Fishing

Fishing pulls fresh fish — and the occasional surprise — from bodies of water. Equip a rod in your main hand, keep bait in your inventory, stand near water, and use the Fishing skill. Every class can learn it, and it's the trade that feeds the bakers.

Skill cap

Max 200, all classes. But it's level-capped: (5 × level) + 5 — so at level 20 you can only reach 105. Your level, not INT or WIS, is what gates this skill (the wiki names no INT/WIS governing stat for fishing).

Mechanics that matter

• 10-second cooldown between casts.
• All rods can break (and be destroyed) on use — carry a spare.
• Bait is consumed on successful catches and can be lost on failed ones too.
• You can fish while sitting (meditating) — you cannot fish while swimming.
• Nothing on your cursor when you start fishing, or the skill fizzles and goes on cooldown.
• "Fishing for land sharks" means you're too far from the water — move closer.

Rods

• Fishing Pole — the basic rod.
• Collapsible Fishing Pole — +5% Fishing skill mod. The one to get.
• Aglthin's Fishing Pole — a quest reward rod.
• Uliorn's Fishing Pole — +2% Fishing (4 max), DEX +3, STA +2, INT +3; Magician only.
• Kerran Fishingpole — a trap: it's a 1H blunt weapon, cannot actually be used for fishing.

Bait

• Fishing Bait / Fishing Grubs — the standard consumables.
• Make your own: combine a Gunthak Mackerel + Skinning Knife in a Tackle Box for 5 Fishing Baits.
• Lures — reusable bait substitutes (no special effects), made in a Tackle Box from a wing/fur + Silk Thread + hook. Dry and treble flies are trivial <29; circular flies trivial >29. Hooks and Tackle Boxes are sold by Kogg in the Feerrott or on Zachariah Reigh's island in the Ocean of Tears; silk thread is 2× Spiderling Silk in a sewing kit.

The fishing macro

Straight from the EQL wiki — set up a macro to /autoinventory the item on your cursor, then /doa <fishing ability #>. One button, cast after cast, while you med.

There's no secret path — you skill up by fishing. Find water, sit down, and cast:

• The smallest fishable water in the game is the puddle in the tunnels from West Freeport's newbie area to North Freeport. Any body of water bigger than that works — including water inside dungeons.
• Fish while meditating. The 10-second cast fits naturally into downtime between pulls or while camping.
• Your skill is gated by level ((5 × level) + 5), so don't grind against the cap — you'll stall until you level.
• Carry spare rods (they break) and plenty of bait.

Fresh fish — the generic catch — is exactly what the bakers need, so every catch has a buyer.

Fishing's actual combines all happen in a Tackle Box:

The Fish Eggs recipe is the money one: Thunder Salmon from the Karanas, Greengill Salmon from Toxxulia Forest — and the eggs feed brewing's Fish Oil (trivial 68).

The EQL wiki's zone table is long; here are the catches that matter to the trades. (Anything marked "fillet" bakes into a fillet at trivial 82 in Baking.)

Most zones still reel in plain fresh fish as their main catch — bakers won't run out of raw material.

• 🔒 Coming in Velious — not yet available in EQL
  Cobalt Cod — needs 51+ fishing skill; used for Cod Oil (trivial 68, Velious tailoring). Cobalt Scar.
• 🔒 Coming in Velious — not yet available in EQL
  Dragon Bay Snapper — needs 60+ fishing skill. Cobalt Scar.
• Saltwater Seaweed — NO DROP; used for Sea Temper (trivial ~70, blacksmithing). Ocean of Tears, Butcherblock.
• Kill-to-get fish — some fish can't be fished, only killed: Rivervale Trout and Piranhas (Rivervale). Jump in and fight them.
• The koalindl — the "infamous" sacred fish of North Qeynos. Kill one and residents take offense: faction hits and guards will try to kill you. You've been warned.

Nobody gets rich on fresh fish alone — the money is in the specialty catches:

• Fish Eggs — Thunder and Greengill Salmon become Fish Eggs (trivial 135), which feed brewing's Fish Oil. The whole chain pays.
• 🔒 Coming in Velious — not yet available in EQL
  Cobalt Cod — the 51+ skill gate keeps supply low; Cod Oil is a Velious tailoring input.
• Fresh fish in bulk — bakers skilling 82–135 on Fish Fillets buy fish by the stack. Boring, reliable platinum.
• Bait — Gunthak Mackerel → 5 Fishing Baits each. Other fishers are customers too.

Fishing is the gathering backbone for two trades:

• Fishing → Baking: the big one. Fresh fish becomes Fish Fillets (trivial 82) — the bakers' whole 82–135 skilling stretch — and named fish become pike, salmon, trout, carp, and chub fillets. See the Baking guide.
• Fishing → Brewing: Fish Eggs become Fish Oil (trivial 68); Cobalt Cod becomes Cod Oil (trivial 68); Saltwater Seaweed becomes Sea Temper (trivial ~70). See the Brewing guide.
• Tailoring → Fishing: the dependency runs back — lure-making needs Silk Thread (2× Spiderling Silk in a sewing kit), a tailor's product.

Step-by-step and reference

• EQL Wiki: Skill Fishing — the full zone-catch table, rods, and tackle-box recipes.
• EQL Patch Notes (official) — tradeskill rules change; check here first.

Guild references

• Guild Baking Guide — where your fish go.
• Guild Brewing Guide — Fish Oil and Cod Oil.
• EQL Crafting hub — all twelve trades, skill-up mechanics, and platinum strategies.