Hal SudsworthHal Sudsworth

Guide

Fishing & Cooking 1–300

Both skills to 300 by level 35, Alliance or Horde. Four stages, and each one ends with both capped. Under every step there's a line on why, for the day the water doesn't do what the guide says.

Apprentice: 1 to 75

Character level 5.

  1. Buy a Fishing Pole and one Shiny Bauble from any fishing or trade supplier, and learn Fishing and Cooking from the trainers in your home town.

    A starting zone stops losing fish once your skill reaches 25. The bauble adds 25 for ten minutes, so every cast lands from the first one, and skill comes about a point a catch this early, so you're past 25 on your own before it wears off. One is all you need.

  2. Fish the water for your race, below, until you have about 80 Raw Brilliant Smallfish. Keep fishing after you hit 75.

    These spots give more smallfish than the rest of their zones. Tirisfal's lakes give too much junk, so undead do better crossing to Durotar. Skill stops at 75 until you train again, but the fish still count: they're your cooking for this stage and the next.

    RaceWhereZone
    Night elvesLake Al'AmethTeldrassil
    Humansthe pond in Goldshire, not Crystal LakeElwynn Forest
    Dwarves and gnomesIceflow LakeDun Morogh
    TaurenStonebull LakeMulgore
    Orcs and trollsthe pond at Sen'jin VillageDurotar
    Undeadthe pond at Jaggedswine Farm, outside OrgrimmarDurotar
    SkyborneWindsong Lake, or the water in ValanaarZephras Isle

  3. Keep every Raw Longjaw Mud Snapper that comes up. You'll land forty or so without trying.

    They're the cooking for the start of the next stage.

  4. Cook Raw Brilliant Smallfish up to 65 Cooking. Keep some raw.

    Smallfish goes grey at 85, so it's still giving skill at 65. The raw ones are for the Fish Bowl, the first camp item Fishing makes.

  5. Cook Raw Longjaw Mud Snapper to 75 and stop.

    Anything you cook past your cap is wasted, and you'll want the rest of the snapper in a minute.

Journeyman: 75 to 150

Character level 10, and 50 in each skill. The catfish recipe needs level 15.

  1. Learn Journeyman Fishing and Cooking from any city trainer. Alliance can also train Fishing with Donald Rabonne on the pier at Southshore.

    You're going to Hillsbrad anyway.

  2. Cook the rest of your Raw Longjaw Mud Snapper up to 110 Cooking.

    Snapper doesn't go grey until 130, so it's still paying out, and it cost you nothing.

  3. Buy the Bristle Whisker Catfish and Mithril Head Trout recipes. Alliance: Lindea Rabonne at Southshore sells both. Horde: Derak Nightfall in Tarren Mill sells the catfish; Shankys in Orgrimmar and Lizbeth Cromwell in the Undercity sell the trout. Buy five Nightcrawlers while you're at it.

    You won't cook the trout until the next stage, but you'll be nowhere near a seller when you need it.

  4. Fish the river in Hillsbrad Foothills until Fishing reaches 150. You'll catch over a hundred Raw Bristle Whisker Catfish.

    Hillsbrad lets you fish at 55 and stops losing fish at 150, so the Nightcrawlers carry you through the early part where fish still get away.

  5. Cook Raw Bristle Whisker Catfish from 110 to 150, then stop and keep the rest raw.

    Catfish doesn't go grey until 180. The ones you keep take you most of the way through the next stage.

Expert: 150 to 225

Character level 20, and 150 in each skill.

  1. Buy Expert Fishing, The Bass and You, from Old Man Heming in the bottom shack at Booty Bay in Stranglethorn Vale. In the Booty Bay Port Authority, Kelsey Yance sells the Mithril Head Trout and Filet of Redgill recipes; buy both.

    Filet of Redgill is what takes Cooking from 225 to 300, and Booty Bay is the only place that sells it.

  2. Buy the Expert Cookbook. Alliance: Shandrina, the trade goods seller in southern Ashenvale. Horde: Wulan, the cooking supplier at Shadowprey Village in Desolace.

    Nobody else sells it, and it's the one thing in this guide each side buys somewhere different.

  3. Buy twelve Bright Baubles and fish the twin lakes outside Stromgarde in Arathi Highlands until Fishing reaches 225. When the baubles run out, eat a cooked Raw Bristle Whisker Catfish.

    Arathi needs 130 and stops losing fish at 225, so you need the baubles at first. Bristle Whisker Catfish gives +8 fishing for fifteen minutes when you're Well Fed. These lakes give the most Raw Mithril Head Trout in the zone and nothing wanders by to bother you.

  4. Cook Raw Bristle Whisker Catfish to 175, then Raw Mithril Head Trout to 225. Sell the trout you don't need.

    Nothing from this stage is needed at Artisan.

Artisan: 225 to 300

Character level 35, and 225 in each skill.

  1. Take Nat Pagle, Angler Extreme from Nat Pagle on his island in Dustwallow Marsh, and bring a Bright Bauble for each of his four fish.

    His fish only bite while you have the quest, and only in their own stretch of water.

  2. Buy two dozen Bright Baubles and fish for Raw Redgill until Fishing reaches 300, in The Hinterlands, Moonglade or the rivers of Feralas near Camp Mojache. It takes four or five hours, so empty your bags first.

    All three need 205 and stop losing fish at 300. Bright Baubles last ten minutes; the Aquadynamic Fish Attractor gives more but lasts five, so over five hours it costs more. I'd pick the Hinterlands: about one catch in sixteen there is a Big-mouth Clam, and every one has Zesty Clam Meat inside, which you'll want for the next step.

  3. Take Clamlette Surprise from Dirge Quikcleave at the inn in Gadgetzan, Tanaris. He wants 12 Giant Eggs, 10 Zesty Clam Meat and 20 Alterac Swiss. While you're in Tanaris, buy the Nightfin Soup and Poached Sunscale Salmon recipes from Gikkix at Steamwheedle Port.

    Swiss is sold by cheese vendors in most cities. Giant Eggs drop from about a third of the rocs in Tanaris and the owlbeasts in the Hinterlands, the low-forties ones being the easiest at 35. Gikkix's two recipes use the Raw Nightfin Snapper and Raw Sunscale Salmon you've been catching, and both sell.

  4. Cook Raw Redgill into Filet of Redgill from 225 to 300.

    You'll have far more than you need.

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