Skills to Pay the Bills : Master Baiter Edition

11:30AM on 21 Sep 2009 by shieldbreakr
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Around the 29th of July this year (2009), I got it in my craw that I was going to become a fisherman. I had been wanting to do fishing since I got my Fishing Diplomat achievement during a For The Horde! raid back in December. Since classic, the whole idea of fishing has been interesting to me but ultimately pretty boring after an hour. Cast, wait, click, repeat. It started out pretty innocently: a pole, some worms, and the nice expanse of water in the Valley of Strength in Org. Before long, I was talking about fishing hats, eternium line, and designer fishing poles. My wife remarked that all I talked about for a while was fishing.

When I sat down to get started, I started doing research on fishing while skilling up my fishing. This is extremely easy to do while fishing as long as you have the sound on and two monitors. Eventually, I was pointed to a very helpful site called El's Extreme Anglin' where other folks like me have gotten together to discuss this most strange niche of World of Warcraft. Like most landlubbers, I had no idea how deep fishing had become since it has few patch notes and where fishing was patched, it was generally on the back of a greater overhaul of something much larger [like WoW 2.0 and 3.0].

Fishing isn't just cast, wait, and click anymore. You have to know where to fish, what to wear, and how to get the right cast in order to be successful. The achievements for fishing are only the start. Catch a few thousand fish and you start to get an appreciation for people who have both Old Ironjaw and Ol' Crafty which is probably 3000 fish caught on average to get them both while ducking opposite faction members in their capital. I got lucky, I caught Crafty after only 154 casts. It puts me in the top 20% fewest casts to catch this particular fish. I'm 1900 casts deep into Old Ironjaw from three separate trips to Ironforge just to catch him and I still haven't bagged the bugger.



My rare fishing fetish started in Dalaran before I had ever heard about the turtle mount or Old Ironjaw. Most of you probably know exactly what I'm talking about now. Yes, I was one of those zombies standing by the fountain next to the Alliance bank just casting, casting, casting. I counted around 2800 casts and many, many sessions by the fountain when I finally got my Titanium Seal of Dalaran. I used to fish in the fountain whenever I had a few seconds of time. Ten to fifteen casts before getting and after turning in the fishing daily, a short five minute session while waiting on a group for heroics, another stand while waiting on the raid to start, a few minutes before I logged out netted me several casts and coins. When I finished, I realized I had fished on three separate computers for what must have been several dozen hours. The Coin Master got me from 150 to 450 fishing and easily helped my 1000 fish achievement as well.



While finishing my coin collection, I started spending time in the sewers hunting down my giant rat, but it still has not come up (938 casts later). Between ratting sessions, I started fishing Outland for shits and giggles. After a month out there, I came back with a sewer crocalisk pet and a large collection of junk from the pools and streams I had been fishing for the Outland Angler achievement.

If one thing could define my fishing experience as a whole, it's Mr. Pinchy's Magical Crawdad Box. It has started to become the number one thing I talk to other fishermen about: Have you tried to catch Mr. Pinchy? What happened? The number one answer is always "I hate that damned crawdad". I, personally, had a great time with the Crawdad of Death. Several of my wishes were an enraged Crawdad Guardian that followed my Death Knight around several dungeons and waylaid mobs for lots of damage. My third wish granted me the magical crawdad pet. I was lucky.

According to a fisherwoman in a former guild of mine, Mr. Pinchy is a curse upon her house. He has killed her multiple times and ruined many of her trips to great places like Gadgetzan [where he attacks the guards for shits and giggles]. Another fisherman has fished up Mr. Pinchy no less than five times and never been awarded a trip to the magical crawdad box. It took me three days to catch Mr. Pinchy and he capitulated to my achievement addiction shortly there after.

I still have a lot of fishing left to do. I need to catch Old Ironjaw, the Turtle Mount, the Giant Sewer Rat, and one of the super rare fish that won't get away. Most of all, I need to win the Sunday Fishing Tournament in STV. I have tried a few different Sundays. After helping Drosophilia from the guild <Necrotic> get his Salty title by harassing Alliance and Horde while he fished pools for tasty fish, I decided to start doing the tournament myself. A few Sundays later, I got my wife's paladin to help me since this seems to be more of a PvP event than a fishing tournament most days on Deathwing as of late. I have never come close (28 fish when the tournament was won on my last try). I think short of fielding half a raid to run pool recon, alliance bashing, and Horde-on-Horde bobber harassment, the tournament is not winnable. Too many people have too many friends trying to get this title and the pool only shrinks by one a week.

As of late, my fishing has consisted of doing the Dalaran fishing daily in hopes of netting the designer Jeweled Fishing Pole or the Bone Fishing Pole. I also have been hitting Wintergrasp for combinations of glacial salmon, nettlefish, and musselback sculpin, which the expert anglers amongst you will recognize immediately as the recipe components to a vital raid buff. @Warcraft had a daily question via twitter concerning anglers and their fishing outfits. My outfit? Furious Gladiator's Dreadplate, cause fishing is a full contact sport on Deathwing. =)

So when you see someone walking around with the "Salty" title, realize what an accomplishment it is. They have done something right up there with getting Celestial Defender. There are only, at most, 52 "salty" titles given out a year if none of the expert anglers decide to win the Tournament multiple times. I'm still working on my title. Maybe one day, I'll get lucky and no mammoth riding retards in <WORLD OF MONKEYS> will stand on my lure during the tournament, but I'm not betting on it..

Tags: fishing achievements gripes