Fishing for a Turtle.

I love fishing, but even after thousands of casts, I still hadn’t fished up the Sea Turtle needed for the Salty title. I fish every time I log in – to level it, to do achievements, for cooking, to get the Pagle rep etc etc and still the mount hadn’t dropped. Typical.

Anyway, I was casually fishing for the final couple of fish for the Nat Pagle rep when all of a sudden I LEAPED out my chair…

I love the animation of this little mount, and he has a very cute face. Totally worth the time spent!

Fishing for a Ring.

Last weekend I heard that by winning the Stranglethorn Vale Fishing Extravaganza you not only get an achievement, but you can choose between some prizes (fishing rods, boots, vanity items etc), but one in particular caught my eye:

This in itself was motivation enough for me to go and win it. An extra 5% xp for my alts? Yes please!!

All you have to do, if you’re not aware, is catch 40 Speckfled Tastyfish. Once you’ve done this, you must hand them into Mr Riggle Bassbait who is just outside the Inn in Booty Bay, on the dock. First 3 people to do this get the achievement and a prize. It also counts towards your Salty title, so what are you waiting for?!

Also worth noting that there are rare fish you can also catch which can yield rewards… +5 fishing items and Nat Pagle gear.

So off I trundled at 12.30pm for the 1pm start (that’s 2pm server for you Europeans!), set my hearthstone at Booty Bay then placed myself here:

My tactic was simple: let everyone else panic about spawning points, but remain in the same area to reduce downtime between fishing. I assumed most would stick to Southern Stranglethorn (I was right), and those who did venture up north were doing laps up and down the river. The lake here has about 6 spawn points, and even if someone comes to fish there, another spawns as they do so. There are mobs in this area, so if you’re a lowbie, clear the area first.

You know it’s started by a /yell, so make sure you have your chat on. Also, this is how the winners are announced. Do keep going if first place is announced, as you could be second or third – there are prizes for all 3 and an achievement remember!

I got my 40 Speckled Tastyfish and hearthed back to hand in to was a full 3minutes in front of second place. The area became quite crowded at around the 20minute mark when most people were starting to hand in their quests from different servers, so a /tar macro may be a good idea.

Here are my (definitely non-pro!) tips for winning:

1. Get there early, so you can seize up the competition and get sorted
2. Set your hearth to Booty Bay
3. Put your fishing pole on a keybind and turn your settings up – I struggled to see the pools on my ‘low’ graphic settings. If you don’t land it in the pool, you’re wasting valuable time fishing up junk.
4. Put your sound on, just incase you miss the bob of the bobber.
5. Clear your bags (enough for the 2 stacks of fish and your prize!)
6. Choose your prize in advance – you don’t win til you hand the quest in, so no faffing!
7. Try not to move too far between pools, this creates downtime between casts.
8. Don’t steal other people’s pools, and move on if they steal yours – it’s not worth it.
9. If you have anything less than max fishing, use a lure. You don’t want to not use one for the sake of a missed catch.
10. Keep calm, but concentrate. Keep trying if you don’t win first time, a lot of it is luck on the amount of people entering that week.

Anyway, I was dead chuffed with my ring and now Mr B wants me to do it for him so he can have one. I really recommend you give it a go – yes, stressful, but reaps rewards.

I hope this has been a tiny bit helpful if you haven’t yet attempted it!

Mrs B’s Noob Guide to Fishing

Following on from my Archaeology guide (http://wp.me/p34kY5-2p), it’s now time for some fishing.

Fishing on my raft with my “Dragon Fishing Pole” (requires, Anglers – revered)

There are loads of good fishing guides, but as with a lot of WoW things, it doesn’t tell you the basics in laymans terms. That’s what I’m here for!

The Basics

• 4 secondary professions: Archaeology, Fishing, Cooking, First Aid
• Learnt from the appropriate trainer in each city: ask a guard then look for the arrow on your mini-map (I didn’t realised it showed you the way – thick or what!)
• Broken down into levels of 75 points (although you can train the next level after 50 points) which you need to go back to the trainer in order to progress. I definitely did not grind for an hour before realising I couldn’t gain more points because I hadn’t trained…
• Accessed by pressing ‘P’, clicking ‘Professions’ (the little tab at the bottom of the pop up page), then pulling the icon out (shift+click) onto your toolbar. (N.B. You can bind this button to a key so you’re not clicking it every 17seconds – it’s much faster!)

Fishing in 3 steps:

1. Use the ‘fishing’ button to cast the line – it’s like a channelling spell, click it once and watch the magic
2. Hover your cursor over the bobber in the water (look, it turns into a funky fishing icon!) – when it bobs (can be tricky to see, having the sound turned on helps, as it makes a splashing sound), click it
3. Loot the fish

Getting Started

• You need to be level 5 to learn the skill
• You don’t need to have a pole or a lure, but you can purchase these from a fishing trainer in a major city – some poles/lures give extra fishing skill so they’re worth investing in
• DO THE DAILIES! They give you bonus skill points and a loot bag – you can get lots of cool stuff from them. Also, the Darkmoon Fair once a month gives extra easy skill ups too
• You can fish anywhere – as long as the water is deep enough. You could level it all in one place – but this is incredibly boring.

Levelling Up

• This is the boring bit… you cast your line… and you wait. REMEMBER TO TRAIN EVERY 50-75 LEVELS.
• I reccommend you pick the highest level zone for your skill and fish there. If you’re levelling cooking at the same time, you will want to do some research about where to get the fish you need
• Pools: these are little nodes where fish congregate, dotted around any body of water – salt or fresh. You’re more likely to catch fish rather than junk grey items, so they’re better to fish in.
• Weather Beaten Journal: your best friend. This is looted from either a daily reward or fished from a wreckage (floating piles of wood) dotted about in coastal waters. Once you get it, learn it, and turn on ‘track fish’ (the magnifying glass by your mini map). This will show all fishing nodes as yellow dots, making it much easier to see them.
• You can also loot and buy fishing items which increase your skill, I would really reccommend you equip these as it’s quicker and easier to fish with them. Totally ruins your transmog, but heyho.

Achievements

Again, for an achievement-holic like I am, this profession holds a lot of excitement. It’s also a big – as Mr B would say – “time sink”. You spend hours doing these achievements.

Some of my favourites are:

• The Coin Master: this involves sitting at the fountain in Dalaran and fishing endless hours for the coins that you can catch. If you get a GOLD coin, throw it back into the fountain. This will give you a short buff which will make it more likely to fish up another coins. You should be able to catch enough coins with the buff to catch other gold coin so you have a continual buff which helps a lot with this achievement.

On my ‘Mushroom Chair’ (Molton Front dailies) fishing at Dalaran coin fountain

• The Lurker Above: in Serpentshrine Cavern. I just like that you can fish up a massive fish and can then kill it. Awesome.
• Outland / Pandaria (etc) Angler: you know me, I like sightseeing and these achievements gets you out in the world fishing in lots of cool places.
• Tournaments: search your calendar and wowhead for more info – they’re really fun but I’ve yet to win one!

I hope I have enlightened you – happy fishing!