupt your placid weekend afternoon will). It's pure profit once you buy the pole and the training. The only thing you need to invest is time. As KnightTime points out, time is money. With enough time and dedication, you can absolutely earn a lot of money with fishing. It's not as exciting, or as fast, as other methods, but it is a more reliable source of income. The money will come. Fishing is for the patient capitalist, and as such it tends to be overlooked--but judicious choices yield amazing results, especially at early levels.

Comment by KC13

Over the past month or so, I have been maxing the fishing skill on 2 chars. One Horde and one Alliance. From my observations, there seems to be a built in bias towards the Horde. My Horde char easily skills up. It usually completes the fishing quests in under 15 minutes. Not so for the Alliance char. It takes from 3 to 10 casts more to achieve a skill up and the quests take forever. Just now, my Horde char completed a quest in under 10 minutes. I almost gave up on my Alliance char. After an hour, I decided to give it 5 more minutes or I was going to quit the quest. Finally it completed with 2 minutes to go on my self imposed deadline.

Is this just an aberration or have others experienced the same?

Comment by Macburns

Good guide the secret pool of water in Silithus at the Hive regal is a good place to get fish to level up to 300.

Comment by Tika1211

SEASON OF DISCOVERY:
The Expert Fishing - The Bass and You book for FISHING; that require 125 skill are NOT available at this time.
My little mage died many many times trying to obtain these books. This may change and might be like the other professions that require level 26. Just felt this was important to add so your characters do not have to suffer while attempting to get to Booty Bay and Ashenvale . Loving SOD though!

Comment by Coldbear

It's best to go to one of the ponds in the starter areas to get your fishing up to 25 or so before trying the cities, or you'll struggle a lot with "your fish got away".

https://www.wowhead.com/classic/guide/best-fishing-pools-farming-locations-classic-wow#four-best-fishing-locations-overall

Comment by Artora

Minor remark, but I noticed the Darkwood Fishing Pole is not mentioned in the fishing pole section of this guide. Rare drop from levels 10–20 zones, the inland spots, allegedly.

Comment by Gorgoth209

Iceflow Lake was a great spot for me and got zero trash.

Fishing Leveling 1-300 Guide - WoW Classic

Contribute