Fishing items

This page details items obtained by fishing. There are many kinds of items that can be caught using the fishing skill; fish, containers, and other objects.

Fish
In WoW, some fished water (or lava) creatures are not fish in a biological sense, although most are fish. There are many kinds of fish that can be caught. Most fit a specific game function category; some fish overlap more than one category.

Fish listed on this page are caught by fishing, but some mobs, such as murlocs will drop some these same fish, and some vendors sell some of these same fish.

Some fish are only sold by vendors and cannot be caught by fishing. These are just like any other vended food, but have the food type 'fish' which matters mainly to hunters for their hunter pets.

Some fish, such as the Threshadons, are water mobs and are killed in combat, not fished. Mobs have a graphic model that can be interacted with. Fished items generally have no specific graphic representation until they are caught, then appear as an inventory icon.

Some fish, such as the Loch Modan, can be both fished or hunted as water mobs.

Normal fish
Normal fish are the most frequently caught. They are a free source of food and skillups for cooking, although they do not provide buffs like some other cooked foods. If you're able to heal yourself or have a reliable supply of bandages, you probably won't need to bother keeping the normal fish you catch, unless you are a hunter with a fish eating pet. If you do not need the cooking skill-up, note that cooked fish generally sell for a higher price to a vendor, while in the auction house, raw fish often carry a premium.

The raw fish have the item type and subtype Trade Goods, Meat. This is where you will find them in the auction house. This is true even for the ones that can be consumed raw. The cooked fish have the item type and subtype Consumables, Food.

Buffing fish
Cooking these Buff fish adds an additional buff to their raw use of health restoration. You may only have one 'well fed' food buff at a time. Food buffs stack with every other buff, whether from a potion or a spell. As above, the raw fish have the item type and subtype Trade Goods, Meat, where you will find them in the auction house. This is true even for the ones that can be consumed raw. The cooked fish have the item type and subtype Consumables, Food. Raw Lightning Eel is a Trade Goods, Other. In the Wrath of the Lich King Expansion, many of the cooked fish can make use of the Northern Spices that are available from the new cooking dailys to cook up a higher quality buffing food. The Wrath expansion also added 2 anomalous fish that provide a buff without being cooked, and "feasts" which are buffing food for a group that takes multiple ingredients. As these are all "Buffing Fish" I have included them here as well.

Alchemic fish
Some fish are used in Alchemy to create potions and oils. Alchemic fish have the item type and subtype Trade Goods, Other, except Deviate Fish is a Consumable, Food & Drink.

Quest fish
Some fish are the object of a quest. They may or may not have other uses, and may appear in other sections of this page detailing that use.

The quest fish that are only used in a quest are typically a quest item type, and can only be caught while you are doing the quest. These will also typically have no vend value. Red Snapper, a typical quest item type quest fish, cannot be fed to a cat hunter pet that eats fish.

Some of these quests are repeatable, and the quest fish for repeatable quests are typically not a quest type item, can be caught, traded, and vended normally.

Speckled Tastyfish are the object of the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza fishing competition, and disappear from all players' inventory four hours after the competition, so that each week's competition starts with zero fish already caught. The secondary 'quest' for these fish is a special turn-in to redeem these fish for cash before they disappear.

Special Notes:
 * The quest is no longer required to raise fishing from 225 to 300.  Simply visit the appropriate fishing trainer.
 * †|Royal Monkfish Can also contain Set of Rusty Keys or Slimy Ring

Trophy fish
See main article.

Certain uncommon fish can be caught which can be wielded in the off hand, with the exception of the trophy groupers and trophy lobsters which can not. Equipping the trophy fish in the off hand will not show the fish on the character, but if the trophy fish is equipped, typing 'z' to show the wielded weapons will show the trophy fish.

Trophy fish are wieldable objects, they do not stack in your inventory, each takes a slot, except see the wieldable cooking ingredient fish, which do stack.

There are three major subcategories of trophy fishes:

Most (older) trophy fish are a variation of a normal or buffing fish, but unlike their non trophy counterparts, these trophy fish cannot be eaten as fish nor used in recipes. They are available in what appears to be a partially populated range of sizes, specified in pounds of weight. Since there is a consensus of which few sizes are available, it appears that these are generated off a table, not at random over a range of values.

The main purpose of these fish is to be displayed proudly to other players. They can be fed to hunter pets that eat fish, but only producing the same results as feeding a normal fish of that type, there is no benefit from the specialness nor extra size. These trophy fish can be sent via mail, sold to vendors, sold on the auction house, and traded. The demand in the auction house is low, but they do sell, and you can get surprisingly much for your trophy fish on occasion. The item type and subtype for these fish is Miscellaneous, Junk. This is where you find them in the auction house.

These fish include the following:

The Burning Crusade added two fish which can both be trophy fish or can be used in cooking recipes (see above):


 * Enormous Barbed Gill Trout
 * Huge Spotted Feltail

These have the Miscellaneous, Junk type and subtype, even though you might expect them to be Trade Goods, Meat items.

These bind on pickup and cannot be traded, and are very rare (estimated roughly 0.1% of catches in their respective locations.)


 * Old Crafty adds +5 Stamina when wielded off hand. Caught in the fishing pond in Orgrimmar.
 * Old Ironjaw adds +5 Stamina when wielded off hand. Caught in the waters or lava in Ironforge.

The quest fish Feralas Ahi can be wielded in the off hand as a trophy fish, but the Feralas Ahi can only be caught when you are on the quest, the fish has the unique property, so you can only have one, and the fish must be turned in to complete the quest which grants artisan level fishing skill, raising the fishing skill cap from 225 to 300, so most people who catch it will prefer to turn it in than to display it. It can be used as a trophy fish while you are on the quest.

Low Quality Fish
The item type and subtype for these fish is Miscellaneous, Junk.
 * Felblood Snapper, can be fed to a fish eating pet.
 * Sickly Fish is a "skill too low" junk item; it cannot be fed to your pet.
 * Water Snail is a "skill too low" junk item; it cannot be fed to your pet.
 * Goldenscale Vendorfish, a rare fish which sells to vendors for 6 gold.

Mr. Pinchy
This very rare fish has a few magic effects. He binds on pickup. You'll need flight capability to even try to obtain him. Mr. Pinchy has three wish charges with one of five possibilities.


 * Mr.Pinchy's Blessing
 * 500 Health for 2 hours


 * Furious Mr.Pinchy
 * Summons a Giant Pinchy Crawdad that will attack you


 * Benevolent Mr.Pinchy
 * Summons a Giant Pinchy Crawdad that will fight with you


 * Mr. Pinchy's Gift
 * Contains 4-5 Super Healing Potion or Super Mana Potion


 * Magical Crawdad Box
 * Teaches the Companion Pet Magical Crawdad

Containers
Several kinds of containers can be fished.

Containers must be opened in order to loot the contents. After the container is fully looted, the container disappears. Except Clams (since Patch 3.0.2) containers do not stack in your inventory, each takes a slot. Looting them can often save space, since the loot will often stack.

If a container looks empty, but does not disappear, it still contains a item that you cannot see. Often the item is a, which is not visible to you once you have learned the skill it grants. These containers can be sold to other players who need the Weather-Beaten Journal.

Container fish
The Bloated variety of container fish are exceptionally rare fish caught in the same waters of their non-bloated counterparts (with the exception of the Giant Sunfish and the Barbed Gill Trout; the trout being a quest fish). They all can be caught in the same area as the non-bloated variety, but are only containers; they can't be used as food and disappear after they are opened. A few of these fish are part of fishing quests and require catching and opening to obtain the quest objectives. A number of them are required to complete the and

Clams
Various Clams can be fished and should be opened for clam meats and occasional pearls. With Release of Patch 3.0 clams are now stackable. Except for the Brooding Darkwater Clam which is a rare clam you will sometimes obtain and is often seen as a result of this post: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=9957005708&pageNo=2&sid=1#32


 * Small Barnacled Clam
 * Thick-shelled Clam
 * Big-mouth Clam
 * Jaggal Clam
 * Darkwater Clam
 * Brooding Darkwater Clam
 * Giant Darkwater Clam

Venture Company crates
These infrequently-found non-locked Venture Company crates are labeled "Venture Company Supplies" and always contain a small quantity of engineering supplies such as Rough Blasting Powder, Iron Strut, etc.
 * (level 15)
 * (level 25)
 * (level 35)
 * (level 45)

Trunks & Crates
These boxes may also contain the Weather-Beaten Journal which is used to learn Find Fish.

Locked chests
These infrequently-found chests are locked and can be opened by a rogue or blacksmith and/or engineer. These chests have rather disappointing contents compared to the Trunks routinely fished from Floating Wreckage.

Other
Message in a Bottle are infrequently found from ocean fishing in zones of level 20-40. Contents may include: Inscribed Scrollcase, found in Outland, contains scrolls.
 * Scrolls (Scroll of Protection, Scroll of Spirit, etc.)
 * Recipes (Plans, Schematics, etc.)
 * Damp Diary pages

Potions
Various common potions are occasionally caught while fishing.

Rumsey Rums
Several varieties of Rumsey Rum brand alcoholic beverage are occasionally caught while fishing from Floating Wreckage. In addition to getting you drunk, these provide a stamina buff.


 * Rumsey Rum Light
 * Rumsey Rum Dark
 * Rumsey Rum Black Label

Crafting ingredients
Several items generally obtained through other means can also occasionally turn up while fishing.


 * Coal, from Un'Goro Crater (Fire Plume Ridge).
 * Deviate Scale, from The Barrens (Oases and The Wailing Caverns).
 * Peacebloom, from the "School of Fish" in Elwynn Forest. The pool, located in an elevated lake north of Northshire Abbey, cannot be reached by normal means.
 * Stranglekelp, worldwide.

Elemental goods
These drop from various elementals, but can also be fished. Azshara sometimes has Patch of Elemental Water Pools that will spawn, and Nagrand will sometimes have Pure Water Pools. These pools have an increased rate of elemental water catches.


 * Elemental Water
 * Essence of Water
 * Globe of Water
 * Mote of Water
 * Crystallized Water
 * Elemental Fire, from Un'Goro Crater (Fire Plume Ridge).
 * Essence of Fire, from Un'Goro Crater (Fire Plume Ridge).
 * Heart of Fire, from Un'Goro Crater (Fire Plume Ridge).
 * Volatile Water
 * Volatile Fire

Herbs
In an unfinished area above and to the north of Northshire Abbey, the fishing pools produce only peacebloom.

Weapons and Armor
Various weapon items or armor items are occasionally caught while fishing. This list is not intended to be an all inclusive list, but only a list of those items that you can ONLY obtain via fishing. The Crushfish, Strongfish and Herring have the added benefit of looking like fish as you wield them. (Refer to Foodfight for other weapons that look like food)

Weapons and armor unique to fishing:
 * The 1 Ring, named in reference to The One Ring from The Lord of the Rings, which was also caught by fishing. Can be fished worldwide in low level areas, but is very rare. It carries a high price at auction.
 * Broken Wine Bottle, a one-handed mace can be fished from The Sludge Fen in The Barrens.
 * Steelscale Crushfish, a one-handed mace caught off the coast of Wetlands or Hillsbrad Foothills
 * Rockhide Strongfish, a one-handed mace caught rarely from Speckled Tastyfish Pools during the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza
 * Dustbringer, a dagger. Can be caught in any non-pool water in Northrend.
 * Dark Herring, a dagger. Caught in the waters of Grizzly Hills or Howling Fjord

Fishing equipment

 * The Darkwood Fishing Pole, an extremely rare +15 fishing pole, can only be obtained by fishing. If you can find one, it fills a void in the fishing pole progression. Do not expect to find one in the auction house.
 * The Weather-Beaten Journal can only be obtained by fishing. It is not fished directly, but is fished in box-like containers. It is not equipment used while fishing, but rather teaches a skill useful for fishing - tracking fishing nodes on your mini-map.

Vendor Quality Items
Various Vendor trash items can be caught while fishing.

The mechanics of fishing skill level were changed significantly in Patch 3.1. Prior to 3.1, each zone had a minimum skill requirement to be able to cast in that zone, and a cap where you achieved a 100% catch rate in that zone. In between there was a chance your fish could "get away"; you would catch nothing and receive no skill-up for that cast.

As of 3.1, there is no longer a minimum skill requirement to fish in any zone, and all casts will catch something and award a chance for a skill-up. However, if your skill level is too low for a zone, you will catch mostly junk items. The skill level required to guarantee "no junk" catches is equivalent to the old "no get away" level.

The following list of "junk" items are specific to fishing:


 * Driftwood
 * Tangled Fishing Line
 * Tattered Cloth vends for
 * Weeds
 * Sickly Fish; while this is a fish, it is one of the "skill too low" junk items, and has no fish properties; you cannot feed it to your pet.
 * Empty Rum Bottle
 * Old Boot
 * Rock vends for
 * Tree Branch
 * Water Snail; while this is a mollusc, which are typically treated as fish in WoW, it is one of the "skill too low" junk items, and has no fish properties; you cannot feed it to your pet.
 * Acidic Slime
 * Old Skull
 * Old Teamster's Skull, a reference to Jimmy Hoffa.
 * Old Wagonwheel.
 * Rusted Engineering Parts
 * Seaweed
 * Steam Pump Debris vends for
 * Broken Engine Part vends for

Quest items
Some fished items are the object of a quest. These are typically a quest item type, are only used in that quest, and can only be caught while you are doing the quest. These will typically have no vend value, but note that 'Strange Engine Part' can be caught outside the quest (since it starts the quest) and vends for. The quest is repeatable, although you can only have one active quest at a time.

Raid boss

 * , a boss in Zul'Gurub in Stranglethorn Vale is spawned by luring him out with Zulian Mudskunks. Catch 5 Zulian Mudskunk and use a Mudskunk Lure at Pagle's Pointe. The Mudskunk Lure is bought from Nat Pagle in Dustwallow after completing the quest Quest:Nat's Measuring Tape. Requires 300 fishing. (Zul'Gurub is a level 60, 20 man instance, although most of it can be solo'd by level 80 players.) See Quests section above.
 * , a boss in Serpentshrine Cavern in Coilfang Reservoir, can only be spawned by fishing. Fish in the area and eventually you will 'catch' him.