WoW Classic Fishing Fish List & Loot Guide

WoW Classic Fishing Fish List & Loot Guide
  • Author: Luxrah
  • Date: January 12, 2025
  • Updated: January 12, 2025
  • Expansion: WoW Classic

There are a lot of things you can catch with the Fishing skill in WoW Classic. Along with actual fish, you can also catch everything from crafting materials to consumables to locked boxes. This guide will list it all along with how and where you can fish it up.

Crates, Trunks, and Chests

When you fish in certain places, especially from pools, you have a chance of catching a container that can contain all sorts of valuable loot and materials.

Message in a Bottle

Note that this item is not related to the quest Message in a Bottle, which instead begins with a Half-Buried Bottle found along the beach in Stranglethorn Vale.

Item
Can Contain
Where to Catch
Item Level 11-31 BoE Crafting Recipes
Low level buff scrolls (I & II)

Venture Company Supply Crates

Venture Company supply crates can generally be fished up in areas where you find Venture Co. mobs. These crates mostly contain Engineering materials.

Crate
Can Contain
Where to Catch

Chests

There are a couple of small containers that can be caught by Fishing in lower level zones. These chests mostly contain gray items, but they can also have some leather or cloth or even a green piece of gear.

Chest
Can Contain
Where to Catch
Item Level 8-19 Uncommon BoE gear
Bolt of Linen Cloth
Bolt of Woolen Cloth

Trunks

Trunks are caught by fishing in pools, and can contain some really nice items, including bags, cloth, leather, gems, health or mana potions, crafting recipes, or uncommon gear items.

Trunk
Can Contain
Where to Catch

Locked Chests

Locked chests must be opened with Lockpicking. Like trunks, they can contain some pretty nice items and materials.

Chest
Skill
Can Contain
Where to Catch
1
70
175
250
Azshara (Bay of Storms)

Bloated Fish

You can sometimes catch fish that act as containers as well. These fish are rare catches, so you won’t really be able to farm them. Instead you may catch them once in a while when fishing in areas that drop their non-bloated counterparts. They often contain a level-appropriate gem or even a BoE ring or amulet.

Fish
Counterpart
Can Contain
Lesser Moonstone
Moss Agate
Shadowgem
Item Level 21-28 Uncommon BoE rings
Aquamarine
Citrine
Jade
Lesser Moonstone
Item level 31-40 Uncommon BoE amulets & rings
Aquamarine
Blue Sapphire
Citrine
Large Opal
Star Ruby
Item Level 36-45 Uncommon BoE amulets & rings

Big-mouth Clams

As well as the bloated fish, you can also catch these clams that act as containers. Opening them will reveal up to 10 pieces of meat and possibly a pearl.

Item
Can Contain
Where to Catch

Consumables

You can sometimes catch scrolls or potions while fishing, either as a random catch or from one of the containers above.

Scrolls

Health Potions

Mana Potions

Note that Major Mana Potions can’t be caught via Fishing.

Rumsey Rum

There is one special type of consumable that is only obtainable through fishing (or by buying it from someone with Fishing). Rumsey Rum offers a Stamina buff that stacks with other consumable and buff effects, making it particularly useful for tanks or in PvP.

Rumsey Rum must generally be caught from Fishing Pools and not in open water.

Item
Buff
Where to Catch
+5 Stamina
+10 Stamina
+15 Stamina

Bags

Bags have a chance to be caught in level-appropriate zones where they can also drop from mobs. They can also sometimes be found in the containers listed earlier in this guide.

Uncommon BoE Gear

You have a chance to catch or loot a piece of uncommon (green) bind-on-equip gear from fishing or from the containers listed earlier in this guide. These will generally be world drop items of the appropriate level for the zone – items you could also loot from nearby mobs.

There are hundreds of possible items that you can catch, and all of them have a very low chance of dropping, so it’s not worth listing them or attempting to farm gear via this route.

Crafting Recipes

Some world drop crafting recipes can be obtained through Fishing. These are very rare and can’t really be farmed. They have a chance to be caught in level-appropriate zones where the recipe might also drop from mobs, similar to BoE gear.

Crafting Materials

There are a number of crafting materials that can be acquired while fishing, either by catching them directly or by opening one of the containers listed earlier in this guide.

Elementals

Various elemental water materials can be obtained by fishing from Fishing Pools called Patch of Elemental Water in the Bay of Storms of Azshara. There are only a few places where these pools can spawn and they are often farmed due to the value of these items, so you may have some competition.

Herbs

Stranglekelp is frequently caught while fishing, which makes sense since the herb nodes are found underwater. It’s mainly caught while fishing from Fishing Pools that contain fish that are used in Alchemy (Firefin Snapper, Oily Blackmouth, and Stonescale Eel) or from junk pools.

Bolts of Cloth

You’ll find bolts of cloth (the kind used for Tailoring, not the raw cloth that can also be used by First Aid) by opening containers and rarely as a random catch.

Leather

Leather can also be found in many of the chests and trunks and rarely as a random catch.

Gems and Pearls

Pearls are primarily looted from Big-mouth Clam while gems are usually obtained from other containers listed earlier in this guide. Many different professions use these items for one or two particular recipes. Golden Pearls are particularly valuable as they are found almost nowhere else and are used to craft some endgame recipes.

Engineering Materials

There are a bunch of Engineering materials that you can catch while fishing, primarily by opening some of the containers listed earlier in this guide – particularly the Venture Company Supply chests. Some of the other materials listed above, such as gems, can also be used in Engineering.

Fish!

Now we’ll cover all of the actual fish you can catch!

Special Fish

There are a few fish you can catch that either aren’t used for crafting or that have some unusual effects of their own.

Deviate Fish have some fun effects as well as being used in a Cooking recipe. We have an entire guide for this special fish here – Deviate Fish Guide. The guide covers how to catch them and all of their effects as well as the Cooking recipe they are used for. We’ll also mention them in the Fish Used in Cooking section below.

Sickly Looking Fish are not used in any crafting recipes and do not appear to serve any purpose other than to provide some low-level health regeneration. These fish are caught in Undead territory: Undercity, Tirisfal Glades, and Silverpine Forest.

Oil Covered Fish are similarly not used in any recipes and appear to serve no purpose other than to offer some health regeneration. They can be caught at the Sludge Fen in Northern Barrens or Windshear Crag in Stonetalon Mountains, or looted from Gahz’ranka in the Zul’Gurub raid.

Zul’Gurub

Zulian Mudskunks are only caught inside the Zul’Gurub raid and are used exclusively to create a Mudskunk Lure to summon the boss Gahz’ranka. They can only be fished up from pools of Muddy Churning Waters.

Quest Fish

There are a few fish and other items that are only caught for quests and have no other purpose.

Wow Alliance Crest Alliance Quests

Note that Darkshore Grouper is not marked as a Quest Item and can be caught in the zone even if you don’t have the quest.

Item
Quest
Where to Catch

Artisan Fishing Quest

These fish are quest items that are caught while completing Nat Pagle‘s quest to learn the Artisan Fishing skill.

Fish
Quest
Where to Catch
Feralas (Verdantis River)
Swamp of Sorrows (Misty Reed Strand)
Desolace (Sar’theris Strand)
Stranglethorn Vale (Savage Coast)

Zulian Mudskunk are caught inside the Zul’Gurub raid and used exclusively to summon the boss Gahz’ranka.

Argent Dawn Quests

There are also two fish that are used only in Argent Dawn reputation quests:

Fish
Quest
Where to Catch

Stranglethorn Vale Fishing Extravaganza

There’s another set of fish that are only used in the Stranglethorn Vale Fishing Extravaganza:

Fish
Ques
Where to Catch
Stranglethorn Vale during the fishing tournament
Stranglethorn Vale during the fishing tournament
Stranglethorn Vale during the fishing tournament
Stranglethorn Vale during the fishing tournament

Trophy Fish

These fish are randomly caught in place of their standard counterparts. They serve no purpose other than to sell to a vendor.

Fish
Counterpart

Held In Off-hand

Like the trophy fish above, these fish can be caught randomly anywhere you can fish up their regular-sized counterparts. These, however, can be equipped as Held In Off-hand items, so if you’ve ever wanted to wield a fish, here’s your chance.

Note that most of these fish also have a Bloated counterpart in the containers section at the top of this guide.

Fish
Counterpart

Fish Used in Alchemy

There are three fish you can catch which are used to create oils for Alchemy. These are mainly caught while fishing in the appropriate Fishing Pools.

You’ll also catch plenty of Stranglekelp while fishing in these same pools – an herb that is also used in many Alchemy recipes.

Deviate Fish are also used in Elixir of Giant Growth.

Fish
Used in
Where to Catch

Fish Used in Cooking

Most of the fish that you catch are used for Cooking recipes.

Fish
Used in
Where to Catch
Azshara (Bay of Storms)
Azshara (Bay of Storms)
Seasonal: March 20-September 22
Saltwater:
Azshara
Feralas
Stranglethorn Vale (Jaguero Isle only)
Tanaris
The Hinterlands
Seasonal: September 23-March 19
Saltwater:
Azshara
Feralas
Stranglethorn Vale (Jaguero Isle only)
Tanaris
The Hinterlands

 

About the Author

Luxrah

I've been playing World of Warcraft on and off since vanilla, usually as a healer or caster and often as a guild leader. I play both retail and classic. I also love RPGs, sandboxes, and sims.
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