[Professions] I: Fishing

   Seeing as how my last story entry mentioned fishing and how much joy that Kara found in the profession, I thought I'd give an in-depth guide to fishing in Rift! So this post will be about the fishing profession in Rift and how to level it and gain recipes.

     Fishing, along with the Survival profession, is gained automatically and doesn't need to be trained to learn at first. Anyone can fish in Rift. In order to level up your fishing, however, you need to find a fishing trainer, which are easily spotted by just looking for the fish icon which means that the fish exchange vendor is nearby.

     In order to fish, you need a fishing pole. You can place the fishing pole icon on your ability action bar wherever is most convenient or easy to use. For myself, I use the arrow keys on my main action bar to change the page to "2" and then place the fish pole icon on one of the numbers. This makes it easier if your planning on doing fishing for more then just a few minutes. All you need to do then is hit the number key associated with the fishing pole icon and the little fish symbol will show up. There are four different fish symbols that will appear instead of your cursor when your fishing. The red circle means that you are over land, or too far away from your target or the water. The yellow circle means your fishing in deep water. The blue circle means shallow water, and the green circle means a special or rare type of fish. For instance, a pool of a specific type of fish, or a world event fishing area. These little designated areas can be easily spotted on your mini map by activating your "find fish" buff, which everyone gets when they get fishing. You can find these abilities in your spell book, by hitting "p". Cast your line in the water by hovering your converted mouse curser over the area you want to fish in and left clicking. After a few moments, if you have the in game volume on you'll hear a little splash, and a sound like a reel spinning. Your mouse cursor will then change to a leaping fish when moved over your line. Right click right away to avoid your fish escaping. Be careful not to double click either, as that can also make the fish get away. Sometimes it's hard to tell when you snagged a fish if your sitting in a mass of other players for say, the Summerfest event, or for a rare fish spawn. It can get confusing if you hear splashes of other fishing lines. Watch for your cursor icon to change to a leaping fish. If you are looking for a specific type of fish, sometimes they can be found more easily in a certain location. Keep an eye out on where you find that type of fish for later!

     There are quests you can complete in Silverwood and Freemarch to help you learn the process of fishing and what each color circle means. They also give you a fishing pole through this small quest chain. It nets you some exp, and you end up with some fish you can craft recipes with in the Survival profession. Sometimes when casting your fishing line in the water, the fish will tug on your line more than once. Just wait for the fish icon to show up again and re-click. The higher quality the fish, the more tugs you have to complete. Doing this repeatedly for any length of time can become boring and mind-numbing though, just going to warn you. It's best to level your fishing profession in small increments, and it's best to accomplish it as you level. That way, your fishing keeps up to each zone you are in. Don't forget to keep training up your fishing as you go, so you can you gain more levels. Sadly, patrons of Rift don't gain the ability to summon fish trainers, so you need to visit a town or your capital city in order to keep leveling your fishing skill. The higher the skill level of your fishing, the more it will cost to train, but don't worry, as you level, you'll easily be able to save up the gold and plat that is required to pay for training.
     As you venture into different zones, you'll notice that you find more fish variety and gain other unique things as well. As well as fish, you can catch artifacts, dimension items, grey items, boxes of items, or trophy fish. Don't throw away any of the fish you catch because there's always a use for them. Everything except the grey trash items can be re used for something else.

 

Fishing Levels:

• Novice Angler-1 fishing skill. Automatically gained when creating a character
• Skilled Angler-75 fishing skill. Trained. Costs 50 silver.
• Expert Angler-150 fishing skill. Trained. Costs 2 gold, 50 silver
• Master Angler-225 fishing skill. Trained. Costs 12 gold, 50 silver
• Grandmaster Angler-300 fishing skill. Trained. Costs 11 plat, 80 gold
• Savant Angler-375 fishing skill. Trained. Costs 30 plat. Requires speaking to a specific Savant trainer.
• At each of these intervals make sure to make yourself a new fishing pole too!

Fishing Quests: (you don't have to do these, but they give you some nice rewards as you go, and give you your first lure, the snail.)

• Tutorial Quests:
• Fishing Lessons-awards old fishing pole
• Shallow Water Fishing-awards beginner's fishing pole
• Deep Water Fishing-awards speedy shark snack
• Fishing With Lures
• Quests found while lvling:
• Near-Endless Fishing-awards Recipe: Widemouth Sashimi
• Daily Fishing Quests: (All arranged by zone)
• Freemarch-located at Kelari Refuge- awards Freemarch Warden's Rep or a box
• Silverwood-located at Quicksilver College-awards Quicksilver Scholar's Rep or a box
• Stonefield-located at Granite Falls-awards Granite Falls Rep or a box
• Gloamwood-located at Gloamwood Pines-awards Gloamwood Waykeepers Rep or box
• Scarlet Gorge-located at Crimson Wash for Guardian-located at Scarwood Lift Base for Defiant-awards Quarry Rats Rep or box
• Scarwood Reach-located at Perspice (Defiant)-located at Kain's Command (Guardian)-awards Red Scar Trackers Rep (Defiant) or Iron Claw Trappers (Guardian) or box
• Droughtlands-located at Lantern Hook-awards Arcane Hand Rep or box
• Moonshade Highlands-located at Reclaimer's Hold-awards Runeguard Rep or box
• Shimmersand-located at Fortune's Shore-awards Dragonslayer Covenant Rep or box
• Iron Pine Peak-located at Chancel of Labors-awards Icewatch Rep or box
• Stillmore-located at Zareph's Return-awards Order of Mathos Rep or box
• Ember Isle-located at Fort Zarnost (Guardian)-located at Talos Landing (Defiant)-located at Ember Watch (both factions)-awards Farclan Rep (Guardian) and Kelari Expedition Rep (Defiant) and Keepers Rep (both factions) or box
• Cape Jule-located at Tulan-awards Eternal City Survivors Rep or box
• Pelladane- located at Tulido Retreat-awards Necropolis Caretakers Rep or box
• Dendrome-located at (not sure yet)-awards Qaijiri Rep and a box
• Fishing Derby Quests:
• A new questline introduced in SL expansion but discontinued in future expansions, it allowed you to a special, fun, timed quest at Grandmaster Fishing level by talking to Stan in Tempest Bay. The goal was to fish 20 specific fish in 60 minutes in a specific zone. These special fish are only around for the Derby quest and not on any other time. It can be rewarding to complete these quests, but once you pass 375 fishing, this quest option disappears.
• Nightmare Tide Quests:
• Charburg District-located in Margle Palace-awards...I don't know yet

     And here is the big list of fish in Telara and where to find them.

• Silverwood/Freemarch:
• Shallow Water
• Forest Pondleaper
• Smooth Minnow
• Silverwood Angel
• Normal-Eyed Guppy
• Deep Water
• Blue Widemouth
• False Shark
• Silverwood Devil
• Deep March Eel
• Gloamwood/Stonefield:
• Shallow Water
• Lesser Crystalfish
• Echidna Fish
• Gloam Eel
• Fentail
• Deep Water
• Creeper
• Tawny Rockfish
• Indigoby
• Cascadefish
• Scarlet Gorge/Scarwood Reach:
• Shallow Water
• Freshwater Shrimp
• Chameleonfish
• Grouper
• Scarwood Crystalfish
• Red Mangler
• Steelscale Thrasher
• Deep Water
• Blenny
• Flatfish
• Green Widemouth
• Electric Dragonfish
• Toxophilicstar
• Inland Octopus
• Ironshell Crab
• Iron Pine Peak:
• Shallow Water
• Striated Crab
• Serene Flatfish
• Icebiter
• Deep Water
• Verdant Angel
• Coldwater Seabug
• Glacier Octopus
• Moonshade Highlands/Droughtlands
• Shallow Water
• Jasper Snapper
• Moonhorse
• Grassland Pondleaper
• Pale Flycatcher
• Burrowing Crab
• Desert Greenling
• Deep Water
• Lobster
• Highlands Eel
• Whalefish
• Vermillion Stoneskin
• Aestilating Nautilus
• Droughtlands Puffer
• Shimmersand:
• Shallow Water
• Brown Perch
• Coral Prawn
• Brightwater Octopus
• Powdernose Crab
• Deep Water
• Sunny Puffer
• Teal Grouper
• Desert Seabug
• Sand Nautilus
• Stillmore:
• Shallow Water
• Brown Perch
• Firebelly Snapper
• Moorleaper
• Deep Water
• Teal Leaper
• Bull Chameleonfish
• Stillmore Devil
• Ember Isle:
• Shallow Water:
•  Brown Perch
• Isle Crab
• Ember Stoneskin
• Amphibious Jelly
• Deep Water
• Glossy Mackeral
• Teal Grouper
• Deep Ray
• Ash Shark
• Brevane:
• Shallow Water
• Quick Minnow
• Empyrean Dragonfish
• Giant Pondleaper
• Coldflare Octopus
• Diving Ouzel (Only Ashora and Dendrome)
• Deep Water
• Mottled Flatfish
• Sharpfin
• Kraken Hatchling
• Silt Eel (Only Ashora and Dendrome)
• Dusken:
• Shallow Water
• Quickminnow
• Emerald Flycatcher
• Sunhorse
• Bulkhead Shrimp (Only Steppes of Infinity)
• Deep Water
• Banded Puffer
• Mottled Flatfish
• Veiled Octopus
• Dusken Eel
• Longspine Urchin (Only Steppes of Infinity)

     There are also a fair number of achievements surrounding the fishing profession, but they are quite easy to obtain without any real effort. Just by fishing as you level, you'll gain most of those achievements. Any that you don't get as you go through the zones, you can easily go back and specifically hunt for. A lot of achievements center around catching one of each fish in each of the zones, so it would  be beneficial to spend some time fishing in your down time in each zone! For me that's easy, because I love exploring and doing everything. A good thing to do is, every time you see a new body of water, no matter how big or small, drop a line a few times. You never know what you'll get.

Here are several links to guides that I used to create this page! Many thanks go to their dedication and hard work in creating these guides to make it possible for us nerds to enjoy these aspects of the game! :)

Rift Wiki: Fishing Guide
Basic Fishing Tips
Out of Date Rift Fishing Wiki


References: Most of the information gained for this post was made possible by the 3 above links! Also, by reading a lot in the forums, and of course, by hands on note taking in Rift itself. A lot of the high lvl end game data is missing or incomplete because as I write this, I'm still low lvl myself and haven't gotten very far. Where I am in the Rp chapters of my character's stories is where I am actually in the game! Thank you for reading this, and info belongs to Rift and the lovely people who created it! Guides belong to their respective owners, in the links!