Powerlevel cooking and fishing This guide helps you powerlevel fishing and cooking . It combines both fishing and cooking , as they complement each other very well , and if you ' re going to skill up your fishing then you might as well skill up your cooking with all the fish you will be catching . You may also find that many zones yield fish that are more profitable than the low level lake in your starting zone . Your cooking will always level faster than your fishing . You ' ll have to make use of lures even more when the gap between your fishing and cooking increases . Typically , by the time one reaches 300 cooking , fishing skill is anywhere between 230 and 250 . It will take you a minimum of 11 hours to complete this guide , but more likely about 14 to 15 . Also , please be aware that this is not a fully comprehensive guide to both cooking and fishing and was never intended to be . The sole purpose of this guide is to level up your cooking and fishing in the quickest way possible . If you want a guide that covers almost everything about these two skills then please check out the website Guides for Fishing and Cooking for an in depth , 3 . 1 patch updated version of this guide . Fishing Buddy is an invaluable addon for powerleveling fishing . This and listening to some music in the background makes the time pass by so much faster . Skill gain formula . You skill up by number of successful catches . The equation is approx . as follows : ( current unmodified fishing level - 75 ) / 25 = total # of catches required to level … with a minimum of 1 catch per level . So , with that knowledge , you ' ll realize that you can skill up fishing from 1 to 300 by fishing the water of your faction ' s city . The reason for the different locations mentioned in this guide is for you to be able to skill up your cooking as well . As of Patch 3 . 1 the restriction for fishing needing to be a certain skill level based on zone has been removed and a junk to usable fish formula was introduced as well as several areas has their skill levels changed to reflect this new formula . As a result you can fish in any area with skill level 1 but will likely catch nothing but junk based on where you are , however a successful catch is still counted as a successful catch so catching junk will still give you skill ups . See Fishing skill requirements by zone for more information . Post - 3 . 1 . 0 guide . Overview . Since Patch 3 . 1 . 0 , catching junk raises your fishing skill at the same rate as catching fish and other non - junk items , so your choice of fishing locations should be based on your cooking skill , not your fishing skill . You should generally fish in areas where you can catch ingredients for orange or yellow recipes . For zones in which both coastal and inland waters are fishable , coastal waters which are not part of any named subzone contain the same fish as the zone ' s inland waters . Until you learn Find Fish , wreckage and debris should be fished for boxes , boxes can also be fished from other fishing nodes , but they are less common . Unlike other fishable boxes , Northrend ' s s never contain s . Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor ( 1 - 312 cooking ) . 1 - 140 cooking . Fish in capitals or level 10 - 30 zones . Early on , capitals are recommended due to the cooking and fishing trainers . Save the Raw Bristle Whisker Catfish , as they are the only fish which are still yellow to cook from 140 to 160 . 140 - 160 cooking . Cook the Bristle Whisker Catfish . 160 - 175 cooking . Either continue cooking Bristle Whisker Catfish , or use a non - fish recipe such as Curiously Tasty Omelet or Goblin Deviled Clams . 175 - 262 cooking . Fish in level 40 - 50 zones , saving any Raw Nightfin Snapper s , Raw Summer Bass , Raw Sunscale Salmon and Winter Squid until you have enough to get to 277 . 262 - 277 cooking . Cook Hot Smoked Bass , Grilled Squid , Nightfin Soup and Poached Sunscale Salmon . If you don ' t have enough , fish inland waters in Eastern Plaguelands , Feralas or Winterspring , saving Raw Whitescale Salmon until 277 . 275 - 312 cooking . Learn Artisan Cooking . but you have to run one Dire Maul east . The recipe is dropped by Pusillin and it ' s called [ Recipe : Runn Tum Tuber Surprise ] . Outland ( 300 - 375 cooking ) . Some Outland fish recipes have reputation requirements to be purchased from vendors . The only vendors who sell the Blackened Trout , Feltail Delight , Grilled Mudfish and Poached Bluefish recipes to Alliance characters are members of the Kurenai faction , and only sell to characters with neutral or better reputation . The only vendor who sells the Grilled Mudfish and Poached Bluefish recipes to Horde characters belongs to the Mag ' har faction and only sells to characters with neutral or better reputation , however the vendor who sells the Blackened Trout and Feltail Delight recipes to Horde chraracters is a member of the Darkspear Trolls faction . None of the recipes are bind on pickup . Enormous Barbed Gill Trout and Huge Spotted Feltail can rarely be caught from any Outland fishing node , including Pure Water and Steam Pump Flotsam , the recipes for cooking them don ' t turn green until 380 , so they should be cooked last . Zangarmarsh ( 300 - 355 cooking ) . Zangarmarsh is recommended for lower level charcaters who don ' t have the Allerian Stronghold or Stonebreaker Hold flight points , as they can safely fish from Cenarion Refuge , for Alliance characters with 310 - 320 cooking who do not have the Blackened Trout or Feltail Delight recipes , and for characters who have not yet learned Find Fish , as Steam Pump Flotsam , which is exclusive to the zone , has the highest catch rate for s . Brackish Mixed School s should be fished if available . Barbed Gill Trout should be saved for Stewed Trout , and Golden Darters , which can only be fished from Brackish Mixed Schools , should be saved for 345 - 355 . Nagrand ( 300 - 350 cooking ) . Nagrand is recommended for characters who have access to the Grilled Mudfish and Poached Bluefish recipes and are able to deal with the local monsters , and for lower level Horde characters with the Garadar flight point and for low level Alliance characters with the Telaar flight point . Of the three fish which can be caught outside of schools , Barbed Gill Trout can be used to level cooking to 345 before Stewed Trout turns green , while Figluster ' s Mudfish Icefin Bluefish can be used to level cooking to 350 before their recipes go green . It is also recommended for players who want to Primal Water due to the Pure Water fishing nodes . Terokkar Forest Lowlands ( 300 - 355 cooking ) . The Terokkar Forest lowlands are recommended for characters without flying mounts who are able to deal with the local monsters or have the Allerian Stronghold or Stonebreaker Hold flight point , and can cook Barbed Gill Trout or Spotted Feltail . Brackish Mixed School s and Shools of Darter should be fished if available , and darters should be saved for 345 + cooking . Terokkar Forest Highlands ( 300 - 375 cooking ) . The highland lakes of Terokkar Forest highlands are recommended for characters with flying mounts who can cook Barbed Gill Trout or Spotted Feltail . Instead of Brackish Mixed Schools or Schools of Darter , these lakes have Highland Mixed School s , which can be fished for Golden Darter s , and are the only source of Furious Crawdad s for Spicy Crawdad , which does ' t turn green until 375 . Northrend ( 350 - 450 cooking ) . Zones and cookable fish . Common fish have a roughly 50 - 70 % catch rate , uncommon fish have a roughly 20 - 30 % catch rate , s have a roughly 10 % catch rate and s have a roughly 3 % catch rate . 350 - 382 cooking . Barrelhead Gobies , Bonescale Snappers and Rockfin Groupers are caught commonly outside of schools . Because their recipes go green at 365 , they should be cooked first and not actively fished for . After they are green , you can continue cooking them until they go gray , or move on to yellow recipes . 382 - 400 cooking . From 382 to 400 cooking , there is a bottleneck , the only yellow recipes are Kungaloosh , which only uses buyable ingredients , but is learned through a quest chain and turns green at 387 , and Great Feast , which doesn ' t turn green until 400 , but requires non - fishable meat from various beast s . If your first priority is levelling fishing , you should level cooking using the green fish recipes , while farming or buying ingredients for Great Feasts is a faster option for levelling cooking quickly . 400 - 412 cooking . Black Jelly is available at 400 cooking and turns green at 412 . 412 - 450 cooking . Most Northrend recipes which don ' t use turn gray at 415 , while turns gray at 425 . Levelling cooking beyond 425 requires level 65 and access to Dalaran , as the only non - gray recipes are BoP , and can only be purchased with s from Dalaran ' s daily cooking quests ( which require level 65 ) . Most Dalaran Cooking Award recipes , including all purely fish - based recipes other than , turn yellow at 425 and green at 450 . Horde guide . 1 – 50 . Objectives : Go to your fishing trainer and cooking trainer and pick up Fishing and Cooking skills . Buy a and a stack of . You ' re now ready to begin . The best place to start is in Bloodhoof Village in Mulgore . Go speak to Harn Longcast and buy and from him . Now start fishing in Stonebull Lake . Equip your rod and then apply the lure to it , as this will make catching fish easier . You ' ll want to catch about 60 and this should take about 40 minutes . You ' ll find that by the time you have caught 60 , you ' ll also have about 30 . Once you have 60 , cook them . You can either build your own fire or jog back to Harn Longcast and use the fire in front of him . Cook the , then at level 50 start cooking ( after learning the recipe you bought earlier ) . 50 – 75 . Objectives : You ' ll need to go and catch now and the best places for these are the ponds in Orgrimmar by Lumak the Fishing trainer and the pond in front of the bank in Thunder Bluff ( I know you ' ve been catching quite a few where you are , but those places offer the greatest probability of catching the fish you want ) . Between levels 50 and 75 go learn journeyman fishing and cooking . The recipe is orange from levels 50 to 100 of Cooking , so you ' ll need 50 fish . 75 – 150 . Objectives : Go to the river to the east of Tarren Mill or to one of the rivers or lakes in Ashenvale ( after skill level 110 ) and fish for Bristle Whisker Catfish . Depending on your cooking level , you ' re going to need about 100 – 120 of these to get cooking up to 175 . You can buy from Derak Nightfall in the Hillsbrad Foothills , Kilxx in Ratchet , Naal Mistrunner in Thunder Bluff , Sewa Mistrunner in Thunder Bluff , or Ronald Burch in the Undercity . If you ' re feeling bored with fishing , you can go to Blackfathom Deeps to get a pretty good amount of Tangy Clam Meat , Bristle Whisker Catfish and Mithril Head Trout from the mobs there . To raise your Cooking and Fishing skill above 150 , visit the trainers . ( Books no longer needed ) 150 – 225 . Objectives : Once you ' re up to 175 cooking , go to Shadowprey Village in Desolace . Speak to Wulan and buy and start fishing on the pier there . Alternatively you can purchase the from Shankys who stands at the dock in Valley of Honor in Orgrimmar . You ' re going to need about 60 of these to get your cooking up to level 225 . The best spots to fish for percentage - wise are Thousand Needles and Arathi Highlands . Again , you can visit Blackfathom Deeps for those last few Mithril Head Trout and some Tangy Clam Meat to get the last few points , as Mithril Head Trout will be green near the end . At this point you should now have level 225 fishing and level 225 cooking . If you ' re not level 35 yet , then this is as far as you can go . If you are above level 35 then you have two quests to complete if you so choose ( listed below ) or you can go train right away for Artisan Fishing and Cooking . NOTE : As of Patch 3 . 1 you no longer have to complete these quests . You can now learn 225 fishing and cooking from the trainers . 225 – 226 . Objectives : First quest : Cooking . Requirements : Level 35 , 225 Cooking . Go to Gadgetzan in Tanaris and speak to Dirge Quikcleave . He is in the tavern . He ' ll want you to bring him 10 Giant Eggs , 10 Zesty Clam Meat and 20 Alterac Swiss . You should actually be able to buy the eggs and clam meat off of Auction House , but in case you can ' t here ' s where to find them . According to the quest Giant Eggs drop off of Rocs in Tanaris or any large bird . If you circle around the skeletons at , and you should get them all pretty quickly . They are on a shared spawn with the hyenas in the area , so kill them too if you ' re getting few birds . Only needed to kill about 20 of these to get my 12 eggs . They are level 47 , so you might want to hold off if you can ' t kill them easily yet . The clam meat comes from clams in level 35 + areas . However , you ' re better off killing turtles at Steamwheedle Port to get these . The drop rate is quite high and you ' ll have your clam meat in no time . While you ' re at Steamwheedle Port , speak to Gikkix . You ' ll want to buy both [ Recipe : Spotted Yellowtail ] and [ Recipe : Poached Sunscale Salmon ] for use in the 226 – 250 skill levels later . The levels are around 41 for Steamwheedle Port . The Alterac Swiss is the easiest part . Go to Galgrom , the provisioner inside the Caverns of Time , and buy them . At most , 20 Alterac Swiss will cost 1g 60s . Hand them all in and you ' ll get your Artisan Cooking . Second quest : Fishing . Requirements : Level 35 , 225 Fishing . You need to go and find Nat Pagle in Dustwallow Marsh . He is standing on a small island to the West of Theramore . He ' ll ask you to catch four rare fish for him . This quest is actually really easy and the only hard part is the amount of traveling involved . The fish you need to catch are : You should catch these fish within 5 to 10 casts at each location . So it won ' t take long . The best order I ' ve found to do this quest in is ( assuming you don ' t already have all the flightpaths ) : From Dustwallow , ride to the Great Lift and then head West through Thousand Needles to Camp Mojache in Feralas . From Feralas , ride North West into Desolace and onto Shadowprey Village . From Desolace , fly to Orgrimmar . Take the Zeppelin to Grom ' Gol Base Camp , and ride North to Duskwood . Ride East to Deadwind Pass , then ride through the zone to Swamp of Sorrows . Now go back to Nat and get your Artisan Fishing . Okay , so you ' re now at level 225 in both cooking and fishing and you ' ve done ( or not done ) the optional quests . Time for the home stretch . 226 – 250 . Objectives : Go to Steamwheedle Port and speak to Gikkix . You ' ll want to buy the following two and and / or . Sunscale Salmon is fished during the day and Nightfins are fished at night , depending on what time of day you do your fishing will dictate which recipe you should buy . Now go to Revantusk Village in the Hinterlands and fish for . Alternatively , if you don ' t want to go all the way back to the Eastern Kingdoms , you can fish them up off the coast of Azshara or Tanaris . You ' ll need about 30 to get your cooking from 225 to 250 . 250 – 275 . Objectives : Go to Bloodvenom Falls in Felwood and fish for Sunscale Salmon . 275 – 300 . Objectives : As Horde go to Camp Mojache in Feralas and speak to Sheendra Tallgrass buy and . While you ' re there buy some for the Lobster Stew . Now go to the Bay of Storms in Azshara and fish for ( this also yields the best drops in the game , a profitable fish used in creating Stonescale Oil ) You ' ll need about 30 to get your cooking from 275 to 300 . You may need to bring some lures with you at this point , as your cooking will level up faster than your fishing and Azshara is a 330 fishing zone . You will need something in at least the 380 skill range to avoid catching a lot of junk , so if you try to come here right at 260 fishing bring a + 20 – 25 rod and + 100 lures . Once your cooking is at 300 , keep fishing till you ' ve maxed out that too . It will take 7 to 10 catches to get one skill up at this point , so take your time ( or spare yourselves a world of hurt and head to Zangarmarsh at level 280 with + 75 lures and a + 25 rod ) . 300 – 375 . Objectives : Okay , first things first : buy some lures , + 75 ' s preferably . Now go and buy the Master Cookbook , to give yourself master cooking level , from Baxter in Thrallmar ( Hellfire Peninsula ) . Now go buy Master Fishing - The Art of Angling from Juno Dufrain in Cenarion Refuge ( Zangarmarsh ) . Now go buy from Gambarinka in Zabra ' jin ( Zangarmarsh ) . Head back to Swamprat Post and buy from Zurai . Head back to Cenarion Refuge and fish for and . You only need to catch about 25 in total to get your cooking up to 320 . Your fishing level will probably only be about 305 by this stage , if you ' re lucky ( it ' s a long , slow process and not for the easily bored ) . Cook up the Trout and Feltails . Now take a trip to see Nula the Butcher in Garadar , in Nagrand . Buy and find a nice quiet spot in Nagrand to fish for . You are really going to need to have lures attached here , unless you spent a lot more time in Zangarmarsh fishing . Keep fishing till you have about 40 Bluefish and then cook them to take your cooking to 350 . NOTE : Nagrand is officially 380 to cast . Even with a + 25 pole and Bright Baubles you will have a great deal of failure at 305 natural . It is highly recommended to hit 320 natural plus another 100 bonus fishing before attempting . You will still see around 20 percent failure . By this point , your fishing will probably only be about level 320 . You might want to go to Terokkar Forest and fish for . When cooked , these give a + 44 healing and + 20SPI buff , so they are great to sell to healing classes . Or you can head back to Nagrand and fish for , which give a + 20 agility and + 20 spirit buff when cooked . Either way , to get to 375 you ' re going to have to make about 650 successful catches . That should take a normal person about 8 hours , so you ' ll want to break that up into something like 30 – 60 minute chunks , spread out over a period of time . NOTE : Highlander ' s guide originally discussed fishing for Furious Crawdad before maxing your skill . However due to the extreme difficulty of the highland lakes — requiring 430 skill to even cast there and 525 to completely avoid fish getting away — I would not recommend fishing there without very high skill and good equipment . The final challenge of fishing in Outland requires a flying mount , as the best fish are only found in Highland Mixed Schools in three lakes in Terokkar Forest , all of which can only be accessed with a flying mount . In these schools you can catch , used in , the only cooking recipe that will take you to 375 easily . is also valuable because its food buff grants + 30 stamina , more than any other food in the game . The three lakes are : Go see Rungor in Stonebreaker Hold ( Terokkar Forest ) and buy . Alliance guide . 1 – 50 . Go to your fishing trainer and cook and pick up Fishing and Cooking skills . Buy a fishing rod and a stack of Shiny Bauble s ( a lure that adds + 25 to your fishing skill ) . You are now ready to begin . The best place to start is in Elwynn Forest . Speak to Tharynn Bouden in Goldshire and buy and . Start fishing in Crystal Lake . You ' ll want to catch 50 to get your cooking from 1 to 50 . 50 – 75 . Go to Stormwind City and fish the canals for . You ' ll need 56 of them to raise your cooking to 100 . Between levels 50 and 75 go learn journeyman fishing and cooking . Go to Stormwind and speak to Catherine Leland and buy and . 75 – 150 . Go to the river to the north - east of Southshore and fish for . You ' ll need about 100 – 120 of these to get your cooking to level 175 . Between levels 125 and 150 go to Shandrina by Mystral Lake in Ashenvale and buy . To raise your Cooking and Fishing skill above 150 , visit the trainers . ( Books no longer needed ) 150 – 225 . Now go to the Lakes outside Stromgarde Keep in Arathi Highlands and fish for . You ' re going to need about 60 of these to get your cooking up to level 225 . Alternative : Buy ( requires cooking 175 ) from Micha Yance in Southshore , then fish the schools in Lordamere Lake in the Alterac Mountains . 225 – 226 . At this point you should now have level 225 fishing and level 225 cooking . If you ' re not level 35 yet , then this is as far as you can go . If you are above level 35 , read on . NOTE : As of Patch 3 . 1 you no longer have to complete these quests . You can now learn 225 fishing and cooking from the trainers . First quest : Cooking . Requirements : Level 35 , 225 Cooking . Go to Gadgetzan in Tanaris and speak to Dirge Quikcleave . He is in the tavern . He ' ll want you to bring him 10 , 10 and 20 . You should actually be able to buy the eggs and clam meat off of AH , but in case you can ' t here ' s where to find them . According to the quest drop off of Roc s in Tanaris or any large bird . The best place I found for the eggs , was the owlbeast in The Hinterlands . Only needed to kill about 20 of these to get my 12 eggs . ( about a 25 % drop rate ) They are about level 43 - ish , so if you ' re not that high a level , get help or wait till you can handle them . The clam meat comes from clams , naturally ! Well to save you swimming around the sea looking for clams , you ' re better off killing turtles at Steamwheedle Port or Revantusk Village . The drop rate is quite high and you ' ll have your clam meat in no time . The levels are 41 - ish for Steamwheedle Port and 49 – 50 for Revantusk Village . The is the easiest part . Go to the Cheese Shop in Stormwind , and buy them from the cheese vendors there . In addition , if you have your Hearthstone set for Shattrath and if you are at least friendly with The Scryers you can buy the cheese from the innkeeper where you spawn . Hand them all in and you ' ll get your Artisan Cooking . Since the opening of the Caverns of Time , the provisioner inside , Galgrom , sells . You can now get all the drops necessary for Artisan cooking in Tanaris . Second quest : Fishing . Requirements : Level 35 , 225 Fishing . You need to go and find Nat Pagle in Dustwallow Marsh . He is standing on a small island to the West of Theramore ( 58 , 60 ) . He ' ll give you the quest , which asks you to catch four rare fish . This quest is actually really easy and the only hard part is the amount of travelling involved . The fish you need to catch are : Feralas - Desolace - Stranglethorn Vale - Swamp of Sorrows - Now go back to Nat and get your Artisan Fishing . 226 – 250 . Go to Steamwheedle Port and speak to Gikkix , You ' ll want to buy the following two recipes : and . Either fish for at Steamwheedle Port or go to Revantusk Village ( well . . . not to it , just a little North of it ) for the slightly better drop rate . You ' ll need about 30 to get your cooking from 225 to 250 . 250 – 275 . Now go to Bloodvenom Falls in Felwood and fish for . You ' ll need about 30 to get your cooking from 250 to 275 . You may also fish for and in Lake Elune ' ara . The drop rate of each depends on the time of day , with the dropping the most just after noon and not at all just after midnight , and the dropping most at night and not at all just after noon . 275 – 300 . Then go and speak to Vivianna in the Feathermoon Stronghold of Feralas and buy and . While you ' re there buy some for the Lobster Stew . Now go to Scalebeard ' s Cave in Azshara ( it ' s one of the islands to the East ) and fish for . ( This is also one of the best fishing spots for , a profitable fish , used to make Stonescale Oil ) You ' ll need about 30 to get your cooking from 275 to 300 . You may need to bring some lures with you at this point , as your cooking will level up faster than your fishing and Azshara is a 330 fishing zone . You will need something in at least the 380 skill range to avoid catching a lot of junk , so if you try to come here right at 260 fishing bring a + 20 – 25 rod and + 100 lures . Once your cooking is a 300 , keep fishing till you ' ve maxed out that too . It will take 7 to 10 catches to get one skill up at this point , so take your time . At first , you may experience " Your fish got away ! " quite frequently , but as your skill level goes up , you will catch more and more fish . Powerleveling Fishing from 300 – 375 . Okay , first things first . A quick shopping trip . Buy lures ! + 75 ' s preferably . Now go and buy the , to give yourself master cooking level . If you are Horde , buy it from Baxter in Thrallmar ( Hellfire Peninsula ) . If you are Alliance , buy it from Gaston in Honor Hold ( Hellfire Peninsula ) . Now go buy from Juno Dufrain in Cenarion Refuge ( Zangarmarsh ) . Now go buy . If you are Horde , buy it from Gambarinka in Zabra ' jin ( Zangarmarsh ) . If you are Alliance , buy it from Doba in Orebor Harborage ( Zangarmarsh ) . While you ' re here buy . Horde can go back to Swamprat Post and buy from Zurai . If you are level 70 , you can also visit Old Man Barlo to pick up the daily quest , , at this point . You can find him fishing northeast of Shattrath City by Silmyr Lake . This is purely optional , but you will be fishing where the are caught and part of the quest ' s reward is + 100 lures that you may find very useful . Head back to Cenarion Refuge and fish for and . You only need to catch about 25 in total to get your cooking up to 320 . Your fishing level will probably only be about 305 by this stage , if you ' re lucky ( it ' s a long , slow process and not for the easily bored ) . Cook up the Trout and Feltails . Now take a trip to see Nula the Butcher in Garadar if you are Horde or Uriku in Telaar if you are Alliance , both are in Nagrand . Buy and find a nice quiet spot in Nagrand to fish for . You are really going to need to have lures attached here , unless you spent a lot more time in Zangarmarsh fishing . Keep fishing till you have about 40 Bluefish and then cook them to take your cooking to 350 . By this point , your fishing will probably only be about level 320 . You might want to go to Terokkar Forest and fish for . When cooked , these give a + 44 healing and + 20 spirit buff , so they are great to sell to healing classes . Or you can head back to Nagrand and fish for , which give a + 20 agility and + 20 spirit buff when cooked . Either way , to get to 375 you ' re going to have to make about 650 successful catches . That should take a normal person about 8 hours , so you ' ll want to break that up into something like 30 – 60 minute chunks , spread out over a period of time . The final challenge of fishing in Outland requires a flying mount , as the best fish are only found in Highland Mixed Schools in three lakes in Terokkar Forest , all of which can only be accessed with a flying mount . In these schools you can catch , used in the only cooking recipe that will take you to 375 easily . Spicy Crawdad also grants a + 30 stamina buff . The three lakes are : If you are Alliance , go see Innkeeper Biribi in Allerian Stronghold ( Terokkar Forest ) and buy . If you are Horde go see Rungor in Stonebreaker Hold ( Terokkar Forest ) and buy .