Fishing: How Profitable Is It?

Just how profitable is fishing in Wotlk? Well we had estimated that farming [Eternal Fire] brought in 600g/hr, this is a bit lower now due to falling prices of eternals and other materials. Fishing just by itself, after 5.5 hours of testing, comes out to 300g/hr. This is not a bad ratio since you don’t come across any problems like the other farming methods in this game. There is rarely any competition, ganking, repairs, bad re-spawn rates, ect. Now this figure is just from from the Fishing profession alone and does not include possibilities from Cooking/Alchemy. All items fished up were given an estimated price that it will go for on the auction house, thanks to Allakhazam.com. Some prices were rounded down to give more of an outcome on the lower end of the spectrum. You should expect a higher gold per hour if you choose to cook certain fishes for resale or use them in a [Northern Spices] recipe for the high end raid foods. Of course keep in mind the gold you will be saving by providing your own fish when making your favorite raid consumables.

The Experiment

For this test we fished in a wide variety of areas to find out the average gold per hour possible while fishing. Some areas were more profitable than others as well as fishing from pools vs. open water. Adjust accordingly if you plan on making the maximum possible gold by fishing for high valued fish on your server. Each location was fished for 30 minutes each and they do not include the maximum amount of casts possible in the given time. This is because we wanted an average rather than a figure due to someone with 100% focus on the bobber and casts. Fishing should be a nice relaxing activity that allows you to chat with friends, watch TV, or do other things in the mean time. Below is a spreadsheet and some notes about each location fished.

The Frozen Sea- South of Borean Tundra where all the icebergs are. Requires a flying mount or [Elixir of Water Walking] to get to this location. Fishing skill needs to be at 575 to avoid any get aways. The fish out here are used for one of the feasts and spirit food. Both are worth more than the average fish on the auction house.

Borea Tundra (Coast) – After two stacks of [Imperial Manta Ray], started fishing open water for clams. The meat can be used to make [Dalaran Clam Chowder], a popular food that do not require spices. Great for hybrid classes that benefit from SP/AP.

Dragonblight (Inland)- Mainly fished for Dragonfin pools, with a few open water catches while waiting on a very short pool re-spawn timer. This highly sought after fish is used for [Blackened Dragonfin] and [Dragonfin Fillet]. The latter is usually what tanks use for raids.

Dragonblight (Inland) II – Came back to this area to try and farm [Pygmy Suckerfish] which only has a 10% drop rate in open inland waters. Alchemists can turn this fish into [Pygmy Oil] and then used for various items. Notably the two 15 second DPS potions [Potion of Speed] and [Potion of Wild Magic]. While these are not as popular as they could be, they may be in higher demand as harder raid content is released. Remember this is one of those items that there is a low supply of, waiting for an increased demand can mean profit if you wait it out.

Howling Fjord (Coast)- Fished purely in open water, this is one of these first places you may fish in when you enter into Northrend. Mostly fished up [Bonescale Snapper] which are used in the hit rating food [Snapper Extreme].

Grizzly Hills (Inland Open) – Did not fish in the Glacial Salmon pools here, but you can if you need fish for feasts or [Firecracker Salmon]. Mainly tried to farm [Pygmy Suckerfish] to test drop rates.

Sholazar Basin (Inland) – Tried to mostly fish in the pools of [Nettlefish], another required fish for feasts or the critical strike food [Spicy Blue Nettlefish].

Other Notes – The new [Fish Feast] is coming out in patch 3.08 and will require a total of 6 fish and 1 spice. Doing this experiment net me about a 100 of each type of fish, which is enough for 50 feasts. Recent PTR builds reduced the number of [Northern Spices] needed from 4 down to 1. So for the price of one spice, you will be able to feed a raid of 25. Although various raiders may use another type of food buff, this is still great for the slackers that don’t bring their own food.

Other Benefits of Fishing

• Relaxing activity, easy, uses 1-2 buttons, able to chat, watch TV, ect. during it
• Provides own fish for popular raid food buffs
• Chance to fish up rare [Pygmy Suckerfish], used in DPS potions.
• During queues, rez sickness, deserter, or other downtime situations you can fish for a quick profit.
• Chance to fish up cloth, ore, leather, pearls
• Once at max fishing skill, everyone is on equal footing, not a gear dependant activity

For more information,visit one of the most popular Warcraft fishing sites, elsanglin.com