WoW Classic Fishing Gear: Every Item That Raises Fishing Skill

What fishing gear is and why it matters

Your chance to land a fish depends on the gap between your Fishing skill and the difficulty of the water in the zone. With too little skill the bobber splashes for nothing and the log tells you the fish got away. Every point of bonus cuts the number of misses. Poles give the largest permanent bonus and have their own hub, fishing poles in WoW Classic. This page covers everything else: head, feet and hand items plus upgrades for the pole itself.

Keep the scale in mind: fishing items give +2 to +5, not dozens of points. Their value is in the total and in the fact that they always work, with no consumables. Temporary bonuses come from fishing lures, and they stack with gear.

How to get fishing gear

1. Level the skill. First reach at least 150 with the fishing leveling guide: the tournament fishing line requires 150 skill.
2. Learn the enchant or find an enchanter. Formula: Enchant Gloves - Fishing can be learned at Enchanting 145. It drops from murlocs on the Hillsbrad Foothills coast. You need Soul Dust, three Blackmouth Oil and a Runed Silver Rod.
3. Show up for the Sunday tournament. The hat, boots and line are Fishbot 5000 rewards for three rare fish. Details are in the article on the Stranglethorn fishing tournament.
4. Fish only in Schools of Tastyfish. Rare fish only come from the special schools that appear along the Stranglethorn coast during the tournament, and the chance is very low.
5. Add a pole and a lure. The best available pole and a lure before difficult water complete the set.

Table: every item with a Fishing bonus

All tournament rewards bind when picked up, so you cannot buy them on the auction house. The hat and boots also carry Stamina (+15 and +12) and have no level requirement, which makes them popular with level 19 twinks.

Lucky Fishing HatBinds when picked upHeadCloth43 Armor+15 StaminaDurability 45 / 45Requires Fishing (1)Equip: Increased Fishing +5.

◆Maximum Fishing bonus in 1.12.1

If you add up only the sources confirmed for 1.12.1, the ceiling looks like this:

• Arcanite Fishing Pole — +35;
• High Test Eternium Fishing Line on the pole — +5;
• Lucky Fishing Hat — +5;
• Nat Pagle's Extreme Anglin' Boots — +5;
• glove enchant — +2;
• Aquadynamic Fish Attractor — +100 for 5 minutes.

That is up to +152 on top of your own 300 skill. The permanent part without a lure is +52. A more realistic setup for most players is Nat Pagle's pole (+25) from the poles hub, the glove enchant and Bright Baubles (+75 for 10 minutes).

Nat Pagle's Extreme Anglin' BootsBinds when picked upFeetCloth36 Armor+12 StaminaDurability 35 / 35Requires Fishing (1)Equip: Increased Fishing +5.

Fishing gear tips

• Keep the fishing set in your bags. The hat and boots are cloth and weak in combat, so wear them only at the water and remember to swap back before PvP.
• One line per pole. The Eternium line is applied as a permanent upgrade. Put it on the pole you actually fish with.
• Food does not fish. Buff food from cooking does not raise Fishing; its role is raid buffs, not the catch.
• Why bonus at 300. In high-level waters even maximum skill does not guarantee a miss-free catch, and every minute counts at valuable pools.
• Night and valuable fish. Where to farm fish for alchemy and cooking is covered in the fishing profession page and the hub on fishing pools.

◆Related articles

• Fishing poles in WoW Classic: all poles and the best one
• Fishing lures: bonuses and where to buy
• Stranglethorn fishing tournament
• Nat Pagle quest for master anglers
• Enchanting guide
• Secondary professions

Want the full angler set? Register on WoW x5 and connect to the server — the tournament runs every Sunday.