[Rho]

"If you ask me, the best part about fishing is its slow pace. It gives one time to think, to reflect on past events and to plan for future ones. Oh, and it's also a great excuse to drink. Heavily." - Nat Pagle

Why Fish?

Fishing is not an essential professional skill. Many citizens of Azeroth lead happy and forfilled lives without ever catching a fish. But there are plenty of good reasons to fish. Here is a summary:

• It is classed as a secondary profession. This means learning to fish does not limit what other professions you may learn.
• It can be relaxing. It gives space to think or socialise between adventures or battles.
• It is a good source of food, including food that gives "buffs" (bonuses to attributes).
• It can provide a modest income for little risk.
• It complements other professions, for example:
  • Cooking - most fish can be cooked.
  • Alchemy - some reagents can only be gained by fishing.
  • Tailoring - bolts of cloth can sometimes be recovered while fishing.
  • Leatherworking - leather can sometimes be recovered while fishing.
• It complements certain career classes:
  • Hunters - fish are a plentiful source of pet food.
  • Rogues - an occasional source of locked boxes to practice lock-picking skills on.
• It opens up a small number of additional quests, and allows a few dungeon creatures to be summoned.

In spite of these benefits, the main requirement for enjoying fishing is patience. Some people have patience, and some do not...

Want to learn? Great. Let's get you fishing straight away.

Learning to Fish: Your First Catch

To start fishing you must have reached at least level 5, and have at least 1 Silver 23 Copper spare cash. Now simply follow the seven steps below:

1. Find a Fishing Trainer. Every capital city (such as Stormwind) has one, but there are some in other zones. These people are found near water, where you might expect them. If you have trouble finding a trainer, ask a guard for directions. Learn the Apprentice Fishing skill from the trainer. This will cost 1 silver (assuming no reputation or rank related reductions). Alternatively, as Alliance at level 10 or above, you can ask Gubber Blump in Darkshore: Take the quest The Family and the Fishing Pole, and then talk to Gubber again and he will teach you to fish for free.
2. You will also need to buy a fishing pole. A basic Fishing Pole can be purchased from most Fishing Suppliers or Trade Suppliers. You will normally find a fishing supplier close to a fishing trainer. A basic pole will cost you 23 Copper (assuming no reputation or rank related reductions). More advanced poles may be available. These are discussed in detail below. You only need the most basic Fishing Pole to get started. Alternatively, Draenai can gain a Fishing Pole by completing the quest "Red Snapper - Very Tasty!" from Diktynna, in Azuremyst Isle. To confuse you, the quest introduces a method of fishing pools (the net) that you'll never use again.
3. Now travel to a starting zone, such as Elwynn Forest or Mulgore. Stand (or sit) next to a patch of water (lake, river or open sea), with a clear view of the water in front of you. Your feet must be on dry land - you cannot be swimming. It helps if you are safely away from enemies, so you are not engaged in combat while fishing. It is also helpful to be able to hear splashes in the water, so don't stand next to something noisy like a waterfall.
4. Equip your new fishing pole in your main hand. Now open your Spellbook and find the fishing skill. This will allow you to cast a line into the water. (Click the fishing icon. Drag the fishing skill icon onto the action bar, which will allow you to re-cast quickly using a hot-key.)
5. If your cast is successful, you will see a bobber appear in the water. If your cast did not land in fishable water (and you got a message to say so), try and find a wider area of water, or adjust where you are standing to face more water. If you cannot cast a line (you received a message telling you your skill was not high enough), you must travel to easier waters. I strongly suggest you learn in a starting zone.
6. Now wait for the bobber to splash.
7. As soon as the bobber splashes, reel your fish in (right-click once on the bobber). Finally, transfer the fish to your inventory: Congratulations - your first fish! If you hold down shift while clicking on the bobber, your catch will go straight into your inventory. Alternatively, select "auto-loot" on the interface options screen. If there was nothing on your hook, you reeled in at the wrong time: Either too late or too early. If "your fish got away" (a specific message), either you were unlucky, or you are fishing in an area which is too difficult for you to catch everything. Some fish will get away until your skill improves, but you will catch most in starting zones.

Like other professions, your skill in fishing is expressed as a number. Skill is 1 when you first train, but you can improve this to 375. You improve your fishing by successfully catching something.

The only factor that determines skill is the number of successful catches. It doesn't matter where or when or what you fish, so long as you catch something.

For about your first 90 catches each catch will increase your skill by one. As you become more advanced it will take more and more catches to advance another point. The table below shows the approximate number of successful catches required to increase your fishing skill by a point. It shows two different estimates - one by Noressa (as quoted by Highlander) and one by Ardeaem/Tedeum. A good "rule of thumb" is to subtract 75 from your current skill, and divide the result by 25 ( (skill - 75) / 25). However, the process is random: The number of catches per skill increase is not constant. Use the table as a guide only. Some people have told me that the more intelligent the individual, the faster their skill will rise. I have not seen any evidence for this, and I have compared a highly intelligent gnome with a somewhat less intelligent dwarf.

Catches Required to Gain a Point of Skill

Number of Successful Catches Required to Gain a Point of Skill	Current Fishing Skill (by source)
	Noressa/Highlander	Ardeaem/Tedeum	El
1	-	1-87	-
2	100	88-112	-
3	115	113-137	-
4	140	138-162	-
5	165	163-187	-
6	190	188-212	-
7	215	213-237	-
8	240	238-262	-
9	265	263-287	-
10	290	287-300	-
10.5**	-	-	300-340
11.5**	-	-	340-375

** Above 300, each skill gain takes at least 10 catches, but the precise number varies: Between 300 and 340, an average of 10.5 catches per skill point; 340-375 an average of 11.5 catches per skill point.

About 2,100 catches are required to train from skill 1 to 375, of which 800 are between 300 and 375. Assuming an average catch rate of 3.5 fish a minute (for the dwarves, that's 7 whole fish every 2 minutes), 1 to 375 will take 10 hours of continuous fishing to learn.

Why improve skill?

So why develop your fishing skills? There is one reason: Higher skill is required to fish in areas with "better" fish.

That's all. Higher fishing skill does not specifically:

• make you fish quicker,
• reduce the proportion of casts that do not bite,
• increase the probability of catching "better" fish in a given area - it just allows you to fish in areas where better fish are more likely to be caught.

To quote Tigule and friends: "The Fishing skill only determines whether you catch a fish, it does not determine what the fish is or how fast it is caught." In case you are wondering why I choose to cite the maker of a leading brand of ice cream as an authority on the subject, I once extracted Tigule's Harpoon from the corpse of Gahz'ranka. He clearly takes his fishing very seriously.

Locations

Each area has a base skill requirement to fish in. If you do not meet this requirement, you can't even cast a line (you will be told that you don't have sufficient skill to fish there when you first try and cast). However, having sufficient skill to cast a line is not the only limitation. If your skill is less than about base skill requirement plus 95, you will find a proportion of your fish "get away" - the bobber splashes, but no fish are hooked. Assume that if you are only about 45 or 50 skill points above the base skill requirement, around half your fish will get away.

A fish that gets away gains you nothing: Neither the fish, nor an improved skill. Fish that get away increase the average amount of time for each catch. If you are catching something particularly valuable, you may be prepared to accept a proportion will get away. Normally avoid fish "getting away".

There are some incredibly detailed lists of what fishing skill is recommended to fish in what area. After considerable research, I believe the table below summarises the base fishing skill requirements of zones accurately.

Zone Fishing Skill

Base Fishing Skill Required to Cast	Skill Required to Stop Get-Aways	Zones
<1 (-70?)	25?	Azuremyst Isle, Dun Morogh, Durotar, Elwynn Forest, Eversong Woods, Mulgore, Teldrassil, and Tirisfal Glades.
<1 (-20?)	75?	The Barrens, Blackfathom Deeps, Bloodmyst Isle, Darkshore, Darnassus, The Deadmines, Ghostlands, Ironforge, Loch Modan, Orgrimmar, Silverpine Forest, Stormwind City, Thunder Bluff, The Wailing Caverns, and Westfall.
55	150	Ashenvale, Duskwood, Hillsbrad Foothills, Redridge Mountains, Stonetalon Mountains, and Wetlands.
130	225	Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Desolace, Dustwallow Marsh, Scarlet Monastery, Stranglethorn Vale, Swamp of Sorrows, and Thousand Needles.
205	300	Azshara, Felwood, Feralas, The Hinterlands, Maraudon, Moonglade, Stranglethorn Vale, Jaguero Isle, Tanaris, The Temple of Atal'Hakkar, Un'Goro Crater, and Western Plaguelands.
305	400	Zangarmarsh east Umbrafen Lake, The Lagoon, plus named areas near lakes, such as Twin Spire Ruins.
330	425	Azshara, Bay of Storms, Hetaera's Clutch and Scalebeard's Cave only), Burning Steppes, Deadwind Pass, Eastern Plaguelands, Feralas, Jademir Lake, Scholomance, Silithus, Stratholme, Winterspring, and Zul'Gurub.
355	450	Terokkar Forest (Silmyr Lake, water near Tuurem), Zangarmarsh west Marshlight Lake, Sporewind Lake, Serpent Lake).
380	475	Nagrand (including Halaa and the Elemental Plateau), Netherstorm (Eco-Dome Midrealm).
395	490	Nagrand, Lake Sunspring and Skysong Lake.
405	500	Terokkar Forest, Blackwind Lake, Lake Ere'Noru and Lake Jorune.

Rules governing fish location

There are a few basic rules which determine the location and availability of most fish. These are true most of the time:

1. Within one zone, different types of fish can be caught in inland water areas to those in coastal areas. Normally every part of that zone's coast will give the same types of fish. It doesn't matter where you stand. The same is true for inland water areas. There are some exceptions to this rule. For example, in Azshara, the Bay of Storms (including Scalebeard's Cave and Hetaera's Clutch) differs from other coastal regions of Azshara.
2. The ease of eating the fish (the minimum level required to eat it) broadly reflects the prevailing level of the monsters and quests in the area it is caught in. For example, starting zones are teeming with Raw Brilliant Smallfish, which almost anyone can eat (level 5), but you won't see a Furious Crawdad (level 60) until you fish in the hardest waters of Outland.
3. There is a split between freshwater and saltwater fish. Most fish are found either on the coast, or inland, but not both. For example, Raw Whitescale Salmon are only found inland, while Stonescale Eel are only found on the coast. A few fish may be found both on the coast and inland, such as the Darkshore Grouper and Oily Blackmouth.
4. More valuable fish are often found in at least one zone with a higher base skill requirement and one zone with a lower base skill requirement. The catch rate in the higher-skill zone may be greater than the catch rate in the lower-skill zone. For example, it is possible to catch Stonescale Eels off the coast of Feralas or Tanaris. But the best location for Stonescale Eels is Azshara, where the skill requirement is very high.
5. Catches of certain fish vary by time of day or season. The variation by time of day (known by experts as the "6 hour rule"). Be aware that just because a source such as Thott's book says you can fish Raw Sunscale Salmon in the pools and rivers of the Hinterlands, does not necessarily mean they can be fished at 03:00. There are also two known seasonal fish - Winter Squid and Raw Summer Bass which switch at the spring and autumn (fall) equinoxes. Squid can never be caught during the summer. Bass can never be caught during the winter. Read the Catching Winter Squid topic for more information.

To find where to catch a specific fish, use the Fish Finder. For a complete list of which fish can be caught in which areas of open water, read the Gazetteer topic.

And you thought fishing was just a case of casting your line and waiting for a fish to bite... right? To quote a wise gnome, "Easy to learn, hard to master."

[Rho]

An Introduction to Pools

Conventional "open-water" fishing is endless. There is no need to move or do anything other than cast your line and reel in your catch. Pools of fish (schools, shoals, circles, holes) are similar to other "node-based" resource gathering, such as mining ore veins. Pools appear at points in the water. Once a few (typically 4-6) fish have been caught from them, the pool disappears, and you must look for an alternative pool to fish from. Otherwise, pools remain until fished.

Pools look like swirling patches of water, clearly visible from nearby land. (Moving the cursor over the pool will tell you what the pool contains - for example "Firefin Snapper School" mostly contain Firefin Snappers.) To fish from a pool you must have sufficient fishing skill (with any gear or lure bonuses) to meet the base skill requirement of the area you are fishing in. Stand a short distance away from the pool, facing it, and cast. The bobber must land within the swirling water, or very close to the edge. If it doesn't land correctly, recast until it does. There is no way to control precisely where the bobber lands, so you might need to cast several times. When the bobber splashes, reel the line in as normal to recover your fish.

Azeroth Pools

Pools can only be found in certain zones.

Azeroth Pools and Zones

Pool	Zone
Deviate Fish	Inland oasis areas of The Barrens.
Firefin Snapper	Coastal areas of Arathi Highlands, Azshara, Desolace, Dustwallow Marsh, Feralas, Hillsbrad Foothills, Stranglethorn Vale, Tanaris, and Wetlands. Stonetalon Mountains, Blackwolf River/Cragpool Lake as "Oil Spills".
Greater Sagefish	Inland areas of Alterac Mountains (Lordamere Lake) and Stranglethorn Vale (Lake Nazferiti).
Oily Blackmouth	Coastal areas of Arathi Highlands, Azshara, The Barrens, Darkshore, Desolace, Dustwallow Marsh, Feralas, Hillsbrad Foothills, Silverpine Forest, Stranglethorn Vale, Tanaris, Westfall, and Wetlands.
Sagefish	Inland areas of Ashenvale, Hillsbrad Foothills, Loch Modan, Silverpine Forest, and Stonetalon Mountains, Mirkfallon Lake.
Stonescale Eel	Coastal areas of Azshara, Feralas, Stranglethorn Vale (south of the Grom'Gol only), and Tanaris.

Each of these pool types can be replaced by a pool of wreckage. These are fished in precisely the same way.

In addition, there are three particularly unusual pool types, which are described separately:

• Patches of Elemental Water - Azshara, Bay of Storms area.
• Tastyfish - Stranglethorn Vale, during the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza. They temporarily replace all other pool types along the coast of Stranglethorn Vale.
• Muddy Churning Waters - Zul'Gurub.

Pools appear at a fixed set of possible locations within a zone. Not all locations will have a pool at any one time. In most zones, each possible spawning location may contain any of the pool types that appear in the area. For example, a pool along the coast of Hillsbrad Foothills may contain Firefin Snapper, Oily Blackmouth or wreckage. However, coastal and inland pools are completely separate sets, so inland pools in Hillsbrad Foothills will only ever contain Sagefish or wreckage. Within some zones there are several distinct sets of pools. For example, in Azshara, Elemental Water pools never interchange with the other types of pool found in Azshara. In Stonetalon Mountains Sagefish pools are restricted to Mirkfallon Lake, while Oil Spills are restricted to Blackwolf River/Cragpool Lake.

Pools called "School of Red Snapper" can be found close to the Draenai starting area, near Ammen Ford. These pools cannot be fished conventionally with a fishing pool. They can only be fished as part of the quest, "Red Snapper - Very Tasty!" from Diktynna, in Azuremyst Isle.

Outland Pools

These pools can only be found in Outland (available with The Burning Crusade expansion):

Outland Pools and Zones

Pool	Zone
Bluefish School - Icefin Bluefish	Nagrand.
Feltail School - Spotted Feltail	Terokkar Forest, Zangarmarsh.
Highland Mixed School - Furious Crawdad and Golden Darter	Terokkar Forest (Blackwind Lake, Lake Ere'Noru and Lake Jorune).
Mudfish School - Figluster's Mudfish	Nagrand.
Pure Water - Mote of Water	Nagrand.
School of Darter - Golden Darter	Terokkar Forest.
Sporefish School - Zangarian Sporefish	Zangarmarsh.
Steam Pump Flotsam - Heavy Supply Crates and Steam Pump Debris	Zangarmarsh.

Pools of wreckage do not appear in Outland, except the Steam Pump Flotsam in Zangarmarsh.

Tracking Pools

A Weather-Beaten Journal can be found in many fished-up crates and trunks, specifically Curious Crates, Heavy Supply Crates, Iron Bound Trunks, Mithril Bound Trunks, Watertight Trunks, and (very rarely) Tightly Sealed Trunks. The type of pool the container is fished from does not matter (based on Public Test Realm experiments).

The journal teaches the ability "Find Fish", which makes "nearby fishing nodes appear on the minimap" - just like tracking abilities for minerals and herbs. The journal binds when picked up. A fishing skill of 100 is required to learn the ability. The picture shows the ability being used to highlight the location of nearby pools.

Curious Crates seem to give the best catch rate, with almost half of all crates containing a Weather-Beaten Journal. Curious Crates are caught from any pool in Outland - about 4% of the catch. No pools primarily contain Curious Crates, which means that if you specifically want a journal, it may be easier to fish the pools of wreckage in Azeroth containing Iron Bound, Mithril Bound or Watertight Trunks.

For those with little fishing skill, the easiest source of journals are Watertight Trunks, which are found in floating wreckage pools in Ashenvale, Hillsbrad Foothills, Stonetalon Mountains and Wetlands. All these areas requiring just 55 skill to cast, 150 to stop get-aways. About one in five Watertight Trunks should contain a journal. Experienced fishermen and women should find a journal easily, while fishing pools for other fish - they aren't terribly rare!

Journals can only ever be caught by anglers who do not know the Find Fish ability and do not already have a journal in their inventory. (Knowledge of the Find Fish ability automatically deletes the journal from the container, which can be shown by trading containers between anglers with/without the ability.) Unopened containers caught by an angler without knowledge of Find Fish can be traded to others. Those others will only be able to see journals if they have trained to fish. This means that one angler can supply crates containing Weather-Beaten Journals to other anglers, as long as the first angler has not learnt the Find Fish ability themselves. Those who have not trained fishing will now not be able to open trunks containing journals, yet they can open trunks that do not contain a journal. This means mailing trunks to a friend ((or "alt")) that knows nothing about fishing will now show whether a trunk contains a journal or not.

Pool Spawning

All pools are grouped into linked sets, even though they seem to be separate. Each zone has at least one set, and at least one set per inland or coastal area in that zone. Each set consists of a series of possible locations where a pool might appear. The number of possible locations in the set varies by area.

When a pool appears it can be of any type possible in the set. For example, if an area can contain Oily Blackmouth and wreckage pools, either of these two types can appear at any of the possible pool locations. Some sets contain only one type of pool (such as Patches of Elemental Water). Others contain four different pool types (such as the coast of Feralas).

The probability of a specific type of pool appearing might be equal for all pool types in the same area. In the previous example, an Oily Blackmouth pool might be just as likely as a wreckage pool. "Cherry picking" means that you are more likely to find one pool type than another pool type.

Cherry picking involves fishing only one type of pool in an area, and leaving all the others. Once pools appear, they remain until fished completely. However, the type of pool that eventually "replaces" the one that is fished, is not decided by the type of pool that was originally fished. So in the previous example, if you were to fish only wreckage pools, and ignore the Oily Blackmouth pools, eventually there would be far more Oily Blackmouth pools to fish than wreckage pools: When a wreckage pool is fished, there is only a 50% chance of a wreckage pool appearing to "replace" it. So for every two wreckage pools you fish, only one new wreckage pool will appear. To maintain a steady supply of wreckage pools to fish, someone needs to be fishing the Oily Blackmouth pools too.

There appear to be three principles that determine pool spawns within a set:

1. There are a fixed number of pool spawning locations in the set, any of which may spawn. Be warned that there may be several sets in any one zone.
2. There is a maximum number of pools that will be visible at one time across the set, regardless of time since last catch. This is typically between 30-50% of the all possible pool spawning locations.
3. For medium and high level fish/pools: Each pool will commonly respawn 60-65 minutes after it was last being fished (emptied). However, this time period is variable: It is very unlikely to respawn in less than 40 minutes, but will sometimes take as long as 90 minutes. This rule does not apply for pools such Deviate Fish or Sagefish. Some pool types may use different time delays.

In simple terms, if nobody else has fished recently, fishing one pool empty will cause another pool in the set to spawn. For low-level fish, such as Sagefish in Mirkfallon Lake (Stonetalon Mountains), there will always be a fixed number of pools available to fish (in that case, two). For most pools, if you fish all the pools in the set faster than the time delay on respawning, eventually you will run out of pools to fish, and will need to wait for them to respawn.

Unusual Pools

Patches of Elemental Water and Pure Water

In Azshara, pools called "Patch of Elemental Water" may be found. The pools look like bright blue swirling masses of gas, but may be fished just like other pools. From the pools you can catch Essence of Water, Elemental Water and Globe of Water.

In Nagrand (Outland) similar-looking pools called "Pure Water" can be found that contain Mote of Water.

Muddy Churning Waters (Zul'Gurub)

Most of the waters in Zul'Gurub contain similar sorts of fish to the hot springs of Winterspring. Some argue that they are easier to fish, because you can reach the water without fighting the trolls. (You will need to part of a raid group to enter Zul'Gurub.) In the waters around the centre island, you will find pools of "Muddy Churning Water". From these you can fish Zulian Mudskunk. Each pools contains 2-4 fish. Zul'Gurub, like many higher-level dungeons, has a base fishing skill requirement of 330. The pools are surrounded by packs of nasty looking crocodiles, so cannot be easily fished alone.

The only reason to fish these pools is to summon Gahz'ranka. You will also need a Mudskunk Lure, which can be obtained from Nat Pagle after completing the quest "Nat's Measuring Tape". That quest starts at Nat's Battered Tackle Box, at Pagle's Point in Zul'Gurub. The lure requires five Zulian Mudskunk per summoning. While Gahz'ranka rarely carries much of value, most who fight it find bouncing up and down in the water a strangely entertaining way to finish off a visit to Zul'Gurub.

Strange Pool (Serpentshrine Cavern)

In the Serpentshrine Cavern (within Coilfang Reservoir) is a large patch of blue glowing water called a "Strange Pool". This pool contains the same fish as the Greater Sagefish pools in the Alterac Mountains and Stranglethorn Vale - Raw Greater Sagefish and some Ironbound Trunks. After fishing for a period (up to 20 minutes, but quicker with more people fishing), a rare "fish" will be summoned -The Lurker Below - one of the dungeon's bosses. (The precise skill required to fish the Strange Pool is unknown, but commonly stated as "300 plus lures" MMO-Champion Boss Killers. This would be consistent with the 305 or 355 skill required to cast in Zangarmarsh.)

Pool of Peacebloom

When flying between Stormwind and Ironforge, you may briefly notice a single pool in the elevated lake north of Northshire Valley. The pool is simply called "School of Fish". Empello has managed to fish from this pool, and writes: "The first catch was 3 Peacebloom and the second catch was 3 Peacebloom. After about 20 catches I had about 60 Peacebloom (varied from 1-4 per catch)."

Money-Making Strategies

Pool fishing can be surprisingly profitable. This is still true after the disappearance of "bloated fish" from pools, which were, quite literally, stuffed with valuable gems (these were removed in patch 1.11). The three fish used in Alchemy are always in demand. Even Stranglekelp will fetch a reasonable price at the Auction House. You will rare fill your bags with "vendor trash" when fishing pools.

In most cases, the best profits are to be made from fishing wreckage pools. The contents of a single Mithril Bound Trunk typically sells for about one gold at the Auction House. Bolts of Mageweave and Runecloth sell particularly well to tailors. For those fishing in easier waters, bolts of Woolen Cloth and Medium Leather will still sell for some Silver. Equipment, such as rings and bags, are now less commonly fished from pools than was the case when bloated fish were caught. But there is still about a 1 in 10 chance that trunk will contain uncommon equipment or bags.

If you fish every pool type, you can expect to fish about 20 pools an hour. From those you should expect about 10 trunks and 50 fish. Assuming reasonable Auction House prices, that's over 15 gold per hour from the hardest waters (those where Mithril Bound Trunks and the odd Stonescale Eel can be caught).

There are a few issues to consider when fishing pools for profit.

If you are trying to fish wreckage pools in the same area over several hours, you will need to fish all the other pool types too. This will ensure enough wreckage pools appear. Alternatively, keep on moving between different zones, or rely on other people to fish your unwanted pools.

The proximity of pools to each other, the total number of pools in the area, and the rate at which pools reappear are important factors. Ideally you want a location where pools are very close together, so you spend less time walking or riding between them. If the area is popular with other fishermen and women, the more pools the better. Otherwise, the rate at which they reappear becomes more important.

For example, one of the best locations for less experienced fishermen and women (around level 20 with about 100 fishing skill), is Mirkfallon Lake in the Stonetalon Mountains. It contains about 5 or 6 possible pool locations, all very close together. The pools reappear very rapidly - there always seem to be two. Although Sagefish are not the most prized fish, they cook up into a tasty Smoked Sagefish. And a proportion of pools will be wreckage pools. The main disadvantage of the area is that there are only enough pools to allow one person to fish efficiently.

Slightly more experienced fishermen and women tend to favour Stranglethorn Vale. The waters here are the easiest to fish of any location where Mithril Bound Trunks can be caught. The zone also has more possible pool locations than any other. However, Stranglethorn Vale is commonly fished: It has more possible pool locations, but often has less active pools than quieter zones. For those with sufficient fishing skill, places like Feralas can sometimes allow more catches.

Lastly, where the factions are at war (PvP realms), consider the amount of enemy activity carefully. When fishing in open water one can usually find a quiet part of the zone, safely away from other people. Pool fishing not only exposes you to attack while fishing, but also while moving between pools. And some zones are notoriously dangerous - not least Stranglethorn Vale.