Fishing Poles & Gear

fishing equipment cataclysm fishing guide featured image

While fishing skill itself has been less impactful since the Wrath of the Lich King changes, when you aren’t fishing from pools, your fishing skill can still mean the difference between reeling in fish and reeling in junk. You can’t always find a pool, and when you’re open water fishing, you’ll be glad you have the right fishing pole and other equipment that improves your fishing skill.

This guide will list all of the available fishing equipment in Cataclysm Classic, and explain how you can acquire it! If you’re looking for a specific type of equipment, use the Contents button to quickly navigate to the relevant section.

Fishing Poles

The quintessential fishing gear — without a pole, you can’t fish. The rest of the equipment in this guide is optional, but you’ll need to pick up one of the poles below before you begin your fishing journey.

Fishing Pole
Skill
Bonus
Min. Fishing
Skill
Min. Character
Level
How to Acquire
+0
1
–
Sold by any Trade Supplies or Fishing Supplies vendor.
+3
1
5
Reward from Alliance-only quest A Taste for Grouper
+5
10
5
Sold by most Fishing Supplies vendors in major cities.
+15
50
15
Very rare catch, fished from inland open water in Ashenvale, Duskwood, Hillsbrad Foothills, Redridge Mountains, Stonetalon Mountains, and Wetlands.
+20
100
25
Found in Shellfish Traps along the southwest coast of Desolace, southwest of Shadowprey Village
+20
100
44
Reward for the Horde-only quest Snapjaws, Mon, and the Alliance-only equivalent, Snapjaws, Lad
+20
200
62*
Reward from Rather Be Fishin’
+25
225
35*
Reward from Nat Pagle, Angler Extreme
+30
300
70*
Drop from Bag of Fishing Treasures as a reward from Northrend Fishing Dailies (less than 1% chance)
+30
300
70*
Drop from Bag of Fishing Treasures as a reward from Northrend Fishing Dailies (less than 1% chance)
+30
300
68**
Sold by Kalu’ak Quartermasters Sairuk at Moa’ki Harbor in Dragonblight and Tanaika at Kamagua in Howling Fjord after reaching Exalted with the Kalu’ak
+40
300
–
Reward from winning the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza

*Must be the indicated level to accept the quest
**You can’t get Exalted with the Kalu’ak without being at least level 68, as that is the minimum required level for starting their quest chains

Saats’ Fishing Pole is a reward from a fairly easy quest, A Taste for Grouper, that requires you catch x4 Darkshore Grouper — which can be caught in the ocean by the quest-giver. You’ll need to complete the first two zone quests, The Last Wave of Survivors and Threat from the Water, before you can access this quest, however.

The Darkwood Fishing Pole is the rarest pole you can find, which makes its lack of sizeable fishing bonus strange. There is a lot of speculation online about what the best way to find it is, but the only thing we know for sure is that it has been fished up from open water in Ashenvale, Duskwood, Hillsbrad Foothills, Redridge Mountains, Stonetalon Mountains, and the Wetlands. Additionally, bold (or high level) players can try to farm Mystral Lake in Ashenvale (50, 70) — many Darkwood Fishing Poles have been found in those dangerous waters.

shellfish trap cataclysm fishing guide
A shellfish trap

If you want the Big Iron Fishing Pole, head to the waters southweste of Shadowprey Village in Desolace. There, dive into the water and check the Shellfish Traps — there is about a 1.5% chance of finding the pole in a given trap, which maths out to over 100 traps before you find one on average. You can make this search easier with an Elixir of Waterbreathing, or the spell Water Breathing. You can also get your breath back via the Bubbly Fissures on the sea floor in the area.

Nat Pagle’s Extreme Angler FC-5000 is a quest reward that binds on pickup. For Horde players, it’s a reward from the quest Snapjaws, Mon — the Saltwater Snapjaws mobs you have to kill for this quest are found along the coast of the Hinterlands, north of the quest giver. For alliance players, you can go talk to Dron Blastbrew in Stormfeather Outpost, The Hinterlands for the equivalent Snapjaws, Lad!

Seth’s Graphite Fishing Pole is rewarded to players who turn in Rather Be Fishing. It can be a bit confusing, because you turn in Pristine Shimmerscale Eels, which aren’t something you can fish up — rather, they drop from the Shimmerscale Eels in Slimyr Lake, northeast of Shattrath.

One of the best poles you can get at low level, Nat’s Lucky Fishing Pole is a reward from quest. It requires a lot of fishing, but you’ll be glad you did so, assuming you plan on fishing in open waters. Note that you cannot pick this quest up until character level 35, fishing skill 225. To complete the quest, you have to catch four different types of fish in four different locations:

Check out the maps below to make it easier to find where you need to fish. Make sure the location named above your minimap is the correct location. For example, if you’re trying to fish on the Savage Coast, ensure you can see that place name above your map before you start fishing. Also make sure you are fishing open water in the indicated areas. Additionally, you’ll want to check the no-junk fishing skill lists in our Locations guide to make sure you’re prepared to fish the open waters of each area.

Gear & Consumables

As we mentioned above, open water fishing is impacted significantly by fishing skill, so if you plan on doing any, you’ll want more than a fancy pole — fancy gloves, fishing line, and hat will complete your angling attire.

Gear
Slot
Fishing Skill Bonus
Other Bonuses/Features
Minimum Fishing Skill Required
How to Acquire
Feet
+15
Use to teleport to Booty Bay
200
Glove Enchant
+5
–
–
Enchantment
Glove Enchant
+2
–
–
Enchantment
Line
+5
–
150
Reward from Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza; sometimes found in the Dalaran Fishing Daily Quest rewards
Head
+5
+15 Stamina
1
Feet
+5
+12 Stamina
1
Line
+3
–
300
Head
+5
+40 Spirit
+40 Stamina
Use to gain +75 Fishing Skill for 10 min
–
Consumable
+10
–
–
Crafted by Cooking
Consumable
+50
–
–
Found in the Underbelly of Dalaran

You’ve got a lot of options, and fortunately, acquiring the gear and consumables in the table above is not nearly as difficult as getting the fancy fishing poles.

All of the items available from the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza can be earned by bringing specific fish — that can be caught only during the competition — to Riggle Riggle Bassbait :

Captain Rumsey’s Lager necessitates the Cooking profession, but isn’t too hard to craft after you acquire the recipe in one of the Dalaran Fishing Daily Quest reward bags. The lager’s ingredients can be purchased from Kylene in Shattrath’s Lower City, or Sarah Brady in Dalaran’s Underbelly. You only need to spend 16silver for enough materials to craft 5 lagers, so if you do want to fish open waters and need to break 450 fishing skill, it’s worth taking the time to do so.

While you’re in the Underbelly, you might also want to try getting the Underbelly Elixir, which as you might imagine is found in the Underbelly. However, after you drink the Elixir you still only have a 1 in 3 chance of actually getting the fishing buff (the effect is random), so you will have to grab a few Elixirs to ensure you get the Hungry Tuskarr buff. Note that the elixirs respawn quite quickly after being picked up, so you can farm quite a few before heading off to your fishing spot. Mounting will remove the buff, so don’t drink your elixirs until you are prepared to start fishing!

Lures

Lures are items you can use to temporarily buff your Fishing skill, and serve as one of the only ways to get your fishing skill high enough to open-water fish in the more challenging zones. Right click the a lure, and it will apply the buff to your equipped fishing pole! A new Cataclysm lure, the Heat-Treated Spinning Lure, is crafted by Engineers. Another new lure can be made by cooks, the Feathered Lure.

Lure
Skill Bonus
Duration
(min)
Min. Fishing
Skill Req.
Cost
How to Acquire
+25
10
1
50copper
Many vendors, reward from quest.
+50
10
50
–
Reward from quest (you receive 25)
+50
10
50
–
Drop from Undead
+75
10
100
2silver50copper
Many vendors
+75
10
100
–
Drop from Rotted One in Duskwood
+100
10
100
2silver50copper
Many vendors or crafted by Engineering
(150 Skill, 2 Bronze Bar, 1 Nightcrawlers,
1 Coarse Blasting Powder)
+100
10
100
–
Found in Bag of Fishing Treasures
(Outland Daily Fishing Quests reward)
+100
60
100
–
+100
10
100
–
Crafted via Cooking
+150
15
250
–
Crafted via Engineering

Click on an item to see which vendors it can be purchased from, or which mobs drop it (where applicable).

Miscellaneous

The following items do not increase fishing skill, but are still fishing related, mostly because serious anglers will want to look the part. The Lure Master Tackle Box is a new addition: crafted via Engineering (475), it has 36 slots and can be used to store fish and fish-related gear.

 

About the Author

DanielD

An avid reader of sci-fi, fantasy, and history. Believes disagreement should mean discourse, not flame wars. Still searching for that next game that grabs him the way (those mimics in) Dark Souls did.
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

1 Comment
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Wesley
Wesley
16 days ago

NIce article, isnt there also a piece of cloth chest that has fishing stats on them ? Im going to review the sim tool it also has a gear inventory about fishing skills. And ill add details to this post if I find them.

Scroll to Top