Fishing Locations & Pools

There are two types of fishing in World of Warcraft: open water fishing, and pool fishing. While open water fishing requires a certain fishing skill to prevent fishing up junk, pools of fish let you fish up fish (or some other non-junk item) every time, no matter your skill level. In this guide, we’ll explain exactly how pools work, and go over the locations of the various pools where you can catch specific fish.

Open Water

How Open Water Fishing Works

You can fish in any open water with fishing skill 1. However, if your current fishing skill (base plus items and consumables) is below the no-junk skill level of the zone, you have a chance to catch junk. The larger the gap between your fishing skill and the no-junk level, the more junk you will catch. While the junk can be sold, it is not valuable, and it’s rarely worth fishing in areas where there is a large gap between your fishing skill and the no-junk skill level.

Open Water Locations

Below, we’ve listed the areas you can catch 100% fish, no junk, in open water, when your fishing skill level is equal to or greater than the fishing level indicated. Note that as 525 is the maximum base fishing skill, you may need to use gear and consumables to guarantee no junk in some areas.

Pools

In addition to fishing from open water fishing, you can fish from pools at any fishing skill level. Below you’ll find lists of all the pools, the common catch in thsoe pools, and where you can find them.

How Pools Work

You can fish a pool with fishing skill 1, regardless of the zone it’s in. However, after 3-5 catches, a pool will be fished out, and disappear — it’ll respawn in a nearby spawn location. Depending on the pool type, it may respawn after a delay, or right away.

Cataclysm Pools

90% of the catches from these pools will be the Common Catch, 10% of your catches will instead be x1-x3 Volatile Water. The exception is the Pool of Fire, in which you will only catch the Volatile Fire.

Northrend Pools

90% of the catches from these pools will be one of the Common Catches, 10% of your catches will instead be Crystallized Water or Reinforced Crate. There is also a 2/3 chance to get a bonus Pygmy Suckerfish, except in the Glassfin Minnow Schools.

Outland Pools

You’re a lot more likely to find things besides the common catch in Outland pools, though it’s still the most likely thing to fish up. There’s a 5% chance to fish up a Curious Crate or a Mote of Water in all the Outland pools besides Pure Water (where it’s mostly Mote of Water),

Classic Azeroth Pools

Finally, here are the pools in the original Azeroth.

_{Much of the data for this page was sourced from the exhaustive El’s Extreme Anglin’ site}