10-19 19s Fishing Guide

necroaqua

Grandfathered
This is gonna be a short guide to fishing that applies to the last few months of legion. Not super useful, but I thought I would write up a bit of the stuff that I learned while leveling fishing before BfA.

Fishing will see changes in BfA, and I’ll try to update the guide when it does. For now, its suspected that professions will be split and level gated by expansion. So instead of 375 fishing, it might be 75 BC fishing. Instead of 525, it’ll be 75 Pandaria fishing. The hope is that they won’t remove fishing levels from toons that already have them. Since you can get up to max fishing (800) in legion, it may be worth leveling fishing as high as you can before fishing as you probably won’t be able to once the BfA pre-patch comes out.


I’ll also cover various fishing gear and buffs, the STV Fishing Tourney, and things you can do on your main to help your twink out.

  • Leveling Fishing
  • Gear, Enchants, and Lures
  • Items
  • STV Fishing Tourney
  • Anglers Rep
  • Fishing on your main
  • Toys, Achievements, and Interesting Fishing spots


Leveling Fishing

There are a few ways you can level fishing.


Just fish

The simplest way to level fishing is pretty obvious. Just fish. It’ll take more fish per level as you get higher - but it never scales to absurd levels. You can just keep fishing and you’ll make progress. Doesn’t really matter where. Fishing in orgrimmar or ironforge is going to level you just the same as dalaran or the broken shore.

Since this takes many many hours and can be boring if you try to power through all at once, a lot of people like fishing in small amounts while waiting for other things. Waiting on a bg or dungeon queue? Catch a few fish while you wait. Maybe aim for an achievement or rare drop.


Darkmoon Faire

For one week each month the darkmoon faire is in town. Like all professions, there is a fishing quest that can be done once per faire: Spoilin’ For Salty Sea Dogs. It requires 75 fishing to get the quest (TODO - see if buffs can unlock the quest?) and rewards 5 fishing levels for finishing the quest. The quest requires you to catch 5 sea herring, so head south to the docks. If your fishing level is high enough, you’ll be able to catch them fairly regularly from open water. If your fishing level isn’t high enough to do that, you’ll want to search for pools of Shipwrecked Debris. You won’t catch trash from pools and will have a 100% drop rate on the quest fish. You can find these pools near the shore of the entire island, and sometimes near small rocks just offshore. Track Fish and a raft can greatly help find these pools. You can also use the Darkmoon Fishing Cap to spawn a pool if you have it.


Fishing Dailies

Each faction’s 3 original home cities offer a daily fishing quest. They are on the same daily timer, so you can’t do the quest from Orgrimmar and then Thunder Bluff on the same day. These are generally small tasks in and around the city that will reward you with 1-2 fishing levels and a Bag of Shiny Things. While the 1-2 fishing levels are nice, it would generally be faster to get those levels by just fishing. The real reason to do these quests are the rewards from the bag. You’ll usually get trash, lures, and low level pots - but there are some very good rare rewards that make this worth doing. There are also achievements for completing each of the possible quests in a given city, so feel free to switch it up a bit to earn those achievements for different cities.


BoA Books

This one requires a high level character that has done some significant fishing, but if you have multiple twinks then it may be worth investing the time into a high level character's fishing. Nat’s Fishing Journal is sold by Nat Pagle in Pandaria. It requires ‘Good Friend’ status with Nat Pagle and costs 800-1000g depending on reputation. It increases your fishing by 50 up until level 600. Note that you can easily “waste” these items if you haven’t learned enough skill from the trainer. If you are at 274/300 - then using the book will put you at 300/300. If you instead fish to 275 and unlock the next tier of fishing to get 275/375 then you’ll be able to use it without wasting any levels. Also note the requirement to use the book seems to be looking at your effective fishing level - so if you’re unable to use the book, try taking off your fishing gear.


Nat returns in WoD, but uses the same reputation. He also has an updated fishing journal that works until 700. Since this one costs a special currency that is quite a pain to farm - its not worth using this before 600 while you can still use the MoP journal. It may not even be worth it after 600. The amount of fishing you would need to do on your main to unlock one journal is probably enough to get 50 levels on your twink.


I’m not sure when exactly you are unable to use these books. I attempted to use one at 599/700 and was unable to.

Recommended Path

If you have ‘Good Friend’ status with Nat Pagle and ~10k gold isn’t a problem for you, then Purchase the BoA fishing Journals up to 600. Do the darkmoon faire quest when available and the fishing daily in the city of your choice while there are any rewards you want. Then just fish.


If you have multiple twinks you want to level fishing on (at least 2 or 3) and you don’t currently have rep with Nat Pagle, it may be worth getting Nat Pagle up to ‘Good Friend’ to be able to purchase it. See the ‘Fishing on your main’ section for more.


If you have a single twink, do the dailies, fish between queues, and then just fish to power through.

Gear, Enchants, and Lures
This includes twink items from fishing and useful gear for fishing.

Hats
  • Lucky Fishing Hat - The most iconic twink item. Currently BiS for clothies in instanced pvp and still a high stam item for anyone in wpvp/pve. Also happens to give +5 fishing.
  • Weather Beaten Hat - While not good for pvp, this is generally easier to get than the LFH, gives the same +5 fishing, and has an on-use for a +75 lure. This is the hat to get if you just care about fishing.
  • Darkmoon Fishing Cap - Can spawn a pool of Shipwreck Debris when the faire is in town.
  • Hightfish Hat/Tentacled Cap - Temporary fishing hats that are rare drops from Draenor fishing. Gives +100 fishing and lasts for a week. Could be worth trying for beforehand if you need max fishing for something.
Boots
  • Boots of the Bay - The only +Fishing boots that are available to 19s. +15 Fishing and a teleport to Booty Bay on use. Rather low priority since most twinks will want to win 2x trinkets before even looking at other items, so this usually means winning the contest 3 or more times.
Trinkets
  • Hook of the Master Angler - The (current) BiS trinkets with a whopping 65 ilvl. You can get and equip 2 of them. The actual ability is ok, but is overshadowed by druid travel form, underwater mounts (turtles, darkwater skate) and the anglers raft in most situations. Generally the first choice for twinks winning the fishing contest.
Rods
You don’t need a rod to fish, but they can provide a bonus to fishing. Here are the notable ones available to 19s.

  • Strong Fishing Rod - Sold in limited quantity (1) from most fishing vendors, this is the first notable rod and the easiest to get. Gives +5 fishing. Easy to find and does not bind, so a decent target for high level lines and then can be traded between low level toons.
  • Darkwood Fishing Pole - Extremely rare pole that can be fished up in some level ~20-30 zones. Gives +15 fishing. It is the best non-binding pole that can be found and used by 19s - so its a great target for high level lines. But again, it is very rare. Probably 0.01% drop chance.
  • Pandaren Fishing Pole - A mediocre pole with +10 fishing that takes a lot of effort to unlock. This is BoP, so it can’t be traded. Requires honored with the Anglers, but can be gotten on a 19.
  • Dragon Fishing Pole - A solid +30 fishing, but with a long investment to earn the required Revered Anglers rep. Chances are you will get one of the other +30 poles before you fully grind the rep for this. BoP.
  • Jeweled Fishing Pole/Bone Fishing Pole - Can rarely drop from the faction city fishing dailies. Gives +30 fishing. These are some of the best poles you can get with not a lot of effort - you just have to get a lucky with the rare drops. BoP.
  • Arcanite Fishing Pole - The best permanent pole that a 19 can get with +40 fishing. You’ll need to win the STV Fishing Contest to earn this, and most twinks would prefer getting two of the BiS trinket before looking at this, so its quite an investment. BoP.
  • Ephemeral Fishing Rod - Temporary rod that lasts one day, but gives +100 fishing. Rare drop from fishing in draenor. Don’t waste lines on this rod. Probably not worth trying for due to the low drop rate and short duration.
Lines
Lines are basically enchants for fishing poles. You can only have one line on a rod, using a new one will overwrite the old one.

  • Reinforced Fishing Line - Enchants a fishing pole to have +1 fishing. Relatively easy to obtain and better than nothing. Useful if you don’t have the High Test Eternium Line on your 19 and have a good BoP fishing pole.
  • High Test Eternium Fishing Line - Enchants a fishing pole to have +5 fishing. Obtainable from the STV fishing contest. Best line available to a 19, so best option to use on a soulbound fishing pole. This DOES stack with the Angler glove enchant, despite not doing so for a long time.
  • Spun Truesilver Fishing Line - Enchants a fishing pole to have +3 fishing. Can be found in the BC fishing daily bags. Cannot be used by a 19, but can be used on a non-binding fishing pole and traded.
  • Rook’s Lucky Fishing Line - Enchants a fishing pole to have +4 fishing. Can be found once per toon from a treasure in Talador. Cannot be used by a 19, but can be used on a non-binding fishing pole and traded.
  • Ancient Fishing Line - Enchants a fishing pole to have +6 fishing. Drops from a Slithon the Last in Argus. Can drop multiple times per toon. Cannot be used by a 19, but can be used on a non-binding fishing pole and traded.
Notable Lures
  • Weather Beaten Hat (+75) - This was mentioned earlier, but this hat provides a +75 lure that lasts for 10 minutes on a 10 minute cooldown. Very convenient, though not as powerful as some of the normal lures.
  • Normal Lures (+75 - +200) - There are a ton of standard lures that range all the way up to +200 fishing. These can usually be bought from a fishing supplier, fished up, make with engineering, or purchased on the AH.

Enchants
Items
  • Weather Beaten Journal - Commonly dropped in most fishing crates, containers, bags, etc. Gives the Track Fish ability for your minimap. You’ll get this fairly quickly from the daily faction quests, or you can find crates that don’t bind and mail them from another toon.
  • Anglers Fishing Raft - An amazing option for mobility at 19. Allows much safer fishing as you’ll away from the shore. Requires 525 fishing to use. Requires Revered with the Anglers to purchase, but as a toy, you can unlock it with one character and use it on your twink.
  • Bipsi’s Bobbing Berg - The same functionality as the raft, but an iceberg. This is NOT a toy, so a 19 mage would need to farm Revered with the Anglers and have 525 fishing.
  • Sea Turtle, Riding Turtle, Darkwater Skate, Brinedeep Bottom-Feeder, Fathom Dweller, Pond Nettle - The underwater mounts can be used at any level while swimming underwater. Having one can be helpful, especially if you don’t have other good travel options like the Raft or water walking. I believe only the Sea Turtle (fishing from DMF/WotLK/Cata/MoP pools) and the Riding Turtle (from the TCG) are obtainable and usable at 19. The rest require higher levels to either obtain or learn - but you can still ride them at 19.
  • Sharpened Tuskarr Spear - A spear that you can stick into the ground to provide +15 fishing to those within 15 yards. This is not a toy, so a 19 would need to farm Revered with the Anglers.
  • Trawler's Totem - A toy that can be obtained on a high level and used on a 19. Gives 10 fishing to nearby players for 2 minutes on a 5 minute cooldown.
  • Emblem of Margoss - While we can’t do any of the Margoss fishing rep grind, we can fish up the Emblem of Margoss in the (new) Dalaran sewers. They are unique and single use, but provide a “2nd hearth” of sorts. Very useful if you generally have your hearth at Dal but want to change it temporarily for the STV Fishing Tourney or some other objective. When you’re ready, you can use the emblem to get back to dal instead of getting a mage port.
  • Ancient Pandaria Fishing Charm - A toy for fishing in Pandaria to get more fish in pools. Not super important, but probably worth using to get a few extra fish to sell. Last for an hour. As a toy, you can unlock it with one character and use it on your twink.
  • Captain Rumsey’s Lager - Gives +10 fishing for 3 minutes. The recipe can by found in the daily rewards bag and requires 100 cooking. It isn’t much, and being tipsy from drinking them constantly isn’t great for fishing...but it is a fishing buff.
STV Fishing Extravaganza

There are a lot of good resources on the STV Fishing Tourney already for twinks, so this section is much more focused on the items that are available than the tourney itself. See STV Fishing Tourny: A Guide for Low Level tinks for more. The STV Fishing Tourney takes place every sunday in STV at 2 PM PST. For a 2 (3?) hour period, all the pools in both STV zones provide Speckled Tastyfish. The first ?? people who catch 40 Tastyfish and turn them in to Riggle Bassbait in Booty Bay win - earning the achievement, and more importantly, one of the prizes below.


There are also 3 rare fish that can be caught during the contest (and for the full duration of the event, even after all the winners are declared). These fish can be turned in to Fishbot 5000 for the equivalent reward. For 19s, catching Keefer’s Angelfish rewards the Lucky Fishing Hat and Dezian Queenfish rewards the High Test Eternium Fishing Line. The third fish, Brownell’s Blue Striped Racer, provides fishing boots that require level 35 to wear.

Read the linked guide above if you're looking for more info, but here are a few tips and tricks.

  • Set your hearthstone to Booty Bay (or have Boots of the Bay) before the contest starts
  • Know where the turn in NPC, Riggle Bassbait, is beforehand.
  • See if you can realm transfer to a PVE realm or low population realm. Realm hopping only works if the party leader is in the same zone as you, so grab a friend on a PVE server who wants to hang in STV for a bit. Alternatively you can recruit a high level to watch your back and/or gank others to slow them down.
  • Try to pick a spot with plenty of pools, few aggressive mobs, and hopefully not too crowded. Common recommendations are around the whirlpool and along the coast to the south, and the troll island up north.
I’ve also heard reports that you can easily win by “resetting” the world quest. Supposedly you can fish until a winner is announced (~15-20 minutes) and then log off for an hour. When you log back in the world quest will be reset and you’ll still have the fish, resulting in an easy win to catch the rest of your fish. I haven’t done this, so I can’t verify that it still works.

Anglers Rep

Getting rep with the anglers unlocks a couple of fishing poles that you can get (but you can find the equivalent or better +fishing elsewhere), an iceberg raft for mages, and the anglers tabard.

You can make your way to Anglers Wharf in Karasang wilds and talk to an NPC to add the Anglers to your reputation window (or use a commendation).

You’ll want to have unlocked the Grand Commendation of the Anglers on a higher level character first to double the rep gains for your account.

You can then click the star to ‘Champion’ them as a faction. You’ll then get 150 (300) rep for the first random dungeon of the day (week?). Its not much, but it something.

You can also purchase Commendation of the Anglers with 50 timewarped badges to get 300 (600) rep. This is the best way to level anglers rep up.

Fishing on your main
There are a few things that your main can do to help out your twink when it comes to fishing.

There are a couple of notable toys, such as the Anglers Fishing Raft and the Pandarian Fishing Charm which can be obtained on your main and then you can use it on any character that meets the fishing requirements.

Getting Revered with the Anglers in Pandaria allows you to get the Grand Commendation of the Anglers, which provides +100% Anglers rep to your entire account. And of course, the Anglers Fishing Raft toy.
You can fly around Pandaria looking for the Ghostly Pandaren Fisherman to unlock Ancient Pandaria Fishing Charm, which is nice when fishing in pools in Pandaria.

You can also farm Commendation of the Anglers that are BoA one time use items that give 300 (or 600 if you’ve used the grand commendation) rep per use. They are bought with 50 Timewarped badges.

Increasing reputation with Nat Pagle also provides some good rewards. You can do so by fishing up the 3 rare fish in Pandaria each day and/or by getting Nat Pagle in your draenor garrison and catching lunkers. The main advantage for 19s is unlocking the BoA books - nothing else really comes into play for low levels.

Getting rep with Akule Riverhorn in Legion can unlock Trawler's Totem, which is a toy that can be used on 19s.

You can also get higher level lures and place them on non-binding poles. Getting a Strong Fishing Rod and attaching an Ancient Fishing Line is pretty easy to do and then you’ll have a rod with +11 fishing that can be sent from toon to toon until they unlock something better. If you take the time to grind for Darkwood Fishing Pole (or find it on the AH), then you could have a +21 rod that can be passed around.


Toys, Achievements, and Interesting Fishing spots

  • Darkmoon Daggermaw - Fished up from the darkmoon faire, these can be used as currency for a few things as well as ingredients for food (see next point). They can also be mailed, so you can fish a lot of these on your 19 to level fishing and then mail them to a higher level to buy the mount.
  • Darkmoon Daggermaw Food - There are 3 recipes that can be purchased and then cooked with Darkmoon Daggermaws. These give 1% versatility, which is NOT the best food at 19, but is something. The Fancy Feast gives costumes to your allies though, which is pretty fun.
  • Sea Turtle - Can be obtained by fishing in certain pools. Darkmoon Faire pools, WotLK pools, Cataclysm pools, and Mists of Pandaria pools all have a small change to drop this. If you are leveling your fishing the hard way, consider finding a safe area in one of these zones to have a chance at the mount. If anyone has good spots with pools and no hostile mobs, let me know. I’ve heard of Mossgreen Lake on the Timeless Isle using the Anglers Raft. I haven’t tested it at 19, but its supposedly got lots of pools and won’t aggro mobs while rafting. The ice south of Unu'pe in Borean Tundra is a good spot (thanks @Infomerc). Northern Howling Fjord has a good spot as well (thanks @Goesid). If fishing in Pandaria, make sure to use the Ancient Pandaren Fishing Charm, as it may help the drop rate (or at least gives you extra fish to sell).
  • Giant Sewer Rat - This can be fished up out of the sewers of old Dalaran. Solid thing to fish for between queues or leveling. It also can be fished up from the Rogue Class Hall in new Dalaran (instructions on how to get there as a 19 rogue).
  • Faded Treasure Map - Purchased with Darkmoon Daggermaw, gives a one-time reward of 100 Darkmoon Tickets.
  • Dalaran Wishing Fountain (WotLK and Legion) - The Titanium Seal of Dalaran toy is the reward for catching all of the coins from the old Dal fountain. The new Dal fountain has the achievement The Wish Remover. Its a good way to level fishing and pass the time between queues.
  • Fishing Bobbers. There are several fun fishing bobbers that are available as toys or consumable items. These are mostly for fun, but have some use in providing bobbers that are easy to click or easy to distinguish in a group of fishers. Oversized Bobbers are the easiest to obtain and probably most useful.
  • ‘Salty’ Title - While you can’t complete everything needed for the Salty title, there are a number of achievements you can complete on your 19. Since the individual achievements count towards the title regardless of which character you earn them with, it might be worth aiming towards a few of these achievements while leveling up, which means fishing on your main. You cannot get The Lurker Above, Mr Pinchy’s Magical Crawdad Box, or Old Man Barlowned. The Coin Master (from the old Dalaran wishing fountain) is probably the main one to aim for. Some of the others will happen naturally (1000 Fish, The Old Gnome and the Sea) and there are a few that are simply best done on a higher level character due to the ability to fly (Northrend Angler, Outland Angler, The Fishing Diplomat).
 
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Thanks dude! i'm lvling my fishing to 800 before BfA hits and this is pretty cool to read! i'm going to try to max my 19 twink on fishing because of you!
 
http://www.wowhead.com/item=46109 : I found a good spot in Borean Tundra, for lowbies. I fished there on a level 12 or 13. Get to Unu'pe (This will require some corpse runs, if you don't have some help). Head straight south, following the line of the pier. You'll hit a set of 3-4 bergs, with a bunch of ice floes around, too. There are at least a half-dozen pools typically spawning, and nothing to attack you. If you need to sell off stuff, run back into Unu'pe. Make sure you get the FP there, so you only have to do the corpse run once.
 
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http://www.wowhead.com/item=46109 : I found a good spot in Borean Tundra, for lowbies. I fished there on a level 12 or 13. Get to Unu'pe (This will require some corpse runs, if you don't have some help). Head straight south, following the line of the pier. You'll hit a set of 3-4 bergs, with a bunch of icefloes around, too. There are at least a half-dozen pools typically spawning, and nothing to attack you. If you need to sell off stuff, run back into Unu'pe. Make sure you get the FP there, so you only have to do the corpse run once.

There is a lake in northern Howling Fjord. Dunno about Alliance but Horde can get there without deaths (if you're lucky with elevator) and there is a FP right there for return visits.
 
There is a lake in northern Howling Fjord. Dunno about Alliance but Horde can get there without deaths (if you're lucky with elevator) and there is a FP right there for return visits.

I fished all the HF lakes, back when they had the NR tourney. Worked well for 20 somethings.

There's a lake just above the alliance town Valgarde, just west of Utgarde Keep. Take the road that climbs to the north out of town. The only thing near the lake that can aggro you, is the male caribou-type; north and west edges. And get this: they'll swim underwater to kill you. I died down at the bottom of that lake (creepy stuff there), trying to get away from one. Only 3-4 pools spawn though, including one pool near the small bridge and one south of it (I did catch a Sea Turtle here). Only slightly fewer pools than Valgarde, but that has mobs for some pools...including the hammerhead that would come out of the water (NR designers failed Biology 101, obv).

One nice thing about the Unu'pe spot: it's not on the way to ANYwhere. No reason anyone should fly over looking to gank you on a PvP server. The Howling Fjord lakes...not so.

Also, the odds for a DMF Sea Turtle are about half the rates for NR, etc. Funny though, I caught one there.
[doublepost=1527654201,1527605040][/doublepost]Sea Turtle recommendation: TLDR: PvE server, go Howling Fjord. PvP server: Borean Tundra, south of Unu'pe.

OK, last time I looked closely at the Sea Turtle wowhead data was pre-MOP. Sorting by "%", DMF has officially the worst odds. Your odds are literally 10x better in Northrend. Its only virtue is Sanctuary.

Howling Fjord has the second best rate. (The Horde Vengeance Landing, has 3-4 spots that 19s could use, and the only aggro issue is from orcas (who --as IRL -- will beach themselves to kill stuff). You can easily avoid death, but even out of their reach, the aggro will prevent casting, so watch your range. Grizzly Hills has a slightly better rate, but I never sent a lowbie there to fish, so don't know if there are any places a 19 could possibly fish.

Dragonblight ~ BT = GH/2, but DB has 3-4 pools you can use from the Kalu'ak jetty. One western pool has aggro issues.

In BT, Valiance Keep itself has NO pools that I could find. Horde base has no water.
 
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Also, not sure what the situation is with garrisons but in theory you should be able to get Riding Turtle and Sea Turtle if standing in the garrison of someone with level 3 fishing hut and killing their bait murlocs.
 
Also, not sure what the situation is with garrisons but in theory you should be able to get Riding Turtle and Sea Turtle if standing in the garrison of someone with level 3 fishing hut and killing their bait murlocs.

Psilocybine mentioned that as well. I'm not sure if/how this works. My guess is that 19s cannott loot the dweller, but if they are in the group they may be eligible to trade things. This would also be a much more reliable way to get the ephemeral fishing pole and draenor temporary fishing hats rather than trying to find a safe spot to fish and hope for a rare drop.

I don't see myself being able to test this anytime soon. The horde garrison is pretty hard to get to without a ride/summons. You'd also need a friend who already has the level 3 fishing shack and is willing to sit there and fish with you. If anyone wants to try it out, then let me know and I'll update the guide.
 
Psilocybine mentioned that as well. I'm not sure if/how this works. My guess is that 19s cannott loot the dweller, but if they are in the group they may be eligible to trade things. This would also be a much more reliable way to get the ephemeral fishing pole and draenor temporary fishing hats rather than trying to find a safe spot to fish and hope for a rare drop.

I don't see myself being able to test this anytime soon. The horde garrison is pretty hard to get to without a ride/summons. You'd also need a friend who already has the level 3 fishing shack and is willing to sit there and fish with you. If anyone wants to try it out, then let me know and I'll update the guide.

Ask the levels 1s that do it for weather-beaten fishing hat
 
I have the Boots of the Bay on several lowbies (not just those f2ps). Goesid's PTR screenshot shows they will require NR(1) fishing level. From looking at the trainer, seems that's currently level 350 Fishing: "Illustrious Grand Master". Next level is 500: Zen Fishing, which I assume is MOP. Is that correct? So, I would need 350 to be able to equip/unequip? Use? (Separate issue)
 
I have the Boots of the Bay on several lowbies (not just those f2ps). Goesid's PTR screenshot shows they will require NR(1) fishing level. From looking at the trainer, seems that's currently level 350 Fishing: "Illustrious Grand Master". Next level is 500: Zen Fishing, which I assume is MOP. Is that correct? So, I would need 350 to be able to equip/unequip? Use? (Separate issue)

I don't actually have the boots on any character, so I'm not sure. If it requires NR 1 fishing, then I think if you unlock legion fishing currently (1-800) then you'll have 1/75 northrend fishing even if you don't have the actual fishing level. Not 100% sure on that since I can't test it though.

And I believe OG fishing is 1-300, outland is 300-375, and northrend would be 375-450. So you'd want 375 fishing now. The new levels line up with the expansion, not the current training scheme.
 

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