Fishing Poles & Gear - Cataclysm Classic - Warcraft Tavern (2024)

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.

^{*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.

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:

• x1 Misty Reed Mahi Mahi – Misty Reed Strand, Swamp of Sorrows
• x1 Sar’theris Striker – Sar’theris Strand, Desolace
• x1 Feralas Ahi – Verdantis River, Feralas
• x1 Savage Coast Blue Sailfin, Savage Coast, Stranglethorn Vale

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.

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 :

• Lucky Fishing Hat – x1 Keefer’s Angelfish
• High Test Eternium Fishing Line – x1 Dezian Queenfish
• Nat Pagle’s Extreme Anglin’ Boots – x1 Brownell’s Blue Striped Racer

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 16 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.

^{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.

• Fishing Chair – Relax while you fish!
• Blue Overalls – Help you look just a little more like a true fisherman/fisherwoman.
• Captain Sander’s Shirt – Goes great with the overalls.
• Fingerless Gloves – Keeps your fingers free to unhook fish.
• Russet Hat – If you haven’t found a true fishing hat yet, this will let you fake it (it has the same model as the Lucky Fishing Hat).
• Studded Hat – A more modern fishing hat look.
• Lure Master Tackle Box – 36 slots for all your fish and fish-adjacent storage needs