World of Warcraft How To Fish: Complete Beginner Guide

Fishing in World of Warcraft (WoW) is a secondary profession that lets you catch fish and other items from water. You cast your line, wait for the bobber to splash, then click or interact to reel something in. Most of the time you catch fish used for Cooking, but you can also get crates, junk items, and rare rewards.

Here is exactly how fishing works, what you can get, and how to make it easier without using your mouse.

Learning Fishing And Setting It Up

First, visit a Fishing Trainer in a major city. Ask a guard for directions and they will mark the trainer on your map. Fishing does not take up one of your 2 main profession slots.

After training:

Open your Spellbook
Go to the Professions tab
Drag Fishing to your action bar

You do not need to equip a fishing rod, but having one in your bags gives a passive skill bonus.

How To Fish Step By Step

Stand near water such as a river, lake, or ocean. Press your Fishing ability.

Your character casts a line and a bobber lands in the water. Watch it closely.

When the bobber splashes and makes a sound:

Click the bobber
Loot what you caught

If you click too early or too late, the cast fails and you try again.

That is the core fishing loop in WoW.

Easy Fishing Without Using Your Mouse

There is a much easier way to fish using keybinds. This lets you fish using only your keyboard.

First, bind Fishing to a key. Then bind Interact With Target in your Keybindings menu.

The method works like this:

Press your Fishing key
Wait for the splash sound
Press your Interact key

No mouse is required.

For this to work smoothly, the bobber must be the closest interactable object to your character. If a pet, NPC, critter, or other object is closer than the bobber, your Interact key may target that instead.

Camera angle and mouse position do not matter. Only distance to the bobber matters.

You can also increase consistency with these console commands:

/console SoftTargetInteractArc 2
/console SoftTargetInteractRange 30

These settings widen your interact angle and range, making it easier to reel in your catch without precise positioning.

Can You Fish Weapons And Armor

You cannot directly fish swords and gear as normal loot. Most catches are fish or gray vendor items.

However, you can fish up:

Sealed Trunks
Crates from debris pools
Special containers in certain expansions

These containers can include trade goods and sometimes low level armor or weapons. It is not a reliable way to gear up, but it can help new players earn gold.

What You Can Catch

Fishing rewards depend on zone and water type.

Common catches include:

Fish used for Cooking
Gray vendor trash
Sealed Trunks
Expansion specific materials
Very rare mounts in certain areas

Fishing in schools, which are visible fish pools in the water, guarantees that type of fish. You will not get vendor trash from those pools.

Debris pools always give containers instead of normal fish.

Different zones have different fish, so what you catch depends on where you are fishing.

What Fish Are Used For

Fish are mainly used in Cooking. Cooked food gives 1 hour stat buffs that are useful in dungeons, raids, and PvP at higher levels.

Some fish are also used for:

Achievements
Event turn ins
Specific crafting recipes

At low level, fishing is more of a side activity. At max level, it supports endgame content.

Is Fishing Worth It As A New Player

At level 11, fishing will not increase your combat power much. It is mostly optional content.

It is useful if:

You enjoy relaxed gameplay
You want to level Cooking
You are waiting in a dungeon queue
You want achievements or rare rewards

Fishing in World of Warcraft is simple, calm, and sometimes surprisingly profitable. With the keybind method, it becomes even easier and more comfortable to grind for long sessions.

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